Djokovic thrashes Murray to reach final

Defending champion wins his China Open semi-final in straight sets; Sharapova to take on Kvitova in women’s final.

Djokovic has won 23 matches in the China Open and is yet to lose one [REUTERS]

World number one Novak Djokovic continued his love affair with the China Open, dumping Andy Murray 6-3, 6-4 to storm into his fifth final in Beijing where he has been simply unstoppable.

The 27-year-old Serb took an hour and 37 minutes to down Murray for an impressive 23-0 record in Beijing and meets Czech Tomas Berdych in Sunday’s final.

In the women’s section, French Open champion Maria Sharapova outplayed former number one Ana Ivanovic 6-0, 6-4 to set up a final clash with third seed Petra Kvitova, who overcame Sam Stosur 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Murray, fresh from his first victory in more than a year at last week’s Shenzhen Open, put up more resistance in the second set but could not crack Djokovic’s solid defence and smashed his racket in frustration after being broken in the ninth game.

With his semi-final appearance, Murray has moved up to ninth place in the race to season-ending ATP Finals in London, which will feature the top eight.

Berdych ended Martin Klizan’s golden run, beating him 6-4, 6-1 a day after the Slovak had stunned world number two Rafa Nadal.

In the women section, Kvitova survived some tense moments before taming Stosur to get within a win of being the world number two.

Stosur dropped just four points in six service games to claim the second set and force a decider but Kvitova reeled off five games in a row to close out the match in two hours and 21 minutes.

In contrast, Sharapova needed 89 minutes to overcome Ivanovic who had beaten her in their last two meetings.

Source: Reuters