Novak Djokovic Is 34-0 in Beijing — and Now a Seven-Time China Open Champion
GOATIFYNovak Djokovic returned to Beijing after an eleven-year absence with a perfect China Open record. He left with that record still untouched, a seventh trophy from seven appearances and another entry in a career already overloaded with them.
The final did not end the way either player wanted. Alex de Minaur retired with a groin problem after losing a tight first-set tiebreak, but the shortened finish should not obscure what Djokovic had already done across the week: survive physical questions, beat elite opponents and extend one of tennis’s strangest venue-specific streaks to 34-0.
The final was competitive until De Minaur’s body gave way
The final began as a genuine test rather than a ceremonial march toward another Beijing trophy. De Minaur protected his serve through the opening set, absorbed Djokovic’s pressure and repeatedly forced the 39-year-old to play one more ball. Djokovic had break chances but could not turn them into an early advantage, so the set moved to a tiebreak.
That was where the match changed. De Minaur’s errors gave Djokovic room, and the Serbian took the breaker 7-3. Both players needed treatment after the set. De Minaur returned with his left thigh heavily bandaged, held the first game of the second set and then decided he could not continue because of the groin issue.
The retirement made the scoreline unusual, but Djokovic had still banked the part of the match that was played at full competitive intensity. He had found a way through a set in which neither player broke serve and in which De Minaur’s speed kept turning apparently finished points into extra exchanges. For an older player whose season has repeatedly been shaped by physical management, winning that kind of set mattered more than cruising through an opponent who could not move.
Djokovic also handled the ending with perspective. The title was important, but the immediate concern was De Minaur’s health. That tone fit a tournament in which injuries and an extraordinary semifinal default repeatedly interrupted matches before they could reach a normal conclusion.
Thirty-four wins, seven titles and an eleven-year gap that changed nothing
The trophy pushed Djokovic’s China Open record to 34 wins and zero losses. He won the tournament in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, disappeared from the event for more than a decade, then returned in 2026 and simply resumed the streak. Seven appearances have now produced seven titles.
The path this time was not soft. Djokovic beat Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals after dropping the opening set, then advanced from a physically draining semifinal when Daniil Medvedev was disqualified late in the second set after a ball struck a spectator. De Minaur reached the final when Hubert Hurkacz retired from their semifinal, making the final chapter of the week another reminder of how much survival matters late in a long season.
For Djokovic, the larger number may be 21. He has now won at least one singles title in 21 consecutive seasons, stretching a championship run across multiple generations of opponents. Beijing supplied career title No. 102, moving him within one of Roger Federer’s ATP-era total and keeping another longevity marker alive at age 39.
The most revealing part is that this Beijing run did not depend on Djokovic looking physically invulnerable. He needed treatment earlier in the event, had to recover between long matches and faced younger opponents capable of extending rallies. His advantage was still the same one that has defined much of his career: when the scoreboard became expensive, he made fewer bad decisions. Beijing remains the clearest possible proof. Eleven years changed the tour around him; they did not change the result.
A seventh China Open title does not erase the physical questions Djokovic has managed throughout 2026, and De Minaur’s retirement denied the final a complete sporting conclusion. But 34-0 is no accident. Djokovic returned to a tournament he had not played since 2015, beat elite opposition and left without surrendering the only record Beijing has ever known from him.
At 39, the streak now says as much about adaptation as dominance. The next question is no longer whether Djokovic can still win a big week. Beijing answered that. It is how many more of those weeks his body will allow him to build.
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