Alexander Zverev moves into the quarterfinals in Beijing

Alexander Zverev confidently made it to the quarter-finals at the tennis tournament in Beijing. The two-time Grand Slam tournament winner defeated China's Juncheng Shang 6:0, 6:3. He will now meet Grand Slam record champion Novak Djokovic from Serbia in the Chinese capital. Zverev converted his second match point with an ace after just 55 minutes.

This means the hamburger remains in success mode. After his triumph at the US Open two and a half weeks ago, Zverev also won with Germany in the Davis Cup against Croatia and with Team Europe in the Laver Cup against Team World.

Zverev had no trouble against the world number 250 and showed an almost flawless performance. The Chinese took advantage of a treatment break after losing the first set, but held on until the end. Meanwhile, Zverev was conserving his energy for the clash with Djokovic. The 39-year-old had more trouble on Friday. After almost three hours of play, he beat Chinese qualifier Bu 4:6, 7:6 (2), 6:2.

This means Djokovic remains undefeated in Beijing. He has won the event six times so far and has been successful every time he has taken part, most recently in 2015. Zverev now wants to ensure that Djokovic suffers his first defeat in his 32nd game in Beijing.

«It went pretty smoothly for me today. I hope it continues like this for me," said Zverev after the game and added with a view to Djokovic: "I have a difficult opponent waiting for me tomorrow. Novak has never lost here and loves the court. But I'm ready."

For Jan-Lennard Struff, however, the final stop was the ATP 500 tournament. He lost to Russian Daniil Medvedev 4:6, 3:6.

Meanwhile, Zverev is getting closer and closer to his goal of number one. World number one Jannik Sinner (Italy) still has to take a break due to knee problems and has now canceled the Masters tournament in Shanghai from October 7th to 18th.

Zverev would be only the second German after Boris Becker on the tennis throne among men. Becker was number one in the world for a total of twelve weeks.

At the beginning of February after the Australian Open, Zverev was still over 9,000 points behind the then leader Carlos Alcaraz and almost 5,700 behind second-placed Sinner. Because Alcaraz was out for months this year due to a wrist injury and Sinner now has to take a break, the situation has changed in Zverev's favor. If Zverev wins in Beijing and Shanghai, he would already have passed Sinner.