The badminton net behind the kit truck came down at 4.12pm on Monday, and Beijing finally had a contest that went the distance. Two members of the China Open grounds crew traded twenty-six points in the heat without a retirement, a disqualification or a medical timeout. Both men finished standing. Both men finished on their own terms.
Novak Djokovic also won something. He took his seventh Beijing title and his 102nd overall when Alex de Minaur stopped one game into the second set, and his semi-final opponent Daniil Medvedev had already been disqualified. Sky News notes he never faced a match point in either match. Fine. Nice for him.
The badminton, by contrast, had everything. A changeover argument about the wind. A shuttlecock lost under a sponsor's golf cart and dragged out by a man on his stomach. A deciding point that clipped the tape, hung there, and dropped on the near side like a verdict. Ironclad stuff. Big-shouldered stuff.
"Somebody at this tournament had to play to the end," a tournament spokesperson said, "and it was never going to be anyone with a ranking."
