Novak Djokovic put on another tennis spectacle and rewrote the history of the sport. The 39-year-old Serbian giant defeated one of the strongest players on the tour at the moment, Alexander Zverev, 4:6, 6:4, 6:4 in the quarterfinals of the highest class of the ATP 500 series tournament in Beijing.
The match lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes of a real battle on the court. With this success, Djokovic made his incredible achievement in the Chinese capital even more impressive - 32 wins from 32 matches. Thus, the Serb officially surpassed Rafael Nadal's legendary start of 31 consecutive victories at Roland Garros and now holds the record for the longest winning streak from the debut of a tournament in the Open era.
The match started badly for Nole, who allowed a breakthrough in the first game and this turned out to be enough for the No. 1 seeded German to close the first set. However, Djokovic then showed why he is considered the greatest fighter in tennis. He sharply raised the level, neutralized Zverev's powerful opening blow and with decisive breakthroughs in the second and third sets turned the match in his favor. This is his second victory over a Top 2 tennis player this season after the victory over Yannick Sinner in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
The Serb already leads with 10:5 victories in direct duels against Zverev. Djokovic also joined Ken Rosewall and Jimmy Connors as only the third player since the ATP rankings were created in 1973 to defeat a Top 3 opponent after turning 39.
In the battle for a place in the final, Djokovic will face Daniil Medvedev, who earlier today defeated Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(4), 6-3. The Russian is on a seven-match winning streak since his title in Hangzhou, but has a negative balance of 5-10 against the Serbian legend.
The other semi-final will pit Alex de Minaur against Hubert Hurkach. The No. 5 seeded Australian defeated Andrei Rublev 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 to move up to ninth place in the race for the ATP Finals in Turin. Pole Hurkacz also continues his comeback from injury, defeating Karen Khachanov 7-6(2), 6-2 to reach his first semifinal at the ATP 250 level since Rotterdam 2025.