A backhand into the Beijing stands ends Medvedev's China Open match with Djokovic
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age's short of the moment passed half a million views in little more than a day, on a channel where new shorts usually begin with a few thousand.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 392,868 views a day, 70 times a normal first day on this channel (5,596).
Medvedev disqualified for hitting fan with ball in China Open match against Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev's China Open match against Novak Djokovic did not end on a scoreline. It ended with a ball in the crowd, and the clip of it has become the most watched thing The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have posted in a long while. In just over a day it went past half a million views. A new short on this channel usually starts its first day with a few thousand.
The description sets out the sequence. Djokovic put away a forehand volley winner, and the ball came back off the advertising boards toward Medvedev. Medvedev hit it with a backhand, and it sailed into the stands. The title says it hit a fan and that he was disqualified.
Tennis fans will know the shape of this story, with Djokovic in the other role. At the 2020 US Open he was defaulted after a ball he hit away in frustration struck a line judge. In Beijing he was the one watching it happen across the net.
The tournament had more to give the mastheads' Australian readers. In the final, Djokovic faced Alex de Minaur, who retired one game into the second set with a groin injury, ending his bid for a first Beijing title. The channel's clip of that has a few thousand views. Sport filled the rest of its week too, from Hawthorn's pursuit of Ben King to a podcast on sandpapergate as Australia's cricketers return to South Africa.
The channel's last breakout, as we reported here, was Peter Hartcher's question about Trump and Xi. This one comes from a tennis court.
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- Subscribers
- 268,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,187,400
- Channel views, pace per day
- 372,485 (on a normal day: 119,550)
- Video published
- October 5, 2026
- Video views so far
- 540,440 (2 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 516,694
The numbers
The figures show a short that ran far beyond this channel's usual first day, while the rest of its Beijing coverage stayed at a normal pace.
💡 Test your knowledge
Alex de Minaur, Djokovic's opponent in the Beijing final, was born in which Australian city?
De Minaur was born in Sydney in 1999 and spent part of his childhood in Spain.
