BEIJING — Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his semifinal against Novak Djokovic at the China Open after he hit a ball into the stands that struck a spectator in the front row on Monday.
The spectator was helped out of the arena holding a hand over his left eye.
“I feel terribly sorry for him actually and I just hope he’s OK,” Medvedev said. “Hopefully I can meet him and make up for it somehow.”
Djokovic was serving for the match at 7-5, 5-3 when Medvedev hit the ball into the stands in apparent frustration. After a forehand volley winner from Djokovic, the ball bounced off the advertising boards and back toward Medvedev, who smacked a backhand that sailed into the front row.
“It was 100% an accident,” Medvedev said. “You can see that I didn’t hit the ball in anger. … The ball was bouncing back, so I tried to just hit it anywhere, so it wouldn’t go out of the court.”
Immediately after striking the spectator, Medvedev appeared to wave his left hand in apology. He remained on the court.
“When I saw the result, I felt horrible,” Medvedev said. “The most important thing is I hope that he’s OK because you never know with these types of situations.”
The chair umpire and tournament supervisor came down onto the court to talk with Medvedev, who didn’t appear to put up much of an argument with the disqualification. Medvedev then walked to the net and shook hands with Djokovic.
The incident was reminiscent of when Djokovic was kicked out of the 2020 U.S. Open for hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball. That was also accidental.
“A bit of a shock, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “I honestly didn’t see what happened. I hope that person is not badly injured. On the other hand, I also feel sorry for Daniil, because I know exactly how he feels to be disqualified in a big match. … I am sure that Daniil didn’t want to do this intentionally. It just happens.”
It was the first meeting between the 39-year-old Djokovic and Medvedev since Djokovic beat the Russian in the 2023 US Open final.
Djokovic extended his perfect career record at the China Open to 33-0.
In Tuesday’s final, Djokovic will face ninth-ranked Alex de Minaur, who advanced when Hubert Hurkacz retired due to an apparent injury midway through the second set of their semifinal.
De Minaur led 6-4, 3-2 when Hurkacz — who was barely able to run for balls in the second set — stopped playing.
The nature of Hurkacz’s injury was not immediately clear.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
