Alex de Minaur retired with a suspected adductor problem after only one game of the second set had been played in Tuesday’s final in Beijing, handing Novak Djokovic a seventh China Open title and his 102nd on the ATP Tour.
The 7-6(3), 1-0 ret. finish was the second time in three days that the tournament had been settled by something other than tennis.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Daniil Medvedev had been defaulted from his semifinal against Djokovic after a backhand struck a spectator around the left eye. The fan was taken to hospital. Medvedev insisted the ball had deflected off a wall after a Djokovic winner.
“It was 100 per cent accident. You can see I didn’t hit the ball in anger,” he said.
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De Minaur’s own account made clear this was not a one-off.
“Felt something in the adductor. I don’t know what it is yet. I’ve got to get some more scans,” the Australian told reporters after the final.
The absentees were the real headline
Djokovic reached the trophy ceremony partly by default and partly without the men who would normally stand between him and it.
World number one Jannik Sinner has not played since lifting the Wimbledon title in July. He withdrew from the US Open, from Beijing, and on 3 October from the Shanghai Masters.
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“My knee is not where I would like it to be and I’m not ready to compete yet,” Sinner said when he pulled out of Beijing on 25 September.
Jack Draper has gone further. The British number one confirmed on 15 September that he was done for 2026, citing a chronic arm problem that had already kept him out of all four Grand Slams this year.
“Managing so much change, adversity and pain has helped me to grow massively in many areas of my life, but has also made me feel a level of fatigue that made it difficult to keep going,” Draper wrote.
Alcaraz: ‘impossible to play them all’
Carlos Alcaraz, who missed five months of the season with a right wrist injury, used his first full press conference back to say what many on tour have been saying privately.
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“It’s impossible to play them all,” Alcaraz told reporters, signaling that he intended to take breaks of a month or two rather than chase every stop on the calendar.
The Spaniard has since won the Japan Open and is the second seed in Shanghai, where the main draw begins on Wednesday.
The data behind the complaints
The Professional Tennis Players Association, co-founded by Djokovic, has put numbers on the problem. Its latest medical analysis, drawn from more than 30,000 professional matches over eight years, reported sharp jumps in 2026: upper-body injuries up 42 percent in the first quarter against the previous first-quarter average, arm injuries up 112 percent, and match-ending injuries up 53 percent on the previous rolling 12-month average.
“The data is clear: the season is too long, recovery time is decreasing, and injuries are occurring earlier and becoming more severe,” the PTPA said.
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Seven of the nine Masters 1000 events now run close to two weeks rather than one, a format change that the PTPA has been pushing the ATP to reverse.
Djokovic was hurting too
The ironies of Tuesday’s final piled up quickly. Djokovic had called the trainer during his run through the week and told reporters that 2026 had been a struggle on and off the court.
“This year has been quite challenging for me. Lots of physical and health issues,” he said after collecting the trophy.
The Shanghai Masters main draw opens on Wednesday 7 October and runs through to the final on 18 October. Alcaraz is seeded second; Sinner, Draper and Medvedev will not be there.
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