TOKYO — London Olympic gold medalist and US Open champion Andy Murray was sent crashing out of the Japan Open tennis tournament Saturday in a shock semifinal defeat by Milos Raonic of Canada. In the final set the Briton squandered a 4-1 lead and missed two match points in the 12th game before going down 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7) to the 21-year-old Canadian. In the final Sunday, Raonic will play local favorite Kei Nishikori, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 6-2. “I played better in the second and third sets, but I was obviously disappointed not to close the match up. He played better on one or two points,” said Murray, whose match-winning streak since the US Open ended. Raonic, seeking his sixth ATP final, got off to a flying start to break the opening game before adding another break in the ninth to take the set. Neither had a break opportunity in the second set and there were no mini-break in the tie-breaker until Raonic failed to hit a forehand on Murray's set point at 6-5. In the final set, Raonic double-faulted to give a break point to Murray, who fired a sizzling back-handed passing shot down the line to move up to 3-1 and then 4-1, but he went 15-40 down in the seventh game that Raonic cashed in. Raonic again double-faulted twice to give Murray two match points in the 12th game at 30-40 and on Muray's advantage point. The Canadian hit an easy smash winner at the net to save the first and then his strong forehand forced Murray to hit a back-handed shot long. Raonic also missed his match point at 6-3 on a double fault in the tie-breaker, but Murray's forehand shot went long on the following point. Djokovic in final Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat unseeded Florian Mayer of Germany 6-1, 6-4 Saturday to advance to the final of the China Open. The Serb will face France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France who led 6-1, 4-1 when Feliciano Lopez retired with a left wrist injury. In the women's event, top-ranked Victoria Azarenka beat ninth-seeded Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2 to set up a final against Maria Sharapova. Sharapova cruised to a 6-4, 6-0 victory over seventh-seeded Li Na of China in the other semifinal. Djokovic steamrolled past the 29th-ranked Mayer in the first set before securing the necessary break in the seventh game of a much closer second set. He double faulted on his first match point but won when Mayer hit a forehand wide two points later. Djokovic has so far played eight finals this season, winning three of them, including a successful defense of his Australian Open title. He leads Tsonga 7-5 in head-to-heads. Lopez had the trainer on court after the 30th-ranked Spaniard lost the first set. Tsonga is 2-0 in finals this year, winning the Doha and Metz, France titles. — Agencies
