The key to Djokovic's victory over Zverev: "He is the best in the circuit at that"

Novak Djokovic arrived at this match against Alexander Zverev with physical doubts, as he had struggled through his first two matches at the ATP in Beijing this year, unable to perform well physically. Many expected an easy match for Sascha, but today Nole again showed us that one should never count him out. What he did today is a lesson not only for Zverev himself but also for his rivals to know how to beat the German.

His physical condition allowed him to maintain the pace, respond to exchanges, and execute the plan he had prepared, and from there he completed one of his best matches of the year. Djokovic has once again demonstrated that if his body allows it, he can still win against anyone.

One could even say that it was one of the most tactically complete matches of the entire season. This is even more valuable given that Zverev has been a tricky opponent for many players throughout 2026. Outside of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, many of the young players who have faced the German have not found a clear solution to neutralize his serve, power, and ability to impose conditions from the baseline. Djokovic, at 39 years old and nearing 40, showed once again how it is done.

One of the key factors for Djokovic today against Zverev in Beijing

One of the key factors in the match was two shots that practically defined the entire contest: the serve and the return. Djokovic started in the worst possible way, losing his serve in the first game, but from there he completely changed the tone of his service games.

The Serbian was exceptional on serve, especially in crucial moments, where he again demonstrated extraordinary precision and reading of the game. He didn’t need to serve constantly at high speeds; instead, he chose directions well, opened the court when he needed to, and found first serves when the score started to tighten. It was one of those performances where Djokovic's serve may not stand out solely for its power, but for the intelligence with which he uses it to build the point and immediately place himself in a favorable position.

But besides this, one thing that was key for him was the return. There’s a statistic that perfectly summarizes the scale of what Djokovic did. Zverev ended the second set landing 23 of 24 first serves. This means that throughout the set, Novak only had the chance to face the German's second serve once, and still managed to win the set. This is truly astonishing because Zverev has one of the best serves on the tour and typically, when he achieves such a high percentage of first serves, his opponent has barely any real opportunities to break.

Djokovic, however, found a way to neutralize that advantage through a tool that seems simple, but requires tremendous sensitivity and understanding: blocking the serve.

That was one of the great lessons of the match. In today’s tennis, many young players try to respond to speed with even more speed. They want to take time away from the first stroke, hit the return hard, and seek an offensive position from the return. The problem is that against a serve like Zverev's, that approach can backfire, as attempting to hit with such aggression significantly increases the margin for error.

Djokovic did exactly the opposite. Instead of clashing against the ball, he slowed down his stroke, used his racket to absorb the serve's speed, and often focused on just getting the ball in. He didn’t need to harm immediately; he needed to ensure that the point began.

That concept was fundamental. Djokovic managed to transform many of Zverev's first serves, which should have given the German a huge advantage, into practically neutral rallies from the baseline. Once the return came in, the point started anew, and there Novak could utilize all his reading, defense, and ability to change heights and directions.

Many of the young players who have lost to Zverev this year would do well to review this match, because Djokovic again demonstrated that the best return is not always the one that comes out fastest from the racket. Sometimes, against a great server, the key is simply to get one more ball in and force him to play.

The key factor that decided the match between Djokovic and Zverev

Up until that moment, Zverev had been relatively true to the version we have seen of him throughout 2026. That is, a somewhat more determined player, willing to take the initiative and get into offensive positions more frequently than usual. For much of the match, he operated at attack rates close to 23% or 25% attack, and even finished the second set reaching 30% according to Insights data from TennisViz. He was entering the court, looking for the ball forward, and trying to dominate.

The problem arose when pressure kicked in. In the third set, Zverev's attack percentage dropped to just 19%. The difference is even clearer when analyzing where he was hitting the ball from. In the second set, the German hit 39% of his shots from inside the court. In the third, that figure plummeted to 19%. That’s a drop of twenty percentage points and a perfect representation of what happened during the decisive moments.

Zverev, in the third set against Djokovic, was the Zverev pre-2026 and pre-two Grand Slams. In other words: he became defensive. We’ve always talked about how hard it has been for Sascha to be aggressive against the Top players in tense moments, something that seemed to have changed this year. But today, against Nole, in the most important moment, he took a step back on the court. In set 2, he hit 39% of the time from inside the court, and in set 3, that dropped to just 19%, according to data from @tennis_insights. He paid dearly for that against a Nole who didn't hesitate to move forward.

— José Morón (@jmgmoron) October 4, 2026

Zverev began to retreat, stopped seeking the ball forward, and positioned himself several meters behind where he had been playing earlier.

The German returned to a defensive position precisely when the match demanded bravery. In moments of greatest pressure, that player who too often steps away from the baseline reemerged, waits too long, and leaves the initiative in the opponent's hands. Djokovic read the situation perfectly and decided to do the exact opposite. While Sascha was moving back, Novak started taking steps forward.

The Serbian ended the third set attacking 31% of the time and, in the last game, understood that it was time to push even harder. He saw that Zverev was hesitating, smelled blood, and went for the match.

That’s where the definitive difference appeared. Djokovic won not only because he served better, returned better, or executed certain shots better, but because he interpreted better what was happening at each phase of the match. When Zverev felt the pressure, he retreated. He was the same as always. When Djokovic detected it in his opponent, he advanced. He was braver, took the initiative, and forced the German to defend precisely when it was hardest for him to do so.

That is one of the main reasons why the Serbian, even at 39 years old, remains a unique player. His body no longer allows him to do everything he could five or ten years ago, but in intelligence, strategy, and reading of the game, he continues to be probably the best on the tour. Beijing once again provided clear evidence of this.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La gran clave de la victoria de Djokovic ante Zverev: "En eso es el mejor del circuito"