The Serbian tennis ace beat Zizou Bergs in straight sets on Thursday (09.10.25) to book a place in the last four and spoke of the struggle of coming out on top amid extreme humidity in China.

Djokovic said: "Pretty much everything [was difficult], just trying to stay alive to be honest on the court.

"[It was my] first encounter with Bergs, [he is a] great guy, obviously a lot of firepower in his game, at times I just tried to play an extra ball in the court and make him miss the ball, that is what happened.

"I should have closed out the match at 5-4, he played a good game and again I was a little too passive.

"It is very challenging conditions these few weeks for all the players and just trying to stay alive on the court and glad to overcome this hurdle."

Djokovic will now take on Monaco's Valentin Vacherot in the semi-finals and is delighted to see a player he knows well doing such a good job at the tournament.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion said: "[It’s] great for Monegasque tennis, we have one of the biggest tournaments on our tour in Monaco obviously and I am really glad for him and Benjamin Balleret, his coach. I have known for many years and trained with him while being based in Monaco over the last 15 years so [it’s an] amazing story for him.

"This tournament he has taken out top players in the world, I don’t know how many [in the] top 10, top 15 he has taken out but it is really impressive what he is doing, so we are both going to have a day off and hopefully good semi-finals."