Djokovic reaches final

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic reached his fifth China Open final and improved his spotless record at the tournament to 23-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Andy Murray on Saturday in Beijing. In the women’s draw, Maria Sharapova overcame eight double-faults, including four as she served for the match, to defeat Ana Ivanovic 6-0, 6-4. She will take on Petra Kvitova in the final after the Czech player beat Samantha Stosur 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. It was Djokovic’s third victory over Murray this year and came just weeks after the Serb knocked him out of the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in a hard-fought, 3½-hour match. Djokovic will play the winner of the other semifinal between third-seeded Tomas Berdych and qualifier Martin Klizan, who upset Rafael Nadal on Friday. On the women’s side, Sharapova needed four match points — and a little luck — to close out her victory over Ivanovic. With Sharapova serving for the match at 5-4, the two played a nerve-wracking, 10-minute game featuring four double-faults and several wasted match and break points. Ivanovic finally thought she got the break on her fourth chance when Sharapova’s backhand went wide, but the Russian challenged the call and the ball was shown to have caught the line by a fraction.

Fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori advanced to the final of the Japan Open with a 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) victory over unseeded Benjamin Becker of Germany on Saturday in Tokyo. Nishikori will play third-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada in today’s final. Raonic downed unseeded Gilles Simon of France 6-1, 6-4 in the first semifinal in 1 hour and 11 minutes. Nishikori has been dealing with a lower-back injury the past few days. He started slowly against Becker and appeared to have trouble with his mobility, before turning it on in the second set. Nishikori has a 3-1 record against Raonic, including a victory in the final here in 2012. Nishikori also beat Raonic in five sets in the fourth round at this year’s U.S. Open en route to the final. The Japanese will be vying for his second consecutive title and fourth of the season, having already won in Memphis, Barcelona and Kuala Lumpur. Raonic, ranked eighth, will be appearing in the final here for the third consecutive year. He was beaten by Juan Del Potro of Argentina last year.