The Serbian is 32-0 in Beijing, a perfect run stretching across six titles. He extended it on Sunday with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback over top seed Alexander Zverev, a quarterfinal that lasted two hours and 34 minutes and that Djokovic rated among the two best he has played all season.

Daniil Medvedev is next, Monday at 7pm local time on Court 1 at the National Tennis Center. The Russian beat Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(4), 6-3 to set up the meeting, and he arrived in Beijing on the back of a title the previous week.

“One of the two best matches”

Djokovic needed the full three sets to see off Zverev, a player he had beaten only once in their last four meetings. Two early double faults and a cold night cost him the opening set.

“This is probably one of the two best matches that I played this year, next to the one against [Jannik] Sinner,” Djokovic told reporters afterwards.

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“Just obviously very thrilled to win against probably the best player in the world at the moment.”

At 39, he leads the head-to-head with Medvedev 10-5, but the Russian has been the better player on hard courts in recent weeks and thrives in Chinese conditions.

“Another extremely difficult opponent who is on a roll,” Djokovic said of the semifinal matchup.

Six titles and no defeats

The 32-match streak sits well clear of anything the men’s tour has seen in the modern era at a single ATP event. Djokovic has been coming to Beijing since 2009 and has won every title match he has reached, a run interrupted only by years he did not enter the tournament.

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Annabel Croft, the former British No. 1 working as an analyst on Sunday’s quarterfinal, summed up the view in the stadium: “Why would you ever doubt Novak Djokovic even at the age of 39? Djokovic came up with the answers.”

Two wins over the next 48 hours would take the streak to 34 and deliver a seventh Beijing title. The bottom-half semifinal pits Alex de Minaur against Hubert Hurkacz, with the final scheduled for Tuesday.

Alcaraz busy in Tokyo

The world No. 1 is not in the Beijing draw. Carlos Alcaraz is defending his Japan Open title in Tokyo and reached the final on Monday with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Jaume Munar, winning 12 of the last 16 games to shake off a slow start.

Alcaraz’s final against Jiri Lehecka or Valentin Vacherot is also set for Tuesday, meaning the two biggest names in men’s tennis will chase titles on the same day at different ends of the Asian swing.

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Djokovic has to get past Medvedev first.

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