Alexander Zverev moves confidently into the quarter-finals 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.

The German is continuing a successful streak. 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.

On the other hand, his upcoming opponent had more trouble on Friday. After almost three hours of play, the 39-year-old Djokovic beat the Chinese qualifier Bu 4:6, 7:6 (2), 6:2.

Djokovic has won the ATP tournament in Beijing six times so far and has been successful in every participation, most recently in 2015. However, he has recently had to struggle with physical problems. Zverev 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," said Zverev after the game and added, referring to Djokovic: "I have a difficult opponent waiting for me tomorrow. Novak has never lost here and loves the court. But I'm ready."

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 he wins in Beijing and Shanghai, he would already be past Sinner.