ATP Tour

Djokovic maintains perfect Beijing record with win on return

Novak Djokovic snapped his three-match losing streak on Wednesday at the China Open, where he earned victory against Nuno Borges in his first appearance at the event since 2015.

Djokovic was far from his free-flowing best in his opening match in Beijing and received a medical timeout at 2-3 in the second set. However, the 39-year-old found enough consistency in his play and produced a first-class tie-break in the second set to move past Portugal’s Borges 6-3, 7-6(2) in one hour and 51 minutes.

The Serbian produced moments of magic for the packed crowd inside the Capital Group Diamond Arena at the ATP 500 event, highlighted by a stunning lob he struck at on serve at 0-1 in the second set. Following his win, Djokovic embraced all four sides of the sold-out 15,000 seat stadium.

"In the second set he started playing better and I struggled a little bit physically to stay fresh," Djokovic said in his on-court interview. "When I was serving, I was dominating and going through my games quite comfortably. It was helping getting those first serves in, that high percentages makes my life easier in my service games and I played a great tie-break to close it out in two, so I am very happy about that."

Djokovic has been the man to beat in Beijing throughout his career, having captured a record six titles at the hard-court tournament (2009, ’10, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15). Djokovic’s latest win, 11 years after his previous victory against Rafael Nadal in the 2015 championship match, improved his record at the event to a perfect 30-0, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Record.

Djokovic arrived in Beijing having suffered opening-round exits at the US Open and at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati, where he seemingly struggled physically. Prior to that, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings advanced to the semi-finals at Wimbledon but was then stopped by Jannik Sinner.

Djokovic discussed his love for competing in China and how he was feeling good ahead of the event when speaking on Monday and he will hope to enjoy more winning feelings in the next week, with the final scheduled for next Tuesday. The sixth seed is still chasing his first title of the season, but if he can triumph in Beijing and overcome the likes of top seed and reigning US Open champion Alexander Zverev, he will move to 102 tour-level titles. Jimmy Connors has captured a record 109 tour-level trophies, with Roger Federer second on 103.

Next up for Djokovic in Beijing is Chinese star Buyunchaokete, who downed Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 earlier on Wednesday.