China Open—Beijing

Second seed Novak Djokovic captured his third title of the season on Sunday, defeating Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-6 (4).

The match took a pivotal momentum shift in the first set, with the scored tied at 2-2, deuce.

Cilic had come out of gates with the same stoic demeanor which saw him easily dispose of Rafael Nadal on Saturday. The Zagreb native held the upper hand throughout the backcourt exchanges, controlling the tempo of his serve and returns games.

Cilic's early form was of concern to Djokovic—who found himself down five break points in first two service games.

However, a rain delay derailed the rhythm of the young Croat, allowing Djokoivc to return to the court refocused.

The Serb began to change the dynamic of the match by drawing Cilic into a finesse battle. Regularly using his backhand drop shot to great effect, Djokoivc coaxed his lanky rival into approaching the net. This tactic was used to short the points, and keep the powerful youngster from unleashing his devastating ground game. 

Djokovic was adamant on not allowing Cilic to dominate proceedings like he did against Nadal. The Spaniard was not prepared to change his tactical approach to the match when he was losing, resulting in utter domination by Cilic.

To Djokovic's credit, he kept the rallies short by bringing his opponent forward, as well as attacking the net on numerous occasions. All in all, limiting Cilic to his preferred baseline bashing. 

Djokovic's serve was adequate on the day, winning 66 percent of his first serve points, and striking two aces. The new world No. 3 broke Cilic's serve on five occasions, none more important that breaking back after the Croatian served twice for the second set at 5-4, and 6-5.

An errant forehand by Cilic on Djokovic's second match point gave the Serb his 14th career title.

Cilic, who was bidding for his third career title, fell to 40-18 on the season, while Djokovic improved his tour leading record to 63-17.

"My patience and the choice of certain shots and a little more experience than he has decided the winner today,” said Djokovic.

“Whenever I needed to step it up and play some big shots that would decide the match, I did.”

Cilic to dropped to 0-4 against Djokovic lifetime, and was somber in his post analysis of the match.

“First time I went out on the court I started pretty good, but when we came back the conditions were a little bit different,” commented Cilic.

“It was a little cooler and Novak started really good and I missed my shot to get back into the game.”

“The things that I didn’t do well decided (the match).”

Djokovic will now head to Shanghai next week where he is the No. 2 seed behind Rafael Nadal. The Serb will face the winner of Fabio Fognini or Ernests Gulbis in round two.

Cilic is also participating in Shanghai, and will take on Tomas Berdych in round one action on Tuesday.

If both men perform up to their seedings, a quarterfinal rematch in Shanghai could take place on Friday. 

 

Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships—Tokyo, Japan

Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga capped off a spectacular week of riveting tennis on Sunday, defeating surprise finalist Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3.

Tsonga recorded his third title of the year in one hour and nine minutes, improving his head-to-head mark over Youzhny to 2-0.

Tsonga continued his seamless transition of stellar form from his semifinal shellacking of countryman Gael Monfils on Saturday. Tsonga's sonic groundstrokes and booming serve were spearheaded by 11 aces and three breaks of serve.

Readily keeping his Russian opponent pinned to the baseline, Tsonga's perfect blend of powerful forehands and rushes to the net allowed the Le Mons native to capture his fifth career ATP World Tour title, and third of the year.

With the win, Tsonga is now on the door step of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour finals. There are three remaining spots in the prestigious year end tournament. The Frenchman currently stands in the seventh position to qualify.

"I am so happy to win another title and this puts me closer to London," said Tsonga.

Tsonga improved his record this season to 48-16, while Youzhny fell to 32-26. 

The Russian was bidding to capture his first title of year, after losing a breath-taking final to Tomas Berdych in Munich. 

"I had some chances at the beginning but then he played too good," reflected Youzhny.

"Maybe I missed a couple of shots but he gave me no chance from 3-3 in the first set."

"I am happy with the week here but it always hurts to lose, it doesn't matter if it's first round or the final," said Youzhny.

Tsonga became the sixth different player this season to capture three or more tour titles on Sunday, and will now head to Shanghai to compete in the inaugural Masters 1000 event.

Fatigue may be a factor for the Frenchman in Shanghai, who will be competing in his third consecutive event. Tsonga will face Chinese wild card Shao-Xuan Zeng in second round action, after No. 396th ranked journeyman upset world No. 44 Dudi Sela, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 in first round action.

Youzhny will not be participating in Shanghai due to his ranking not being inside the top 55 in world when the tournament cut-off was made. Youzhny currently resides as the No. 49 player in the world, previous to his finals showing in Tokyo.

That wraps up yet another week on the ATP World Tour from Beijing, China and Tokyo, Japan. Please check earlier next week for daily coverage from the eighth Masters 1000 event of the season in Shanghai, China. Cheers.