Djokovic and Nadal face off in Beijing final
Paire upsets Nishikori to reach Tokyo decider
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will renew their long rivalry in the China Open final today after both won their semi-finals in straight sets.
The top-ranked Djokovic improved his perfect record at the tournament to 28-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over David Ferrer of Spain, while Nadal defeated Italy’s Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-3.
Nadal leads their head-to-head 23-21, but hasn’t beaten Djokovic since the French Open final last year.
Djokovic dropped his serve for the first time this week, but broke the fourth-seeded Ferrer six times to close out the match in 74 minutes.
He has now won 25 straight sets at the China Open and will be vying for his sixth title in six attempts today.
The third-seeded Nadal reached his first hard-court final in more than a year. The Spaniard’s previous hardcourt final was at the Sony Open in Miami in March 2014 and he last won a hardcourt tournament two months before that in Doha, Qatar.
“For me, [to] be in the final is a great event. Very happy with that result,” Nadal said. “The goal for me is try to find a good level at this end of the season.”
Nadal and Fognini each dropped serve twice in the opening set before the Spaniard got the decisive break to capture the set with Fognini serving at 5-6.
Then, in the sixth game of the second set, Fognini sent a backhand long to give Nadal another break and a 4-2 lead, which the Spaniard did not relinquish.
Fognini had beaten Nadal three times this year, including in the third round of the US Open. He was trying to join Novak Djokovic as the only other player to beat Nadal more than three times in a single season. Djokovic beat Nadal six times in 2011.
In women’s play, Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky defeated Ana Ivanovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the final. With the result, she’s now assured of making the top 10 for the first time in her career.
“I never thought to be able to reach it,” Bacsinszky said. “I’m just super proud. I think I’m not realising it right now, to be honest, because I’m still playing the tournament. There’s a huge match also tomorrow to play.”
Bacsinszky will play Garbine Muguruza in the final after the Spaniard defeated Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Regardless of the outcome, Muguruza will move from No.5 to a new career-high No.4 in the rankings tomorrow. The Wimbledon finalist has beaten Bacsinszky in both of their previous meetings.
In Tokyo, unseeded Benoit Paire of France beat defending champion Kei Nishikori 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 yesterday to advance to the Japan Open final where he faces top seeded Stan Wawrinka.
After breezing through the opener when he broke Paire twice, Nishikori struggled in the second set and failed to convert any of his five break points. Paire won the set with a powerful backhand winner down the line to break the second seed Nishikori, who was bidding for his third Japan Open title.
“I beat myself and that’s why I lost,” Nishikori said. “I made some basic mistakes. If I had been aggressive the way I was in the first set, the result of the match would have been different.”
Paire, who had 11 aces and saved seven of nine break points, raced ahead 4-1 in the third set and secured the win on his first match point when Nishikori hit a lob long.
Paire, who captured his first ATP title at Bastad in July, also beat Nishikori in the US Open first round this year.
French Open winner Wawrinka had eight aces to beat Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).
The Swiss reached his fourth final of the year when Muller angled his backhand volley wide in the tie-break.
In today’s final, Wawrinka will be looking to add to his wins at Chennai, Rotterdam and Roland Garros.