Novak Djokovic brushed aside Florian Mayer in the China Open Saturday to set up a final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka made it to the last two of the women's event. The world number two from Serbia furthered his aim of finishing the year top of the ATP rankings with a simple straight-sets victory, maintaining his unbeaten record at the Beijing tournament that stretches back three years.
Top-seed Djokovic defeated the 29th-ranked Mayer of Germany 6-1, 6-4 with the help of seven aces. The 25-year-old, second to Roger Federer in the rankings, has won the China Open on the two occasions he has entered - in 2009 and 2010 - and will aim to make it three out of three on Sunday.
"There are no secrets between us," Djokovic said of Tsonga. Djokovic leads Tsonga 7-5 in head-to-heads, and has won all three of their meetings this year. "We have played a lot of important matches on the big stage. He's a very powerful player, big serve, big forehand, and if that works, he can win against anybody on any surface," he added. Tsonga marched into the final when Spain's Feliciano Lopez retired during the second set of their match.
The world number seven thrashed Lopez 6-1 in the first set and was 4-1 up in the second when the left-handed Spaniard called it a day, citing an injury to his left wrist. "I played really well and I felt really good on the court," Tsonga said. "I didn't know before he was a bit injured. I'm just happy today with my game." The Frenchman has enjoyed an easy progression to the final of the Beijing tournament since needing three sets to overcome Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in the first round.
In the women's draw, Sharapova overcame home favourite Li Na in straight sets. The 25-year-old Russian defeated Li, Asia's only Grand Slam winner, 6-4, 6-0, to reach the final for the first time in five attempts, but it took the French Open champion a while to break into her stride.
World number one Azarenka from Belarus beat ninth seed Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2. "I felt the first set was really close and could have gone either way," Bartoli said. "Vika (Azarenka) is probably the best returner in the game and it's not like I was serving badly. She was breaking me because she was returning too well and that's why I couldn't win the points," the world number 10 added.
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