![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/df228960b296c042907125d81a966cf4.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAlex de Minaur will face Novak Djokovic in the China Open final after the Serb’s semifinal opponent, Daniil Medvedev, was disqualified \u200cfor hitting a loose ball into the crowd and causing a spectator to suffer an eye injury.<\/p>\n
The Australian number one progressed from his semifinal after Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz retired injured when trailing in the second set.<\/p>\n
Djokovic was leading 7\u20135, 5\u20133 in Beijing and serving for the match when the incident happened.<\/p>\n
After a forehand volley winner from Djokovic, the ball bounced off the advertising boards to Medvedev, who smacked a backhand that sailed into the stands.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A male spectator (obscured) was struck in the eye after Daniil Medvedev hit a ball into the stands during his China Open semifinal. (AP: Andy Wong)<\/p>\n
It hit a spectator in the front row behind him.<\/p>\n
The spectator clutched his left eye and appeared to be in \u200cpain as he walked out, assisted by stadium staff.<\/p>\n
“Terribly sorry to \u200cthe spectator, first \u2060of all,” Medvedev told reporters. “I’m trying to get in touch with him, if he wants it. Hopefully I can apologise in person and see how he feels.”<\/p>\n
The Russian world number five said he did not cause the incident intentionally.<\/p>\n
“The ball was bouncing back, so I tried to, like, just hit it anywhere, so it doesn’t go out from the court. When I saw the result, I mean, I felt horrible because, again, I don’t think I was ever close to such a situation.”<\/p>\n
Medvedev, 30, has a history of on-court behaviour issues. He was fined 6,000 euros ($9,600) after he smashed his racquet seven times during a 6\u20130, 6\u20130 loss to Matteo Berrettini at this year’s Monte Carlo Masters.<\/p>\n
“I was shocked, to be honest \u2026 I hope that person is not \u200cbadly injured,” said Djokovic, who was disqualified from the US Open in 2020 under similar circumstances.<\/p>\n
“On the other hand, I also feel sorry for Daniil because I know exactly how it feels to be disqualified in a big match \u2026 \u200cI’m sure that Daniil didn’t want to do this intentionally.”<\/p>\n
![\"Australia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07dbc3dfcce43fcd8da054d0cfe2164a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Alex de Minaur was a set up on Hubert Hurkacz in the China Open semifinal when Hurkacz was forced to withdraw due to injury. (Getty Iimages: Eurasia Sport\/Hermann Chu)<\/p>\n
De Minaur will be seeking to become the first person to beat Djokovic in 34 matches at the China Open. He has a 1\u20133 head-to-head record with the Serb.<\/p>\n
The winner will leave Beijing ninth in the race to qualify for November’s eight-man ATP Finals, with the gap to Medvedev in eighth reduced as the Russian will lose the 200 points he had gained in Beijing.<\/p>\n
There are two ATP Masters 1000 events to come, in Shanghai and Paris, but ninth may be enough with Jannik Sinner’s availability uncertain.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the world number one, who last played at Wimbledon, pulled out of Shanghai, which begins on Wednesday. The Italian has a knee problem.<\/p>\n
De Minaur was up 6\u20134, 3\u20132 and 40\u20130 when Hurkacz retired with an apparent adductor injury after showing mobility problems.<\/p>\n
The world number nine had broken a tentative Hurkacz in his opening two service games before holding to lead 4\u20130, then withstood a comeback to take the first set 6\u20134.<\/p>\n
Another break in the third game of the second set helped de Minaur build a 3\u20131 lead. Hurkacz fought desperately to hold serve in the following game, surviving four break points and a marathon deuce game, but was unable to battle much longer.<\/p>\n
In Tokyo, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame early wobbles on his serve \u200cto outclass fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar 5\u20137, 6\u20133, 6\u20131 \u200cand reach the Japan Open final.<\/p>\n
He will play Jiri Lehecka, who beat Valentin Vacherot 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n
AAP\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur will face Novak Djokovic in the China Open final after the Serb’s semifinal opponent, Daniil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[18278,64,63,486063,3686,106772,22960,198023,213670,3592,588,85,747],"class_list":["post-917921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ball-hits-spectator","tag-beijing","tag-china-open","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-disqualified","tag-hubert-hurkacz","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}