Djokovic to meet Raonic in Paris final
Top-seed eases past Japan’s Nishikori in the semi-final; Raonic reaches his second Masters final after beating Berdych.
World number one Novak Djokovic took a further step towards becoming the first player to retain his Paris Masters title when he saw off Japanese sixth-seed Kei Nishikori 6-2 6-3 to set up a final with Milos Raonic.
Canadian seventh-seed Raonic earlier qualified for Sunday’s showpiece match, his second at Masters level, by downing Czech fifth seed Tomas Berdych 6-3 3-6 7-5.
Serbian Djokovic, who is on a 26-match winning streak indoors, was never threatened by Nishikori, who beat him at the US Open but lacked energy after battling for almost three hours until late with David Ferrer in the last-eight on Friday.
Djokovic extended his advantage over Roger Federer in the battle for the year-end number one spot to 910 points.
Meanwhile, the big-serving Raonic, runner-up at the Montreal Masters last year, followed up his quarter-final defeat of second seed Federer by beating Berdych, the 2005 Paris champion.
“I just totally messed it up with the last game,” said Berdych. It was definitely the worst game I ever played here in this tournament this year.”