![\"Djokovic's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/skysports-novak-djokovic-tennis_7336302.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNovak Djokovic has confirmed he will compete at the China Open this year, which runs from September 30-October 6 live on Sky Sports, marking a return to the event following an 11-year absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old recently dropped as low as No 12 in the world rankings following a shock first-round defeat to Argentina’s Mariano Navone at the US Open.<\/p>\n
That defeat followed on from a third-round exit in May at the French Open – two underwhelming Grand Slam displays coming either side of a run to the semi-finals at Wimbledon, where he was well beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n
Djokovic has not won a Grand Slam title since 2023, going three full calendar years without success.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Djokovic’s decision comes after a shock first-round exit at the US Open – his first at a Grand Slam since 2006<\/p>\n
Returning to the \u200cATP 500 event in Beijing, Djokovic is a six-time winner having last competed there in 2015. Sinner won the title last year, but is currently out with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
Defeat to Navone in New York marked the first time Djokovic had lost an opening round contest at a Grand Slam since the 2006 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
“I am excited to come back and perform in front of all of you at the National Tennis Centre – one of the nicest venues we have in tennis,” Djokovic said on an Instagram story on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
More from Us Open Tennis, 2026<\/p>\n
Raducanu withdraws from China Open in latest injury setback <\/a><\/p>\n Also on Wednesday, news came that Britain’s Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from this month’s China Open and will not return to action until October at the earliest.<\/p>\n Raducanu has not played since losing the Queen’s Club final in June, missing Wimbledon and the US Open due to a stress fracture in her leg.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old has returned to training after she shared video footage last week of herself in London’s National Tennis Centre.<\/p>\n Raducanu could return at the Wuhan Open on October 12, live on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n Stream tennis with no contract on NOW<\/a> and the Sky Sports App<\/a>. You can also watch the Laver Cup at The O2 in London from 25-27 September live on Sky Sports. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic has confirmed he will compete at the China Open this year, which runs from September 30-October…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-772909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}