{"id":793174,"date":"2026-10-06T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793174\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T00:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:26:09","slug":"medvedev-disqualified-from-china-open-for-hitting-fan-with-a-ball-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793174\/","title":{"rendered":"Medvedev disqualified from China Open for hitting fan with a ball | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published On 5 Oct 20265 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his semifinal against Novak Djokovic at the China Open after he hit a ball into the stands that struck a spectator in the front row on Monday.<\/p>\n

The spectator was helped out of the arena, holding a hand over his left eye.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Djokovic was serving for the match at 7-5, 5-3 when Medvedev hit the ball into the stands in apparent frustration.<\/p>\n

After a forehand volley winner from Djokovic, the ball bounced off the advertising boards and back towards Medvedev, who smacked a backhand that sailed into the stands.<\/p>\n

The spectator who was hit was helped away as Medvedev stood on the court watching.<\/p>\n

The chair umpire and tournament supervisor came down onto the court to talk to Medvedev, who didn\u2019t appear to put up much of an argument with the disqualification. Medvedev then walked to the net and shook hands with Djokovic.<\/p>\n

The incident was reminiscent of when Djokovic was kicked out of the 2020 US Open for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of a shock, to be honest,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t see what happened. I hope that person is not badly injured. On the other hand, I also feel sorry for Daniil, because I know exactly how he feels to be disqualified in a big match. \u2026 I am sure that Daniil didn\u2019t want to do this intentionally. It just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medvedev has a history of on-court behaviour issues. He was fined 6,000 euros ($7,000) for unsportsmanlike conduct after he smashed his racket seven times during a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Matteo Berrettini at the Monte Carlo Masters earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"DaniilDaniil Medvedev of Russia looks on after being disqualified in Beijing [Achmad Ibrahim\/AP]Djokovic extends perfect record<\/p>\n

Djokovic extended his perfect career record<\/a> at the China Open to 33-0.<\/p>\n

Aiming for a seventh China Open title in Tuesday\u2019s final, Djokovic will face ninth-ranked Alex de Minaur, who advanced when Hubert Hurkacz retired due to an apparent injury midway through the second set of their semifinal.<\/p>\n

It will be Djokovic\u2019s second final of the year after losing to Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

With his ranking down to No. 11, this is the first time in eight years that Djokovic is playing a tournament without being in the top 10. It is also his first tournament since a first-round exit from the US Open. The 39-year-old Serb rallied to beat top-seeded Alexander Zverev<\/a> in the quarterfinals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Against Medvedev, Djokovic was twice caught exceeding the time limit on the serve clock. After first receiving a warning, he was then stripped of his first serve on a crucial break point midway through the second set. But Djokovic still won the point.<\/p>\n

Medvedev won only two of 18 break points as the pair of former No. 1s traded one gruelling rally after another.<\/p>\n

The match was at the 2-hour, 29-minute mark when Medvedev was defaulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was three points away from the win,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a big battle with Daniil, and it\u2019s so hard to play him when he\u2019s feeling the ball well in slower conditions with a big serve. But we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur led 6-4, 3-2 when Hurkacz \u2014 who was barely able to run for balls in the second set \u2014 stopped playing.<\/p>\n

The nature of Hurkacz\u2019s injury was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

In the third round of the women\u2019s tournament, which ends Sunday, six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek rallied past Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2 and will next meet Iva Jovic, who beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-1, 7-5.<\/p>\n

Elina Svitolina beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 7-5.<\/p>\n

Later, Coco Gauff was playing 16-year-old Chinese wild card Sun Xinran, who recently won the US Open junior title.<\/p>\n

Rybakina withdraws from Wuhan<\/p>\n

US Open champion Elena Rybakina withdrew from the upcoming Wuhan Open due to a foot injury.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Rybakina lost her first match with the No. 1 ranking when she was ousted in Beijing by No. 118 Alina Charaeva of Armenia in the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take some time to rest and recover,\u201d Rybakina was quoted as saying by Wuhan Open organisers.<\/p>\n

Charaeva extended her breakout run by beating Sonay Kartal 6-4, 6-1 to reach the last 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published On 5 Oct 20265 Oct 2026 Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his semifinal against Novak Djokovic at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1296,891,591,49,50,154,6861,217,118,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-793174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia-pacific","tag-china","tag-europe","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-serbia","tag-sport","tag-tennis","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793174","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=793174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}