TOKYO: World No. 1 Rafael Nadal needed two tiebreaks and a last-gasp service break to beat unseeded Viktor Troicki Saturday and claim his place in the Japan Open final against Gael Monfils of France. Troicki served for the match in the third set, but Nadal broke and squeezed by in a tight tiebreak to win 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (7). The Spaniard, who stayed out late to watch a football game after breezing through Friday night's quarterfinal, started off slowly against Troicki, ranked 54th in the world. Both players held their service games, but Nadal turned up the power in the tiebreaker and sealed the first set with an ace. Troicki took the first two games of the second set. Nadal nearly broke back in the sixth game, but the Serb hit back with two aces to widen his lead to 4-2, and held on to force the third set. In the deciding set, Nadal delivered two returns right on the line to break in the eighth game, but had trouble placing his first serves and allowed Troicki to even it up at 5-5, before he again broke Nadal's service to pull ahead. Serving for the match, Troicki double faulted, missed an easy volley and then hit a forehand into the net, sending the set into another tiebreaker. Squandering a lead, Nadal hit three returns long, then saved himself at match point with a cross-court return that caught Troicki flat-footed. After an ace, Nadal took the match with a deep shot that Troicki hit wide. Nadal had never lost a set to Troicki in their three previous matches. Monfils, who defeated Radek Stepanek in straight sets to book his spot in Sunday's final, promised an aggressive match against Nadal. The No. 5 seed, Monfils breezed to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Czech to secure his berth, playing a strong game on the net and firing off six aces, to just two for Stepanek. “I'm very motivated,” he said. “I know it's going to be hard, but if I have a small opportunity I will take it.” Djokovic, Wozniacki in finals In Beijing, defending champion Novak Djokovic reached the final of the China Open Saturday by beating John Isner of the United States 7-6 (1), 6-4. On the women's side, new No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki beat Shahar Peer 7-5, 6-2 to reach the title match. The Dane will play Vera Zvonareva, who powered past Li Na 6-3, 6-3. The top-seeded Djokovic pounded away from the baseline and executed sharply at the net to nail three of 12 breakpoints and drop serve only once against the 2.09-meter Isner (6-foot-9). Djokovic will meet eighth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain, who battled to down Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. “I had a lot of opportunities throughout the whole match and used them when I needed to, so just happy to get through this one,” Djokovic said. Djokovic beat Isner in their only previous encounter, in the Davis Cup in March, but it took the Serb more than 4 hours and six match points. On that occasion, he had a tough time reading Isner's 210kph serve (130mph). But in Beijing, Djokovic felt “more comfortable returning, especially in that second set.” “I definitely knew that the key to today's match was to return well and, yet again, to get him into the longer rallies because that's where my chances were,” said Djokovic. The US Open runner-up is already looking ahead to playing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in next week's Shanghai Masters. Wozniacki converted six of 11 breakpoints to improve to 4-1 against the 18th-ranked Peer, who broke serve three times. The 20-year-old Wozniacki had hurt her knee in her quarterfinal win against Ana Ivanovic Friday. “It felt better today than yesterday,” Wozniacki said. “It's not getting worse, so that's a positive.”
