Novak Djokovic marked his return to the China Open after an 11-year absence with a straight-sets victory over Nuno Borges to reach the round of 16.

Djokovic ran out a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) winner in his opening match in Beijing on Wednesday, snapping a three-match losing streak dating back to his run to the Wimbledon semi-finals.

The 24-time grand slam champion endured a scare when he was forced to take a medical timeout five games into the second set, but he steadied himself to sew up the victory, helped by a tremendous performance on his own serve.

Djokovic landed 71% of his first serves and won 88% of points when doing so (42/48), compared to Borges' respective figures of 55% and 75%.

A last-16 clash with home favourite Yunchaokete Bu now awaits Djokovic, who won the China Open six times in the space of seven editions between 2009 and 2015, before his long absence from the event.

"In the second set, he started playing better, and I struggled a little bit physically," Djokovic said in his on-court interview afterwards. 

"When I was serving, I was dominating and going through my games quite comfortably. 

"It was helping to get those first serves in; that high percentage makes my life easier, and I played a great tie-break to close it out in two, so I am very happy about that."

Earlier in the day, second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fell to a surprise 6-3 6-3 defeat to Karen Khachanov, the same opponent who dumped him out of the US Open earlier this month.

Auger-Aliassime did not even carve out a break point, with the defeat representing a major blow to his hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin.

30 - Novak Djokovic (30-0 at China Open) has claimed the most wins of any undefeated player at a single ATP-level event, since the inaugural ATP Tour season in 1990. Unblemished.#ChinaOpen | @ChinaOpen @atptour pic.twitter.com/i54nbEkVOv

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) September 30, 2026

Djokovic brings up perfect 30

Remarkably, this was Djokovic's first match at the China Open since he defeated Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-2 in the 2015 final.

The Serbian now holds a perfect career record of 30-0 at the Beijing event, the best unbeaten record by any player at a single ATP event since the Tour's inaugural season in 1990.

Djokovic – who is now the oldest player to win a match at the China Open – also avoided losing four straight matches for just the second time in his career, having had a five-match losing streak all the way back in 2007.

The sixth seed is chasing his 102nd Tour-level title. He currently sits third in the all-time charts, only one behind Roger Federer in second (103), with Jimmy Connors holding the record (109).