The ATP 500 China Open brings a stellar line-up for Monday's quarterfinals. Six seeded players are still in the field - all ranked in the top 20 of the ATP list, including four players from the top 10. Jannik Sinner leads the pack after prevailing in three sets against Terence Atmane. Lorenzo Musetti continues his rise on hard courts, while Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev set up an absolute hit clash of the upcoming quarters. Here is the complete preview of Monday's matches.
Sinner vs. Marozsan
The world number one got surprisingly pushed in his second round match against Terence Atmane. That was their second meeting after the semifinal tie in Cincinnati last month. The favorite moved up front early in the first set, however the Frenchman did not give up and put some pressure on Sinner. That was not enough to come back into contention in the first set, but the brave play from Atmane paid off in the second set. That was quite a mad part of the match, as both players shared 4 consecutive breaks to love since the score 1-1. Ultimately, Atmane added another break in a tight ending of that set, pushing Sinner into the decider. Sadly, the Frenchman suffered with cramps in the third set, which took away the chances for a real fight - Sinner got his job done and moved through with the score 6-4 5-7 6-0. That was a match where the Italian tried some multiple dropshots, which is consistent with his pre-tournament declaration about the plans to add more variety to the game after the US Open final defeat.
Fabian Marozsan is the most surprising quarterfinalist in the top half. The Hungarian makes it into his third quarterfinal in 2025, following the run into the semifinals in Munich on clay, and the quarters in Hong Kong during the opening week of the season. Marozsan won two matches against French players in Beijing - defeating Benjamin Bonzi and Alexandre Muller in straight sets. Both are ranked in the top 50, and Marozsan played a very decent performance on serve, losing just one service game on the road, facing only three breakpoints in summary. Sinner and Marozsan played once before, competing in Halle on grass last year, where the Hungarian managed to take the favored opponent into the full distance, getting defeated after a competitive match in three sets. Although, just 18.7% return games won on hard courts this year does not inspire optimism about the potential Hungarian's chances for any upset, even with some Sinner's bad day at the office.
Musetti vs. Tien
Lorenzo Musetti extends his good run of form on hard courts with a comprehensive 6-3 6-3 victory over Adrian Mannarino. The Frenchman showed a great performance in his previous match against Alexander Bublik, but was not able to put enough pressure on the well-disposed world number 9. Musetti was consequently building his advantage over the 37-year-old veteran in both sets, getting broken just once after the start of the second set. The Italian faced just 9 pressure points throughout the whole match.
The last two months is a period of imposing development of Musetti's play on hard courts. Before the start of US Open, the Italian won just half of 14 matches played on that surface, excelling only on clay. Since the start of the last Grand Slam of the season, his record is 9-2 and could be even better if not for the disappointing blow in this week's final in Chengdu against Alejandro Tabilo, where Musetti had title match points. His stats improved massively in the two compared periods. Musetti wins 90% of service games since the start of that streak (in comparison to 80% before). First serve points is an improvement from 71% to 80%, second serve raised up from 53% to 59%. Musetti wins 7% more return games as well (31% vs 24%) and converts 48% breakpoints in comparison to just 33% till the end of August.
The 19-year-old Learner Tien continues his impressive growth this season, making it into his third quarterfinal on hard courts - second consecutive after the same achievement in ATP 250 Hangzhou last week. The American has defeated two top 25 players on the road, winning over Francisco Cerundolo in three sets and dispatching Flavio Cobolli by 6-3 6-2. The Italian was a slight pre-match favorite related to odds after a great performance displayed during the upset made over Andrey Rublev in the previous round. The match between Tien and Cobolli was quite a messy one with multiple breaks on both sides and quite a low standard of serving. Tien scored just 2/3 of his first serve points and 52% of second serve, getting broken twice in the first set which still went into his account. That will be the first ever match between Tien and Musetti. The Italian is a favorite looking at the form displayed in Beijing so far, while the youngster seeks his maiden semifinal at the ATP Tour level.
Zverev vs. Medvedev
Alexander Zverev made it into the quarters after a very tough match played against Corentin Moutet on Sunday. Zverev was put under pressure by well-returning Moutet in the first set despite leading on the scoreline. The Frenchman wasted breakpoints earlier on, but finally found a way to come back level in the 10th game. Zverev regained his lead later on, but Moutet was on the best path to force the tiebreak. The German showed great resistance, coming back from 0-40 to snatch this turbulent set for his account. The Frenchman continued the good trend winning the second set after a series of confident holds and one break gained in the 6th game, kept till the end. Moutet was unbeatable on serve in the second set, but dropped this level in the decisive part of the match. Even though the Frenchman started with another break, his first serve stopped being a reliable force (just 42% in comparison to 17 out of 18 points won in the second set). Zverev brought his proper level in the most needed moments. He broke Moutet twice in a row and even if he did not display the A game on serve throughout the whole match, scraped through that battle with the score 7-5 3-6 6-3.
Daniil Medvedev approaches the quarterfinals without losing a set so far after a dominant victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (6-3 6-3). Despite this season being a huge disappointment for Medvedev, it's his 10th quarterfinal run in 2025 and 7th on hard courts. The task was easier for Medvedev on Sunday, as his opponent was very much struggling with serve efficiency against the aggressive baseline play of the Russian. Both were not consistent on serve - Medvedev scored just 67% of first serve and 44% of second serve, committing 5 double faults and getting broken three times. Although, the instant pressure put by the former world number one in the rallies was enough to disarm any weapons of the Spaniard that day.
The rivalry between Medvedev and Zverev is a story especially dating back to the years when Medvedev was in his prime time, competing for multiple top level titles. The Russian leads their H2H by 13-7. Despite the slump in form in the recent period, Medvedev won their last 4 meetings, including the latest semifinal in Halle on grass. That is also the only Medvedev victory over a top 10 player achieved in 2025. Although Medvedev always verbally prefers the fast hard courts, the quite slow surface in Beijing suits this more than Indian Wells, where the former world number one achieved his best run on hard courts this season.
De Minaur vs. Mensik
Alex De Minaur was a strong favorite ahead of the second round match against the qualifier Arthur Rinderknech, however this encounter was much more challenging than expected for the Aussie. De Minaur played a great first set, avoiding any pressure in his service games and winning it by 6-3 with one break. The second set started with the first weak service game of De Minaur. The world number 8 came back to his serving level later on, but was not able to threaten his opponent enough, which resulted in extending the match to the full distance. Rinderknech was the first one to produce breakpoints in the third set, however it got settled in a tiebreak despite three match points produced by the favorite in the 12th game. Rinderknech saved them all on his own serve, but just delayed the defeat to the tiebreak where he managed to take just two points. De Minaur won by 6-3 3-6 7-6(2) against the opponent who set tough conditions on court, i.e. firing 11 aces. It was a relatively dynamic match with short rallies, which lasted just 2:20 hours despite being settled in the decisive tiebreak.
This year's Miami Open champion has approached his first quarterfinal on hard courts since the sensational victory in the ATP Masters held in Florida half a year ago. Jakub Mensik moved past Miomir Kecmanovic and Arthur Cazaux, being a favorite ahead of both matches and scoring 10 aces in each of those. The serving of the Czech was not super consistent though, as he got broken three times by the French qualifier in the round of 16. Mensik won 6-3 2-6 6-4 to get into the quarters, setting up an interesting tie between two top 20 players against De Minaur. Their H2H contains two official matches played on hard courts, both held in the current ranking period and won by the Aussie. De Minaur and Mensik have also met in the Laver Cup exhibition last week, where the world number 8 was also on top.
The Czech needs to take care of his second serve - his 48.8% of second serve points ranks him in the lower areas of the statistical ranking of the main tour on hard courts, while De Minaur excels with 53.7% second return points being one of the top records on the tour this season.
