A ball struck off Daniil Medvedev's racquet struck a spectator late in the second set, triggering a disqualification that sent Novak Djokovic through to the China Open final. Seated in the stands on Medvedev's side of the net, a man appeared to take a ball to the face while Djokovic was serving at 7-5, 5-3, and was subsequently guided out of his row by attendants.

After the ball rebounded off the back wall during a missed return, Medvedev struck it with a backhand that sent it into the crowd, prompting the chair umpire to halt play. Speaking to reporters later, Medvedev offered his apologies to the affected spectator, described the incident as entirely unintentional, and expressed a wish to apologise to the fan directly, explaining that he had simply tried to keep the ball from leaving the court.

Under the tournament's withdrawal rules, Medvedev stands to forfeit the 200 ranking points he accumulated by reaching the Beijing semi-finals, along with the $200,000 in prize money attached to that run.

The incident drew a parallel to events at the 2020 US Open, where Djokovic had faced disqualification under comparable circumstances, when a ball he struck unintentionally made contact with a line judge.

The match had grown increasingly physical in the lead-up to Medvedev's disqualification. Visibly winded and doubled over at the changeovers, Djokovic traded extended baseline exchanges with his opponent before taking command as the second set progressed.

Djokovic, who was 39 at the time, kept his serve intact through 16 break-point attempts over the course of the contest, reaching wide balls at the baseline and closing in at the net when openings appeared. Addressing the crowd after the spectator was struck, he said he had not witnessed the moment it occurred and expressed his belief that Medvedev had not acted with any intent to cause harm.

Djokovic later told reporters that the match had been a hard-fought one, and drew on his own experience of being disqualified at the 2020 US Open — an incident in which a ball he struck unintentionally made contact with a line judge — describing the situation as unpleasant but something that can occur. Pressed on whether the three-point lead he held at one point reflected the true nature of the match, Djokovic said it did not, calling the encounter physically and mentally taxing and pointing to an element of luck as a factor in the outcome.

Djokovic, seeded eleventh, and ninth-ranked Alex de Minaur are set to meet in the Beijing final on Tuesday. Hurkacz, the 29-year-old from Poland, withdrew from their semi-final contest due to an adductor muscle strain, clearing the path for the Australian to advance.

In the women's draw, third-seeded Coco Gauff moved past Sun Xinran — a 16-year-old from China — by a 7-5, 6-1 scoreline, booking a round-of-16 place against Belgium's Elise Mertens. The 22-year-old told reporters afterward that the match had been driven largely by feel, that opponents whose games carry little prior exposure can present real adjustment challenges, and that keeping her composure on court had been a conscious effort throughout, particularly with the crowd rallying behind her younger opponent.

Iga Swiatek, who once held the world number one ranking, turned the match around against Donna Vekic of Croatia after trailing by a set, winning 4-6, 7-6 (7/0), 6-2. On court she noted that anger had prompted her to shift her approach, and afterwards told reporters that detaching somewhat from the pressure of an expected loss had, in her view, worked in her favour. Her path to the quarter-finals runs through Iva Jovic, a teenager from the United States.

Pushed to a deciding set for the third occasion at the tournament, Zheng Qinwen held off a determined challenge from Marie Bouzkova, closing out the Czech opponent 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-5. After Bouzkova's shot landed beyond the baseline, Zheng addressed the home crowd, acknowledging that the physical toll of more than five hours on court across the first two rounds had been considerable, and spoke of how the weight of expectation had registered throughout, before thanking supporters for their presence.

Ranked 118th on the tour, Alina Charaeva — who eliminated top seed Elena Rybakina in the second round — stands as Zheng's next opponent, with the world number 54 set to face her in the following match. Linda Noskova, the reigning Wimbledon champion, also booked her place in the last 16, setting up a meeting with Ekaterina Alexandrova, while Elina Svitolina of Ukraine draws Ann Li of the United States in that same round.