NADAL CRUISES TO LANDMARK 75TH CROWN
RAFAEL Nadal won his sixth title of another remarkable year by beating an agitated Nick Kyrgios at the China Open yesterday, while unseeded Caroline Garcia stunned the new No 1.
The 16-time grand slam champion Nadal, 31, saw the Australian Kyrgios hit with a penalty point as the Spanish No 1 eased to a 6-2 6-1 win on the Beijing hard courts.
Nadal, for whom this was a landmark 75th ATP crown, came to the Chinese capital on the back of winning his third US Open.
He had saved two match points in a nervy opener against Frenchman Lucas Pouille, but was never really in trouble as Kyrgios’s hopes evaporated in acrimony.
The Australian was upset with a call in the first game and appeared unable to let it go after that, earning a warning and then a penalty point.
“I have lot of respect for Nick, he’s one of the players with more talent on the tour,” Nadal, considered one of the best ever, said.
Kyrgios, 22, who was going after a fourth career title, said he had been destroyed by Nadal.
“I don’t know, I just got super frustrated,” he said.
“I obviously didn’t react professionally. That is why I got a warning.
“But I mean, that didn’t really matter. He played well, I played terrible.”
France’s unseeded Garcia won her second title in as many weeks when she stunned Simona Halep, 26 – the new world No 1 – in a closely fought final.
Garcia, 23, is in the form of her life and edged out the Romanian second seed 6-4 7-6 (7/3) to add the China Open to the Wuhan Open title she lifted last weekend.
Garcia’s feat was all the more remarkable, because she had a leg injury that has required frequent on-court treatment and completed a mammoth three-set quarterfinal win well past midnight on Friday.
Set to rise from No 15 to nine in the world, Garcia sank to her knees when she finally sealed victory in the second-set tie break.
“I was like, seriously, this really happened?” Garcia said after the match.
“It was such an amazing two weeks, it went so fast.
“To play every single day, it was just after every match you had to forget about what happened and be on the present again.”
With rain teeming down outside ahead of what turned out to be a cracker, a leak in the Diamond Court stadium roof had threatened to dampen proceedings.
But that was soon fixed and there was little between the two players until Garcia broke Halep in the 10th game to grab the first set.
Halep had the superior mobility but the strapped-leg French player was making the better shots.
The second set was even more competitive and the attritional seventh game turned out to be a turning point.
Garcia was 0-40 down on her own serve until dragging it to 40-40 and then saving half a dozen break points before somehow winning the game to go 4-3 up.
The two raced into the tie break, but Garcia had the momentum and held her nerve to make it a Wuhan-Beijing double.
Despite her disappointment, Halep – thanks to reaching the final – will officially become world No 1 for the first time when the latest rankings are out this week.
At the Japan Open, Belgium’s David Goffin beat Adrian Mannarino of France in straight sets to win the title yesterday, his second victory in consecutive weeks.
Fourth seed Goffin prevailed 6-3 7-5 in one hour and 24 minutes against the unseeded Mannarino in the final at the Ariake Coliseum, capturing his fourth title.
It was Goffin’s second straight final at the Japan Open, after he went down last year to Kyrgios, who lost to Nadal in China.
Mannarino, who beat Croatian top seed Marin Cilic in the semifinals, temporarily took the initiative in the second set after being overmatched in the first.
But Goffin, 26, persistently closed up and eventually went past the Frenchman after breaking at 5-5.
“It wasn’t easy,” Goffin said afterwards.
“The final is always tough, to manage the emotions before and during the match,” he said – according to the ATP World Tour.
“At the end I started to be a little more aggressive on the return of serve, and I was pleased to come back and break him at 5-5.”
Goffin also won last week, at the Shenzhen Open.
Mannarino said: “I got the break in the second set but couldn’t hold my serve.
“The quality of the game was really good – but I was not good enough compared to him,” he said.
“I have had a pretty good season, definitely my best so far.”
The Japan Open has been played since 1972.
Previous winners include a roll-call of the game’s greats – including Ken Rosewall, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Nadal.