Alex de Minaur won the opening game of the second set of the China Open final on Tuesday and then retired. Novak Djokovic, leading 7-6(3), 0-1, had his seventh Beijing title and the 102nd tour-level title of his career, and for the second day running he had won a match without reaching match point.

De Minaur left the court for treatment on his groin after losing the first-set tiebreak and came back with his left thigh heavily bandaged. Djokovic, 39, also has treatment during the break and both players called for the physio after the set with Djokovic treated first.

Until then the final had been close. De Minaur had a break point in the fifth game, and Djokovic saved it with a full-stretch backhand down the sideline. The Australian held the rest of the way to force the tiebreak, where his errors mounted and Djokovic took it 7-3. De Minaur had repeatedly used his court coverage and his willingness to attack to put Djokovic on the back foot, and that Djokovic found his shotmaking when it mattered.

“It’s a bit of a strange feeling, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “At the same time, he [De Minaur] retired at the beginning of the second, so it doesn’t feel right to jump around and be joyful.” “I’m really sorry for the way you had to finish today and I really hope that you can recover quickly,” Djokovic told De Minaur at the trophy presentation. “I don’t feel great … I want to say sorry to all the amazing fans,” De Minaur said.

The semifinal. Djokovic reached the final on Monday when Daniil Medvedev was defaulted. Djokovic led 7-5, 5-3 and was serving at 15-15, Olympics.com reported, when a Djokovic forehand volley winner bounced off the advertising boards back to Medvedev, who swung a backhand at it that sailed into the stands, according to ABC. The ball hit a spectator in the front row, who was helped out of the arena holding a hand over his left eye.

“It was 100% an accident,” Medvedev said. “You can see that I didn’t hit the ball in anger. The ball was bouncing back, so I tried to just hit it anywhere, so it wouldn’t go out of the court.” He told reporters he was “terribly sorry to the spectator” and was trying to get in touch with him, ABC reported. “Hopefully I can apologize in person and see how he feels.”

Djokovic was defaulted from the 2020 US Open after a ball he hit struck a line judge. “I’m a bit shocked. Sorry for the person. I hope he is not injured,” he told reporters. “I feel sorry for Daniil as well because I know exactly what it feels to be DQ in a match for this.” The other semifinal ended early too. Hubert Hurkacz retired trailing De Minaur 6-4, 3-2 due to an apparent adductor injury.

The record. Djokovic is 34-0 at the China Open and this was his first appearance in Beijing since 2015, when he beat Rafael Nadal in the final for his sixth title. His week included a quarterfinal win over top seed Alexander Zverev. The 102 titles leave him one behind Roger Federer’s 103 for second in the Open Era, behind Jimmy Connors’ 109 and he has now won a singles title in 21 consecutive years.

What it means. Djokovic rose six places to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and leads De Minaur, in 10th, by 140 points. That position gained weight hours later, when world No. 1 Jannik Sinner announced that his season was over and that he would not defend his title at the Nitto ATP Finals. GTN’s Race to Turin explainer sets out how the eight-man field is decided.

Shanghai. The Shanghai Masters main draw begins on Wednesday. Djokovic, a four-time champion there, has a first-round bye and plays Hurkacz or James Duckworth in his opening match, with Lorenzo Musetti a possible third-round opponent. De Minaur is in Zverev’s quarter, and Medvedev opens against Martin Landaluce or Jan-Lennard Struff. GTN’s Shanghai draw report has the full breakdown.

Jannik Sinner will not play again in 2026. The world No. 1, who has not competed since he won Wimbledon in July, said on Tuesday that he and his doctors had decided on a course of treatment for his knee, ending a season in which he won five Masters 1000 titles in a row and lost three matches.

“Me, together with the doctors, have decided that I need a course of treatment on my knee, which means that the 2026 season is officially over,” Sinner said on social media. “The last couple of years, especially the ending in Turin, gave me so many beautiful feelings and emotions, which this year is going to be different.”

“But at the moment, I also need to think about my long-term career,” he said. “I will do everything possible to get back to 100 per cent.”

The season he leaves. Sinner won Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome in succession to complete the Career Golden Masters, and his winning streak reached 30 matches before it ended in the second round at Roland Garros. He then beat Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon final for his fifth major title. He finishes the year 44-3. The knee kept him out of the North American hard-court swing, including the US Open, and then out of Beijing, where he was the defending champion, and Shanghai.

Turin without its champion. Sinner is the two-time reigning champion at the Nitto ATP Finals and did not drop a set in Turin in 2024 or 2025. He had already qualified for this year’s event, which runs from 15 to 22 November, so Turin will crown a new champion and one of its eight places is now open. Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz are the other qualified players. Alcaraz won the ATP 500 in Tokyo on Tuesday, beating Jiri Lehecka in the final.

Who it helps. Novak Djokovic, who won his seventh Beijing title on Tuesday, rose six places to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and leads Alex de Minaur, in 10th, by 140 points. With Sinner out, ninth place is the line between playing in Turin and missing it. GTN’s Race to Turin explainer sets out how the field is decided.

What it means for No. 1. Sinner is still No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, but he can no longer add points. After the US Open, Zverev trailed him by 1,810 points, with 3,550 points coming off Sinner’s total over the rest of the season against 1,080 for Zverev. Sinner’s drop exceeds the gap and Zverev’s drop combined by 660 points, so Zverev finishes the year ahead of Sinner even without another win. Sinner was second in the Live Race, 800 points behind Zverev, when he made his announcement. GTN set out the earlier version of this arithmetic when Sinner withdrew from Shanghai on Saturday.

What comes next. The Shanghai Masters main draw starts on Wednesday with Zverev as the top seed. After Shanghai, the men’s season runs through the ATP 500 events in Basel and Vienna, the Paris Masters and Turin. Sinner did not give a date for his return.

Novak Djokovic beat Alexander Zverev in the China Open quarterfinals on Sunday. On Monday the Rolex Shanghai Masters draw put the two of them back in the same half. With Jannik Sinner out, Zverev is the top seed in Shanghai, and Djokovic, a four-time champion here, is his projected semifinal opponent, according to the draw published by the ATP on the tournament website.

Djokovic opens against 2023 champion Hubert Hurkacz or James Duckworth. The road the draw lays out for him after that runs through 24th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the third round, seventh seed Frances Tiafoe in the fourth and third seed Ben Shelton, the highest seed in the quarter, who beat Tiafoe in the US Open semifinals last month.

Zverev, who has won two majors this year, starts against Chinese wild card Wu Yibing or a qualifier. His quarter also holds Flavio Cobolli and Alex de Minaur.

The bottom half belongs to second seed Carlos Alcaraz, making his third Shanghai appearance with a 2024 quarterfinal as his best result. He opens against Juan Manuel Cerundolo or a qualifier and is seeded to meet Ignacio Buse in the third round, 15th seed Tommy Paul or defending champion Valentin Vacherot in the fourth, and fifth seed Daniil Medvedev or 11th seed Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals. Fourth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime and eighth seed Arthur Fils are seeded to meet in the other quarterfinal of that half.

The calendar squeeze. Djokovic, Medvedev and Alcaraz all still have tennis to play elsewhere before Shanghai’s main draw starts on Wednesday. Djokovic and Medvedev meet in the Beijing semifinals on Tuesday, and Alcaraz plays Jaume Munar in Tokyo the same day, according to the ATP. Each of the three opens in Shanghai against the winner of a first-round match, the bye that seeded players receive. Medvedev arrives on a seven-match winning streak after winning his third title of the season in Hangzhou, and opens against Martin Landaluce or Jan-Lennard Struff.

The defending champion. Vacherot won Shanghai last year as the No. 204 player in the world, the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in the history of the series, according to the ATP. This time he opens against Sebastian Baez or Marcos Giron, with Alcaraz projected in the round after Paul.

Openers worth watching. Shelton begins against Holger Rune or Daniel Altmaier. Rune returned to the tour last week in Tokyo and lost in the first round to Kyrian Jacquet. Shelton could face Jakub Mensik in the fourth round. Rafael Jodar, who lost in the first round at the US Open and in Tokyo, starts against Thiago Agustin Tirante or Hamad Medjedovic. Fritz plays Matteo Arnaldi or a qualifier, Auger-Aliassime plays Camilo Ugo Carabelli or a qualifier, and Fils plays Tallon Griekspoor or a qualifier.

Qualifying. Forty-eight players began qualifying on Monday for 12 places in the main draw, according to the tournament. Qualifying ends on Tuesday.

What is at stake. Cobolli, Tiafoe, Fils, Medvedev, De Minaur, Djokovic, Jodar, Fritz, Mensik, Paul and Auger-Aliassime are fifth to 15th in the ATP’s live Race to Turin, with 1,165 points between Cobolli and Auger-Aliassime, and Shelton is next in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, according to the tournament. Zverev’s loss in Beijing also closed the route to No. 1 that ran through this fortnight: as GTN set out when Sinner withdrew, Zverev needed both the Beijing and Shanghai titles to reach the top of the rankings when Shanghai ends.

The main draw runs from 7 to 18 October. Dates, points and past champions are in the Shanghai Masters guide.