Novak Djokovic was two double faults into his China Open quarter-final when it looked as though the streak might finally end. Two hours and 35 minutes later, the 39-year-old had beaten top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in Beijing, moved to 32-0 at the tournament, and set a record no man has held in the Open Era.
Djokovic has still not won a title in 2026. He arrived at the China Open ranked No. 11, his lowest October position in nearly a decade, having lost the Australian Open final to Carlos Alcaraz, gone out in the third round at Roland Garros to Joao Fonseca and been beaten in the first round at the US Open by Mariano Navone. Sunday’s win was his second victory of the season over a player ranked in the world’s top two, after he beat Jannik Sinner in the Melbourne semi-finals in January.
A terrible start, then the old certainties
Zverev, the reigning US Open champion, came into the match on an eight-match winning streak and with a 57-13 record for the year. He served 19 aces and not a single double fault, and he took the opening set 6-4 after Djokovic’s ragged beginning.
“I had a terrible start. Two double faults at the beginning,” Djokovic said. “But I kind of felt already from midway through the first set that I was starting to get a good rhythm.”
From there the match settled into the pattern Djokovic has built a career on: hold, hold, and wait. He won 82% of points behind his first serve, 53 of 65, and converted two of his five break-point chances — both of them in the 10th game, first to take the second set and then to end the match. He broke Zverev at 5-4 in the decider and never gave the German a look at the Djokovic serve in the closing stages.
There was friction, too. Zverev stopped mid-rally complaining that an LED courtside panel was flickering, and the umpire ordered a point Djokovic had already won to be replayed. Djokovic’s objection was blunt: if the screen had bothered Zverev, he argued, the German should have stopped immediately rather than play on. Djokovic later called it one of his best performances of the year and said he felt “physically pretty good” — not a small admission from a player who has spent much of 2026 managing his body between tournaments.
Thirty-two and nobody has done it before
The number is the story. Djokovic’s record in Beijing now reads 32 wins, no defeats — the best start any man has made at a tour-level event in the Open Era. It takes him past Rafael Nadal’s 31 straight wins at Roland Garros, a mark that stood as the benchmark for dominance at a single venue.
He built most of it a decade ago, winning six China Open titles, the last of them in 2015, before the tournament disappeared from his schedule for years. He returned this week and simply picked it up: wins over Bu Yunchaokete and Nuno Borges, then Zverev.
The context around the victory is just as striking:
- It was Djokovic’s 267th career win over a top-10 opponent.
- He is only the third man since 1973, after Ken Rosewall and Jimmy Connors, to beat a top-three player after turning 39.
- It was his 202nd tour-level semi-final, and a record seventh in Beijing.
- He now leads Zverev 10-5 in their head-to-head, and the pair had not met in nearly 16 months.
What a trophy here would actually mean
Djokovic’s last title came in Athens on 8 November 2025, when he beat Lorenzo Musetti in three sets to claim his 101st tour-level trophy and become the oldest ATP champion in history. Eleven months on, Beijing represents his clearest route to ending the drought — not least because defending champion Sinner withdrew before the tournament with a knee problem.
He faces Daniil Medvedev in Monday’s semi-final, the Russian having beaten Francisco Cerundolo 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Fifth seed Alex de Minaur meets Hubert Hurkacz in the other half. Neither prospect is a formality for a man playing his third match in four days, but Djokovic holds a comfortable career edge over Medvedev and has never lost a match on this court.
For Zverev, the defeat carries a different weight. He had a genuine chance to close on Sinner at the top of the rankings this week, with the Shanghai Masters to follow. Instead, he leaves Beijing having run into the one opponent whose history at this event refuses to bend — and the German, 10 years younger, still could not find a way through.
Sources: [ATP Tour](https://www.atptour.com/en/news/zverev-djokovic-beijing-2026-sunday-qf), [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/13594880/china-open-novak-djokovic-keeps-unblemished-record-in-beijing-by-handing-alexander-zverev-a-rare-defeat), [France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261004-battling-djokovic-stuns-top-seed-zverev-at-china-open), [Tennis Majors](https://www.tennismajors.com/atp/vintage-djokovic-wins-high-intensity-battle-with-zverev-to-go-32-0-in-beijing-862539.html), [ATP – Athens 2025 final](https://www.atptour.com/en/news/djokovic-musetti-athens-2025-final), [Wikipedia – 2026 Djokovic season](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Novak_Djokovic_tennis_season)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
944 articles published
