SHANGHAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz beat Novak Djokovic for the first time as he dumped the four-times champion out of the Shanghai Masters with a 6-4 6-3 second-round victory on Friday.
Tenth seed Djokovic arrived in Shanghai fresh from winning a record seventh China Open crown after Australia’s Alex de Minaur retired with a groin injury in Tuesday’s final.
The 24-times Grand Slam champion, whose last Shanghai title came in 2018, had an 8-0 record against 29-year-old Hurkacz.
But the Pole, a former world number six, produced a clinical display, firing 13 aces and 28 winners while conceding little on serve to beat Djokovic in one hour and 27 minutes in his first Shanghai appearance since capturing the title in 2023.
Hurkacz, who missed the tournament in 2024 and 2025, extended his winning streak in Shanghai to eight matches and now faces either Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti or China’s Zhou Yi.
The defeat marked the latest setback in a testing season for the 39-year-old Serbian, who suffered a shock first-round exit at the US Open, his earliest Grand Slam defeat since the 2006 Australian Open.
“I was not close to what I was playing in Beijing,” Djokovic said. “I’m slightly more tired, not fresh …
“I didn’t feel myself on the court in terms of feeling the ball. It’s a super quick surface, completely different from Beijing.
“If you lose your serve, it is enough to lose the match, once per set, and that is what happened. It is very difficult to return his serve, almost impossible. So yeah, I did not adjust and it was a really tough draw for me, playing him in the first match.”
Djokovic will now turn his attention to the European indoor swing, with next month’s Paris Masters looming. He is ninth in the race for a spot at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.
“I am planning on only playing in Paris, so let’s see. Hopefully I can have a good result there,” he added.
TOP SEED ZVEREV MARCHES ON
French and US Open champion Zverev remained firmly on track in Shanghai in his bid to secure the year-end world number one ranking by seeing off local favourite Wu Yibing 6-4 7-6(4).
The German world number two can ensure he will reach the pinnacle by the end of the year if he makes the semi-finals or if his nearest challengers Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton lose at any stage of the Masters 1000 tournament.
Jannik Sinner is currently the top-ranked player, but the Italian ended his season prematurely due to inflammation in his knee and will drop the points he earned for winning the Vienna Open, the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals last year.
The only blemish on an otherwise perfect day for top seed Zverev was a minor injury scare at 5-5 in the second set, when the 29-year-old slipped and fell near the baseline and then clutched his left ankle.
Memories of the serious ankle injury he suffered in the 2022 French Open semi-finals briefly resurfaced but Zverev recovered and completed the win in the ensuing tiebreak to book a meeting with Frenchman Quentin Halys.
Earlier, US Open runner-up Shelton celebrated his 24th birthday with a 6-3 7-6(6) win over German Daniel Altmaier but it was the end of the road for Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli, who fell 6-1 4-6 6-3 to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare and Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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