BEIJING, China, October 1, 2026: Alexander Zverev survived a dangerous Cameron Norrie, Juncheng Shang gave the home crowd another reason to believe, Andrey Rublev escaped Tallon Griekspoor in a deciding tiebreak and Roman Safiullin produced the biggest upset of Thursday’s China Open men’s Round of 32.
The opening round of the 32-player ATP draw produced several very different routes into the last 16.
Zverev relied on serve and patience. Shang needed a comeback. Rublev survived margins measured in individual points. Hubert Hurkacz recovered from losing the opening set to Learner Tien. Alex de Minaur eventually separated himself from Mariano Navone after a tight first set.
Safiullin required something else entirely.
He dismantled world No. 7 Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2 and turned one of the day’s most intriguing matchups into the clearest upset.
China Open 2026 Men’s Round of 32 Results on October 1
| Winner | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Jakub Mensik | Alexander Bublik | 6-4, 7-6(5) |
| Hubert Hurkacz | Learner Tien | 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 |
| Andrey Rublev | Tallon Griekspoor | 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(6) |
| Alexander Zverev | Cameron Norrie | 7-6(1), 6-4 |
| Juncheng Shang | Sebastian Baez | 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 |
| Roman Safiullin | Flavio Cobolli | 6-3, 6-2 |
| Quentin Halys | Ignacio Buse | 6-1, 7-6(3) |
| Francisco Cerundolo | Botic van de Zandschulp | 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 |
| Alex de Minaur | Mariano Navone | 7-6(4), 6-2 |
| Alex Molcan | Tomas Machac | 6-3, 6-2 |
The scheduled Alex Molcan-Arthur Rinderknech match was cancelled and should not be treated as a completed Round of 32 result.
Several of Thursday’s winners now move into a last-16 field that already contains Novak Djokovic, Karen Khachanov, Yunchaokete Bu and Jan-Lennard Struff from the opening day of men’s main-draw action.
Zverev Handles the Tightest Part of the Match Better Than Norrie
Alexander Zverev’s 7-6(1), 6-4 victory over Cameron Norrie looks controlled on paper.
The first set was not.
Norrie pushed the German hard enough to reach a tiebreak and created three break opportunities during the match, but Zverev saved all of them.
The top seed then dominated the first-set breaker 7-1 and waited until the final game of the second set to claim the only service break of the match.
Zverev finished with 15 aces and no double faults, while winning 77 percent of his first-serve points and 75 percent behind his second delivery. Those numbers explain why Norrie could compete without ever fully opening the match. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”2″}
Reuters reported that Zverev now leads the ATP Tour with 28 hard-court wins this season and moves on to face Juncheng Shang in the Round of 16. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”3″}
That matchup immediately becomes one of Beijing’s most interesting next-round tests.
Zverev has spent much of 2026 solving compressed matches through serving and late-set execution. TSE saw the same pattern during his recent Laver Cup title-clinching performance against Learner Tien, where he again took control once the first set reached a tiebreak.
His Cincinnati run offered another example. TSE’s Cincinnati Round of 32 report documented another straight-set Zverev win built around managing pressure rather than overwhelming an opponent early.
Juncheng Shang Gives Beijing a Home Story Worth Following
Shang’s 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Sebastian Baez had a completely different shape.
The Chinese wild card lost the opening set and then had to build the match again.
He did it by becoming more effective on return.
Shang converted six of 15 break points and won 49 return points overall, enough to gradually push Baez into longer and less comfortable service games. Baez also created pressure, breaking four times himself, which explains why the match remained unstable deep into the third set. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”4″}
The final margin came only at 7-5.
That matters because Shang’s 2026 season has already included several moments where he has demonstrated that ranking and reputation do not necessarily control his level on hard courts.
Earlier in the summer, he saved multiple match points to eliminate Andrey Rublev in Montreal, one of the central stories in TSE’s National Bank Open Day 4 report.
Beijing now gives him a more difficult test.
Zverev is serving at a far higher level than Baez, and Shang is unlikely to receive 15 break-point opportunities against the German.
The opportunity is still significant.
A home player has reached the last 16 and gets the tournament’s top seed next.
Rublev Wins the Match That Refused to Separate
Andrey Rublev’s 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(6) victory over Tallon Griekspoor was one of the most evenly balanced matches of Thursday.
Both players hit 19 aces.
Both were broken only once.
Both won 16 of their 17 service games.
Rublev’s advantage came at the very end.
The deciding-set tiebreak finished 8-6, allowing the former world No. 5 to escape a match in which neither player had managed to establish meaningful separation through three sets. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”5″}
The result is particularly relevant given the way Rublev entered Beijing.
Only days earlier, he reached the Hangzhou final before losing to Daniil Medvedev. TSE’s Hangzhou final report examined how Rublev’s Asian hard-court form had begun improving after an uneven North American summer.
Beijing has now asked him a different question.
Instead of playing from rhythm and control, he had to survive.
He did.
Safiullin Delivers the Biggest Upset of the Day
Flavio Cobolli arrived as world No. 7.
Roman Safiullin arrived ranked No. 84.
The match looked nothing like that gap.
Safiullin won 6-3, 6-2 and never dropped serve.
He saved all five break points he faced, won 80 percent of his first-serve points and converted three of 11 opportunities against Cobolli. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”6″}
Cobolli’s second serve became especially vulnerable.
Once Safiullin began controlling enough return points to force repeated pressure, the Italian never found a route back into the match.
The result also gives Safiullin another notable hard-court win after a season in which his level has fluctuated sharply.
TSE last examined him closely during the US Open, when Carlos Alcaraz defeated him in straight sets in New York. That match featured in our report on Alcaraz’s return to Grand Slam competition.
Beijing provided Safiullin with the opposite experience.
This time, he was the player who removed the higher-ranked contender.
Hurkacz Recovers After Tien Takes the First Set
Learner Tien began strongly enough to make another significant hard-court win look possible.
He took the opening set 7-5.
Hubert Hurkacz answered by leaning harder on the most obvious advantage available to him: serve.
The Pole finished with 12 aces, won 81 percent of his first-serve points and broke Tien three times across the match to complete a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 comeback. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”7″}
Tien did not disappear.
He still won two return games and took 70 percent of his own first-serve points.
The difference was Hurkacz’s ability to make his strongest delivery more reliable after losing the first set.
Tien entered Beijing only days after helping Team World challenge Europe at the Laver Cup. His weekend included a victory over Flavio Cobolli before he lost the deciding singles match to Zverev, a sequence covered in TSE’s Laver Cup final-day report.
There is no crisis in losing to Hurkacz.
There is another reminder that Beijing’s compact ATP 500 draw leaves very little room to play your way slowly into the tournament.
Mensik Stops Bublik Before the Match Can Become Chaotic
Jakub Mensik defeated Alexander Bublik 6-4, 7-6(5) and avoided the kind of extended match Bublik often turns into a test of patience and improvisation.
Mensik’s first serve was particularly important.
He won 82 percent of those points compared with Bublik’s 71 percent and finished with 10 aces. Bublik managed only one break from three opportunities, while Mensik broke twice. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”8″}
The result continues a season in which Mensik has repeatedly shown he belongs in significant hard-court matches.
TSE tracked his progress through the North American summer, including his run to the Montreal quarterfinals in our National Bank Open last-16 report.
His Cincinnati form was also part of TSE’s Round of 32 coverage.
Beijing now gives him another chance to convert consistency into a deeper run.
De Minaur Needs One Tight Set Before Pulling Away
Alex de Minaur’s 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over Mariano Navone became significantly easier after the first set.
The Australian faced 10 break points in the match but saved nine of them.
That statistic explains the opening set.
Navone repeatedly created opportunities without converting enough of them, while De Minaur remained stable long enough to reach the tiebreak and take it 7-4.
The second set moved decisively in De Minaur’s direction.
He finished with three breaks from seven opportunities and won 52 percent of Navone’s second-serve points. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”9″}
De Minaur’s ability to survive difficult matches has been one of the recurring themes of his season.
TSE’s National Bank Open tournament analysis examined how he remained one of the highest-ranked players standing after several leading contenders had fallen.
Beijing has begun with the same basic requirement.
Do not panic when the first set becomes complicated.
Cerundolo Turns a One-Set Deficit Into a Three-Set Win
Francisco Cerundolo’s 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Botic van de Zandschulp required nearly three sets of adjustment.
Van de Zandschulp took the opener 7-5, but Cerundolo created 14 break opportunities over the full match and eventually converted four of them.
Van de Zandschulp saved 10 break points and hit 11 aces, which kept him competitive for long stretches.
Cerundolo’s pressure ultimately accumulated faster than the Dutchman’s resistance. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”10″}
The Argentine has already been involved in several major hard-court matches this season.
At the US Open, he reached the Round of 16 before losing to Alexander Blockx, a breakthrough run TSE covered in its report on Blockx’s historic quarterfinal qualification.
Halys and Molcan Produce the Cleanest Wins
Quentin Halys and Alex Molcan both advanced without needing a deciding set.
Halys defeated Ignacio Buse 6-1, 7-6(3).
The Frenchman won 81 percent of his first-serve points and broke Buse three times, although the Peruvian made the second set significantly more competitive. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”11″}
Molcan was even more efficient against Tomas Machac.
He won 6-3, 6-2 without facing a single break point.
Molcan won 89 percent of his first-serve points and broke Machac three times from six opportunities. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”12″}
In a draw this compact, that efficiency matters.
The players reaching the last 16 after short, controlled opening matches arrive with a very different physical profile from Rublev, Cerundolo, Shang and Hurkacz.
What Does the China Open Last 16 Look Like Now?
Several major second-round matchups are already confirmed.
Zverev will face Shang.
De Minaur is scheduled to meet Quentin Halys.
Rublev and Safiullin will meet after producing two of Thursday’s most contrasting victories.
Francisco Cerundolo will face Jakub Mensik.
Hubert Hurkacz also moves into the last 16 after surviving Tien.
Novak Djokovic is already waiting in the next round after extending his perfect China Open record to 30-0 with a 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over Nuno Borges on Wednesday. Reuters confirmed that Djokovic will face Chinese wild card Yunchaokete Bu. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”13″}
That creates a Beijing last 16 with three overlapping stories.
The established stars are still present.
China has home representation through Shang and Bu.
And players such as Safiullin, Halys and Molcan have already shown that ranking gaps may not matter as much as form over two sets.
Why the First Round Already Changed the China Open
Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal before the tournament had already altered the draw.
Reuters confirmed that the defending champion pulled out while continuing his recovery from a knee injury, leaving Zverev as the top seed and Djokovic as one of the major attractions in Beijing. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”14″}
The Round of 32 then removed more highly ranked players.
Felix Auger-Aliassime lost to Karen Khachanov on Wednesday.
Cobolli followed on Thursday.
Bublik, Norrie and Tien are also gone.
The draw therefore looks less predictable than it did 48 hours ago.
Zverev and Djokovic remain obvious headline contenders.
The space beneath them is already changing.
China Open 2026 Men’s Round of 32 FAQs
Did Alexander Zverev Win His China Open Opener?
Yes. Zverev defeated Cameron Norrie 7-6(1), 6-4.
Who Will Zverev Play Next in Beijing?
Zverev will face Chinese wild card Juncheng Shang in the Round of 16.
Did Juncheng Shang Win?
Yes. Shang recovered from losing the first set to beat Sebastian Baez 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.
What Was the Rublev vs Griekspoor Score?
Andrey Rublev defeated Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(6).
What Was the Biggest Upset of the Day?
Roman Safiullin produced the clearest ranking upset by beating world No. 7 Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2.
Did Alex de Minaur Advance?
Yes. De Minaur defeated Mariano Navone 7-6(4), 6-2.
Did Learner Tien Win?
No. Tien won the opening set but lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to Hubert Hurkacz.
Who Beat Alexander Bublik?
Jakub Mensik defeated Bublik 6-4, 7-6(5).
Did Francisco Cerundolo Advance?
Yes. Cerundolo recovered from a set down to defeat Botic van de Zandschulp 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Why Is the Opening Round Called the Round of 32?
The men’s China Open singles draw contains 32 players. That means the first round is also the Round of 32, with 16 players advancing to the Round of 16.