{"id":791862,"date":"2026-10-04T17:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791862\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T17:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:12:10","slug":"china-open-novak-djokovic-beats-top-seed-alexander-zverev-to-reach-semi-finals-and-dents-germans-bid-to-finish-year-as-world-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791862\/","title":{"rendered":"China Open: Novak Djokovic beats top seed Alexander Zverev to reach semi-finals and dents German’s bid to finish year as world number one"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their first meeting in just under 16 months, Djokovic initially struggled to handle Zverev’s power, and the 29-year-old secured the first set after capitalising on a break in the first game.<\/p>\n

However, Djokovic managed to work his way back into the contest, and the 24-time Grand Slam winner seized an opportunity with a break at 5-4 in the second set to level the match.<\/p>\n

Little separated the pair in the third set, but the veteran struck again at 5-4 on Zverev’s serve to clinically seal victory.<\/p>\n

It took Djokovic’s unbeaten tally in Beijing to 32 matches as he moved a step closer to a seventh China Open title and a first trophy of what has been a difficult 2026, with form and fitness proving challenging.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a struggle this year for different reasons,” Djokovic added.<\/p>\n

“But I’m still there, still grinding, still making the youngsters work for their money. I’m just glad to push it through.”<\/p>\n

Djokovic will face third seed Medvedev, who earlier overcame Francisco Cerundolo 7-6 (7-4) 6-3, on Monday.<\/p>\n

Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz also progressed to the semi-finals with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 win over Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n

He will play Australia’s Alex de Minaur who was off the pace in the first set against Andrey Rublev before he stepped up to record a 1-6 6-2 6-3 victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In their first meeting in just under 16 months, Djokovic initially struggled to handle Zverev’s power, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791862","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\/791862","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=791862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}