Beijing – Men:

The Beijing final marked the fifth time this season that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have faced one another.  Nadal had won their last three encounters, with the most recent coming in the US Open final.  Djokovic had to stop the bleeding, and he delivered in style with his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nadal.

The Djokovic who showed up on Sunday was a different man from the version whom we saw in New York.  He played brilliantly off both wings, cutting down the unforced errors that had plagued him throughout the summer.  His return was so devastating that Nadal only managed to win 33% of his second serve points.  But most impressive was Djokovic’s serving.  He won 90% of his first serve points and never faced a break point.  Maybe Djokovic wanted a little revenge on Nadal.  Maybe he wanted to keep his record at the China Open unblemished.  Or maybe he just wanted to remind everyone of how he got to No. 1 before he slips to No. 2 on Monday.  Whatever the motivating factors, it was a vintage performance from the Serb and a title well deserved.

But do not feel too bad for Nadal.  He lost his first hard-court match of 2013, but it was only his fourth overall loss of the year.  He also managed to reach yet another final, continuing to build upon his miraculous comeback.  And, most importantly, he does leave Beijing knowing that he will be the new No. 1 on Monday.     

Beijing – Women:

When fans last saw Serena Williams, she had just won a dramatic three-set match over Victoria Azarenka in the US Open final to secure her 17th  major singles title.  She picked up where she left off this week in Beijing, demolishing the competition en route to collecting her 10th title of the season with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jelena Jankovic.

Williams never did face anyone that could match her power, but she did come up against some potentially tricky opposition in the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Jankovic.  The consistency, court craft, and guile of such players left Williams undeterred, however, despite a lower back injury that dulled her normally lethal serve.  But she compensated for that issue with her return and ground games.  In the final, she capitalized on five of 10 break points and kept Jankovic below 50% points won on both first and second serves.  In short, it was just another routine week at the office for Williams.

Jankovic, who had to take a medical timeout for a right hip injury, is undoubtedly disappointed in her 2-6, 2-6 losing effort to Williams, but there are plenty of positives to take away, too.  She earned some noteworthy results this week as well, including a semifinal victory over last week’s Tokyo winner, Petra Kvitova.  She also made yet another deep tournament run to continue her resurgence and climb back up the rankings.

Tokyo:

The Tokyo final between Juan Martin Del Potro and Milos Raonic promised a good match between two men desperately seeking a win.  Del Potro needed to quickly rebound from his disappointing second-round loss to Lleyton Hewitt at the US Open.  Raonic wanted to build upon the success he had enjoyed after winning last week in Bangkok.  In the end, the drive for redemption from Del Potro won out over Raonic 7-6(5), 7-5.

The “Tower of Tandil” had a rockier road to the final than his Canadian opponent.  He had to come from a set down in his opening match against Marcos Baghdatis and later against Dolgopolov.  He further had to prove his grit by gutting out two tiebreaks against Nicolas Almagro in the semifinal before halting Raonic in a tightly contested final.  For his troubles, he earned his third title of 2013, but more importantly, it got him back on track heading into the last month of the season, where his powerful game should soar.

As for Raonic, he should take solace that he was able to back up last week’s performance in Bangkok so well in Tokyo.  He has been touted as “one to watch” for the last couple of years now, so it is nice to see him finally start to exhibit his potential and produce the kind of results that so many have expected of him.