Djokovic wins seventh Beijing title and 102nd career crown as injured de Minaur retires
Novak Djokovic (No. 6) won his seventh China Open title on Tuesday when Alex de Minaur (No. 5) retired injured with the Serb leading 7-6 (3), 0-1. At 39, Djokovic is 34-0 in Beijing and has won a title in 21 consecutive seasons. It is the 102nd crown of his career.
Alex de Minaur, Novak Djkokovic, Beijing 2026 | © AP Photo/Andy Wong
Serb Novak Djokovic, the No. 6 seed, won the China Open on Tuesday afternoon when Australian Alex de Minaur, the No. 5 seed, retired injured. Djokovic had taken a tight first set 7-6 (3) and trailed 1-0 in the second when de Minaur stopped with an apparent groin injury.
The 39-year-old lifted a record seventh Beijing trophy and remains unbeaten at the event, now 34-0. It is the 102nd Tour-level title of his career, his first since Athens last November. Only Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) have won more in the Open Era. Incredibly, he has now won at least one title in 21 consecutive seasons, a record for a man in the Open Era.
Djokovic is the first man to win a Tour-level title after turning 39 since Ken Rosewall, who was 43 when he won Hong Kong in 1977. He is also the oldest ATP 500 champion since the category was created in 2009. The win will lift the world No. 11 to No. 8 in Monday’s rankings and moves him to ninth in the race to Turin, putting him back in contention for the ATP Finals.
Djokovic looked much fresher than earlier in the week. Still, the physio came on after the first set to work on his abdomen, as in his early matches against Nuno Borges and Yunchaokete Bu.
Djokovic : three top 10 wins
De Minaur had to hold off early pressure, saving break points at 1-0 and 3-2 with serves Djokovic could not return. The Serb was struggling on serve himself, landing only 54 percent of his first serves. He faced just one break point, at 2-2, and saved it in style: stretched wide at the end of a long rally in which he had absorbed every attack, he whipped a backhand passing shot down the line. With neither man able to break, the set went to a tiebreak. De Minaur, after so much effort, gave it away with three costly errors, and he retired early in the second set.
De Minaur was trying to become the first Australian to win the event and the first Australian to beat Djokovic in a final. Djokovic now leads their head-to-head 4-1.
Djokovic’s run in Beijing included three Top 10 wins at the same event, his first such week since the 2023 ATP Finals. He beat world No. 2 Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals before reaching the final when world No. 6 Daniil Medvedev was disqualified. Earlier, he had beaten Bu 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 and Borges 6-3, 7-6 (2). His career total of Top 10 wins now stands at 269, and his record against the Top 10 this season at 6-2.
