Novak Djokovic overcame Rafael Nadal of Spain in straight sets yesterday to win the China Open for the fourth time in five years.
The Serb was at his ruthless best to defeat Nadal 6-3, 6-4, a day before he is set to be unseated at the top of the world rankings by the No. 2 Spaniard.
The result was Nadal’s first hardcourt loss of the season.
The second seed in Beijing only showed rare glimpses of the form that has seen him win 10 titles this year, with Djokovic racing to a 3-0 lead in the first ten minutes.
Top seed Djokovic then powered ahead, showing formidable power-hitting to take the first set 25 minutes later.
The pair displayed incredible movement in the opening game of the second set, engaging in quickfire net-play, much to the delight of the crowd.
Nadal came out on top of that duel, winning the point, but Djokovic took the game to break serve.
Djokovic then kept his nerve, holding serve until the conclusion of the match after one hour and 27 minutes.
The victory will be a sweet for Djokovic, who is spending his 101st week at No. 1, and will have his current streak of 48 weeks ended today when the ATP announce its new rankings with Nadal at the top.
The Spaniard only needed to make the final to unseat him.
After the match, Djokovic congratulated the Spaniard on his achievement.
“I have to say congratulations to Rafael because he deserves definitely to be No. 1 of the world this year with the season that he has had,” he said in an interview on court.
“He is the best player so far in 2013, there is no question about it,” Djokovic said.
“I am just very happy to be able to continue to play well and hopefully I can maintain the rhythm,” he said.
Djokovic has been in dominating form at the China Open, where he has an unbeaten run stretching back to 2009. He did not attend in 2011.
However, Nadal has had the beating of Djokovic this season, coming out on top in the semi-finals at Roland Garros and in last month’s final at the US Open, as well as the Canada Masters.
In the women’s tournament, Serena Williams won her 10th title of the year with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory over world No. 11 Jelena Jankovic.
The Serb only briefly threatened her opponent, breaking Williams’ serve in the third game of the second set.
However, any hope she had was quickly extinguished by the top seed in Beijing, who won the set’s remaining games.
The 32-year-old US power hitter has already secured the year-end world No. 1 ranking, and last month became the first woman to surpass US$9 million in prize money in a single season.
Williams last claimed the China Open in 2004, while Jankovic won the tournament in 2008.
SHANGHAI MASTERS
AFP, SHANGHAI
Germany’s Florian Mayer enjoyed a comfortable win against Chinese wild-card Wu Di on the opening day of the Shanghai Masters yesterday, while Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq also progressed to the second round.
World No. 41 Mayer broke his 22-year-old opponent — ranked more than 200 places below him — twice in the first set at the Qizhong stadium. Another break early in the second set proved decisive as he eased to a 6-3, 6-3 victory in 68 minutes.
Berlocq, ranked 45th, recovered from losing the first set to beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
The Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol earlier became the first player to make it to the second round, fighting back from a second-set slump to beat Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic has a first-round bye along with the other top eight seeds including Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Roger Federer.
Fifth seed Federer, desperate for points as he tries to reach the season-ending World Tour Finals in London, faces the daunting prospect of a quarterfinal with Djokovic. He must first get past either former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt or Italy’s Andreas Seppi.
“It’s a difficult first match for me. It would be great to play Lleyton,” Federer said. “We go back a long way and I remember playing him in Shanghai when the first Masters Cup was here, he beat me in the semifinals and went on to win the tournament. We have had some amazing matches. Even if I play Seppi, that will also be tough.”
Djokovic will meet Davis Cup teammate Janko Tipsarevic or Spain’s Marcel Granollers in his opener, while second seed Nadal will expect to meet Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
Colombia’s Alejandro Falla defeated Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-4, 6-3 in the qualifying tournament yesterday.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set