Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, seeded 20th, who had made a winning start in the doubles at the 2026 China Open, lost his singles match to Czech Jakub Mensik (14) 4-6, 6-7 (5-7), infohub.kz reports.

Bublik arrived in Beijing from London, where he played two doubles and one singles match at his debut Laver Cup: the Kazakh represented Team World, while Mensik played for Team Europe. In the British capital, their paths did not cross on court. Before their meeting in Beijing, Mensik led their head-to-head 2-1.

In the first set, the key moment was the Czech's break in the third game — 6-4. In the third game of the second set, Mensik broke Bublik again, but Alexander immediately broke back. The match was decided in a tiebreak, which Jakub won.

The final score was 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) after 1 hour 36 minutes. Bublik led in aces 10-7, while Mensik had fewer double faults (1-2) and won more total points (81-69).

Having exited the singles, Bublik (357th in the doubles rankings) continues in the doubles. His partnership with China's Shang Juncheng (587), which received a wild card, defeated the Argentine-French duo of Francisco Cerundolo (141) and Arthur Rinderknech (113) 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the first round.

Elena Rybakina received a bye in the first round of the women's 2026 China Open. In the second round, the world No. 1 will face Alina Charaeva (118). Born in Samara and representing Armenia since July, Charaeva beat Ukraine's Yulia Starodubtseva (45) 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in the opening round. The two former Russians had never met on court before.

The China Open tennis tournament is being held for the 25th time for men (ATP-500) and the 27th time for women (WTA-1000) this year. The total prize pool is $9.4 million.

Over the years, the prestigious hard-court tournament has been won by Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Marat Safin, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Iga Swiatek and other stars.

The 2025 Beijing champions — Italy's Jannik Sinner (1) and America's Amanda Anisimova (11) — are not defending their titles due to injuries.