World number ones Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams have sailed through to convincing victories in the China Open.
Djokovic on Sunday overcame Spain’s Rafael Nadal in straight sets and maintained a remarkable 100 per cent 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, with his Serbian opponent racing to a 3-0 lead in the first ten minutes.
The pair displayed incredible movement in the opening game of the second set, engaging in quickfire net-play much to the delight of the crowd.
Nadal came out on top of that duel, winning the point, but Djokovic took the game to break serve.
Top seed Djokovic then kept his nerve, holding serve until the end of the match on one hour 27 minutes.
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 on Monday when the ATP announces its new rankings with Nadal at the top.
The Spaniard only needed to make the final to unseat him.
After the match, Djokovic congratulated Nadal on his achievement.
“He is the best player so far in 2013, there is no question about it,” Djokovic said in an interview on court.
“I am just very happy to be able to continue to play well and hopefully I can maintain the rhythm.”
Djokovic was in dominant form at the China Open, where he has an unbeaten run stretching back to 2009. He did not attend in 2011.
Nadal said Djokovic was “too strong” for him in Beijing at the serve.
“He was able to hit all the balls where he wanted to hit them, so when that is happening against a player like Novak you are dead.”
In the women’s tournament, Williams won her tenth title of the year with a convincing victory over world number 11 Jankovic.
The Serb only briefly threatened her opponent, breaking the American’s serve in the third game of the second set.
But any hope she had was quickly extinguished by the top seed in Beijing, who won the set’s remaining games.
The 32-year-old power hitter has already secured the year-end world number one ranking, and last month became the first woman to surpass $9 million in prize money in a single season.
Williams last claimed the China Open in 2004, while Jankovic won the tournament in 2008.