BEIJING — Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams sailed through to convincing victories in the China Open Sunday. Djokovic overcame Spain's Rafael Nadal in straight sets and maintain a remarkable 100 percent record in the Beijing tournament, while Williams claimed a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Serbia's Jelena Jankovic as her dominant season continues. Djokovic, who has won the event the four times he has entered, 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 Spaniard. It was Nadal's first hard court loss of the season. The second seed in Beijing showed only rare glimpses of the form that has seen him win 10 titles this year. The victory was a consolation for Djokovic, who is spending his 101st week at number one. But his current streak of 48 weeks will end Monday when the ATP announces its new rankings with Nadal at the top. The Spaniard only needed to make the final to unseat him. Del Potro downs Raonic Top seed Juan Martin del Potro survived some fierce body blows from Milos Raonic in Sunday's Japan Open final, winning a heavyweight clash 7-6, 7-5 to take his third title of the year. Third seed Raonic, also runner-up last year, had proved an irresistible force at the $1.43 million Tokyo event, not dropping a single set and firing a tournament-high 64 aces before running into an immovable object in the shape of del Potro. Another 17 failed to get the job done against the giant Argentinian. Del Potro, beaten in the 2008 final by Tomas Berdych, clinched victory with a whipped forehand pass and celebrated with an ear-splitting roar of delight after a hard-hitting contest lasting an hour and 46 minutes. “This is a fantastic win for me,” del Potro told reporters, flanked by the silver trophy engraved with some of greatest names in tennis. “Milos serves aces all the time. You have to try to stay patient and not get frustrated. I waited really patiently for my chance in the last two games. You have to be more aggressive with players like Milos.” “Against Milos sometimes you have to just hang on for a tiebreak,” said the champion, who also won in Rotterdam and Washington this season. “You can't return those serves.” Del Potro, US Open champion in 2009, earned $312,000 and moved up from sixth to fifth in the Race to London standings for the season-ending World Tour Finals. The 25-year-old is also projected to rise from seven to five in the new ATP rankings. Raonic, who won his fifth career title in Bangkok last weekend, climbed from 11th to 10th in the race to play at the prestigious eight-man event from November 4-11. — Agencies
