De Minaur battles past Halys to reach China Open quarter-finals

A gruelling win in Beijing

World number 10 Alex de Minaur fought his way past French qualifier Quentin Halys (ranked 50th) in Beijing to reach the China Open quarter-finals. The match lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes, with de Minaur winning 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

Fighting back from the brink

Halys took the opening set 6-3 and looked set to close out the match when he led 5-3 in the second set and served for the win. De Minaur rallied, broke back, and then edged a tight tiebreak 7-5 to level the match at one set apiece.

A tense decider

The third set was just as closely contested, but de Minaur found a decisive break at 5-5, which proved enough to close out the match. The win also evened the pair's head-to-head record at 2-2.

What's next

De Minaur will next face Russia's Andrey Rublev (currently ranked 20th), a former top-10 player, who beat fellow Russian Roman Safiullin 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the same stage. Last year at this ATP 500 event, de Minaur reached the semi-finals before losing to then world number 1 Jannik Sinner.

A mixed season

De Minaur's 2026 season has been up and down. He reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and won the ATP 500 title in Rotterdam in February, before advancing to the third round of the French Open and the fourth round at Wimbledon. He then suffered a disappointing second-round exit at the US Open in September. Since then, he has rebounded, helping Australia beat Poland in a Davis Cup tie in Brisbane and defeating Germany's Alexander Zverev at the Laver Cup in London.

Top seed Zverev, who has won both the French Open and US Open titles this year, beat home favourite Shang Juncheng 6-0, 6-3 in Beijing and will face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, according to The Canberra Times. Djokovic has reportedly gone undefeated (31-0) at this tournament to date.