Medvedev is defaulted in Beijing after a ball hits a front-row spectator

Daniil Medvedev was defaulted from the China Open semi-final on Monday after a ball he struck hit a spectator in the front row. Novak Djokovic was leading 7-5, 5-3 at the National Tennis Center in Beijing. The world number five did not argue the call. He loses the points and the prize money he had earned in the tournament.

The point was already over. Medvedev had lost it. The ball came back off the wall behind him, and he hit it again. It travelled into the seats directly behind his end of the court. The spectator clutched his left eye and left the stand with stadium staff. Medvedev later told reporters he was terribly sorry, that he was trying to reach the man if the man wanted contact, and that he hoped to apologise in person. He said he had meant only to send the rebound somewhere so it would not bounce back onto the court. When he saw the result, he said, he felt horrible. He added that he did not think he had been close to a situation like it before.

Djokovic, the sixth seed, said he was shocked and hoped the injury was not serious. He also said he was sorry for Medvedev, because he knew the feeling. In 2020 Djokovic was defaulted from the US Open after a ball he hit in frustration struck a line judge in the throat. He told the ATP site in Beijing that he had not clearly seen the contact. He called the match a hard battle, which it had been: Djokovic was broken early in the first set, broke back, and took the set before a tie-break. In the second he broke for 4-2. Medvedev took a medical timeout. At 15-15, with Djokovic ahead 5-3, the ball went into the crowd.

The default ends Medvedev's week and sends Djokovic into the final. The other semi-final had already stopped. Hubert Hurkacz retired with an adductor injury while Alex de Minaur led 6-4, 3-2. De Minaur is the remaining finalist. Djokovic's win, recorded as his 33rd in Beijing, puts him one match from a first title of 2026. He is a six-time China Open champion. A final produced by a retirement and a default is still a final. The ranking points, if he wins, will not carry an asterisk.

The rule Medvedev ran into is old and narrow. A player who hits a ball into the stands in anger, or in a way the umpire reads as reckless, can be defaulted even when the contact was not planned. Intent is not the test the chair uses in the moment. Visible contact with a spectator is. Medvedev's account, that he was clearing a rebound rather than aiming at anyone, is the account he will need if he asks the tour for any relief on points. Reuters reported that the default already costs him the points and prize money from this event. Any further review would be after the fact.

Djokovic's 2020 default is the comparison everyone in the stadium had ready. That one ended a US Open semi-final he had been close to winning, and it cost him a Grand Slam. The line judge recovered. The sanction stayed. Monday's case is smaller in ranking terms and similar in mechanism: a ball struck after the point, a person in the working area of the court or just beyond it, a chair umpire who does not wait for a medical report. The difference is the target. A line judge is part of the court. A front-row spectator is part of the event. Tours have treated both as grounds for default.

Medvedev came into the match as world number five and as the third seed in Beijing. A default strips the week. It also leaves an open medical fact. The spectator's condition had not been described beyond the eye injury and the walk out of the stand by Monday evening. Until that is known, the sporting penalty and the harm are on different clocks. Djokovic plays de Minaur for the title. Medvedev is trying to reach the man in the first row.