Djokovic in Beijing Final, Gets Bye in Shanghai Draw
The Shanghai Masters draw puts Novak Djokovic in Alexander Zverev's half, with Alcaraz on the other side. The Serb reached the Beijing final after Medvedev was disqualified.
At 15-15 in the ninth game of the second set, Daniil Medvedev lost a point and sent the ball into the stands, hitting a spectator in the eye. The fan had to leave the stands with an injury, and the supervisor decided to disqualify the Russian. Novak Djokovic was leading 7-5, 5-3 and serving for the match at that moment, so after two hours and 21 minutes he went through to the final in Beijing.
While Djokovic was still in the Chinese capital, the draw for the Shanghai Masters had already been made. The Djokovic Shanghai draw reads like this: tenth seed, a first-round bye, and a path that could lead him to Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
What does Djokovic’s path in Shanghai look like?
The tournament runs from October 7 to 18. As the tenth seed, Djokovic does not play in the first round, and in the second he faces the winner of Hubert Hurkacz against James Duckworth. The Pole is the favorite, and RTS describes him as an excellent server. In Beijing, Hurkacz retired from his semifinal against Alex de Minaur at 6-4, 3-2 after one hour and eight minutes because of an injury, according to B92.
In the third round Djokovic could meet Lorenzo Musetti. In the fourth, seventh seed Francis Tiafoe and 25th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are the threats. The projected quarterfinal opponent is Ben Shelton, the third seed and a finalist at the recent US Open.
The semifinal is the more interesting part. Djokovic landed in the half led by Alexander Zverev, the tournament’s top seed. On his way to the semifinals the German could run into Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur, Karen Khachanov and Alexander Bublik. Zverev is exactly the player Djokovic beat in the Beijing quarterfinals, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, after two hours and 35 minutes.
Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, and Felix Auger-Aliassime, the fourth, are in the other half of the draw. That means Djokovic cannot meet Alcaraz before the final.
What happened in the Beijing semifinal?
The first set lasted an hour and 18 minutes. Medvedev got the break for 3-2 only on the seventh break point of the match, and Djokovic broke straight back to make it 3-3. He took the set 7-5 after Medvedev saved a set point in the tenth game with three good serves.
The second set started evenly, and in the third game Djokovic turned around a 0-40 deficit and saved six break points to hold for 2-1. In total he saved eight break points across three service games in that set. A second break, for 4-2, gave him the lead, and Medvedev then called a medical timeout for his shoulder.
Medvedev had reached the semifinal without dropping a set, after winning the title in Hangzhou. Before this match Djokovic had 32 wins from 32 matches at the tournament, and in the final he faces Alex de Minaur.
Of the 15 previous meetings between the two players, 14 were played on hard courts. Djokovic leads there ten to four. They last met in the 2023 US Open final, where the Serb won his 24th Grand Slam title, and two years earlier, in 2021, Medvedev stopped him on the way to a calendar Grand Slam.
Where are Kecmanovic and Medjedovic?
Three Serbs play in Shanghai. Miomir Kecmanovic opens against Japan’s Shota Shimabukuro, who received a special wild card, and if he wins he meets Jakub Mensik. Hamad Medjedovic plays Argentina’s Tiago Agustin Tirante, and in the second round he would face Spain’s Rafael Jodar, the 12th seed. Medjedovic is in the section led by Auger-Aliassime, and the highest-ranked possible opponent in the third round is Jiri Lehecka.
What does the new ATP ranking show?
The October 5 list leaves Djokovic 11th with 3,180 points. Jannik Sinner is first with 11,000, Zverev second with 9,720, and Alcaraz third with 5,260. Djokovic trails Zverev, his possible semifinal rival, by 6,540 points.
Medvedev moved up one place and is fifth. De Minaur is ninth, and Arthur Fils dropped to tenth.
The other Serbs: Kecmanovic fell four places and is now 61st with 925 points, Medjedovic is 78th with 764, Dusan Lajovic is 148th with 380, and Laslo Djere is 179th with 322 points.
Before Shanghai, Djokovic has one more match, the Beijing final against Alex de Minaur. He skips the first round in Shanghai and plays his opening match in the second round of the tournament, which starts on October 7.
