DPA/Beijing


Untouchable Novak Djokovic stayed on the fast track at the China Open yesterday, winning his 28th consecutive match at the event to set up a high-octane final with longtime rlval Rafael Nadal.
The first and third seeds will be playing for the 45th time in a nine-year series after Djokovic crushed fourth seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3 for his 16th win in 21 matches against the scrambling Spaniard.
But the ATP number one didn’t have it all his own way, dropping serve as he tried to close out the victory. Ferrer pulled to 3-5 in the second set before eventually losing serve moments later in a break-back by Djokovic which ended the evening after 74 minutes.
Djokovic lost his first two service games of the week, but broke Ferrer six times.
A resurgent Nadal beat Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-3 after losing three of four previous meetings with the Italian this season.
A month ago, Fognini inflicted one of the biggest losses on 2015 on Nadal, beating the Spaniard from two sets to love down in the third round of the US Open.
Nadal did himself a favour with his win in China, moving up to provisional sixth in the points race for the World Tour Finals in London November 15-22.
Nadal leads Djokovic by a narrow 23-21 margin, with the Serb standing 3-2 in the series over the past 18 months.
Djokovic has never lost a match in Beijing as he seeks his sixth title in the capital. He already owns seven trophies this season, including three of the four grand slams.
Djokovic enters the final with quiet confidence after another superlative week.
“You can always improve. It just depends from your character or your approach to tennis and generally to everyday commitments,” he said.
“I thought I should always try to improve in every possible occasion.
Every time I’m on the court I see things I can be better on.
“That’s one of the reasons that I keep on getting that motivation to move on.”
Nadal was playing his first hard court semi-final since Miami 2014 as he faced Fognini, who had lost all seven of his hard court matches prior to the US Open.
“I’m happy to be in the final obviously,” said Nadal. “It’s a good result for me, very positive one. And tomorrow is a match to enjoy.
“This gives me a lot of important points for the (season) finals. I don’t say that I am qualified, but with that result I am much closer to being qualified for the World Tour Finals.”
Swiss Timea Bacsinszky produced a surprise in the WTA draw, beating sixth seed Ana Ivanovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the final as well as claim a first-ever top 10 ranking.
The 12th-ranked who broke through with a Roland Garros semi-final, won 16 of the last 17 points of the match and will Sunday play for the biggest title of her career against Spain’s Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza, who defeated fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I just tried to focus on my game plan and not look further - I was only thinking about the next ball, the next point, not what was going to happen after that,” said Bacsinszky, who began the season ranked 47th and stood 237 only 12 months prior to that.
The Lausanne player will become the fourth Swiss to crack the WTA top 10 Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere (number three), Martina Hingis (number one) and Patty Schnyder (number seven).
She also stayed in the chase for Singapore while knocking Ivanivic out of the race.
Muguruza beat Radwanska for the fourth time in a row, with the Spaniard losing a 4-2 lead to drop the opening set before turning the tables in the three-set comeback as she won 11 of the next 15 games.
“I’m extremely happy to be in the final. I’m really going to try and get the trophy,” said the 22-year-old Spaniard, who will move to fourth in the rankings.
Muguruza has beaten Bacsinszky twice this year in grand slams.