BEIJING, Oct 6: Having lost his top ranking to Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic showed he can still compete with the Spaniard one-on-one.

A day after Nadal made sure of wresting the No 1 ranking away from Djokovic, the Serb gained some consolation by beating his big rival 6-3, 6-4 victory Sunday to claim his fourth China Open title in five years.

In the women’s final, top-ranked American Serena Williams maintained her dominant form, beating Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-2.

Nadal had to reach the final in the tournament to displace Djokovic from the top ranking and the issue was put to rest on Saturday when Tomas Berdych retired with a back injury in his semi-final against the Spaniard.

“I needed this win today,” Djokovic told reporters. “I really wanted to get my hands on the trophy and win against Nadal, who has been the best player so far in 2013.

“It’s very important for my confidence. It’s very important mentally and emotionally for me.”

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.Top seed Djokovic then powered ahead, showing formidable power-hitting to take the first set 25 minutes later.

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. Djokovic then kept his nerve, holding serve until the end of the match on one hour 27 minutes.

“I didn’t play my best match this afternoon. But he played at a greater level with his serve. I was not able to have any chance when I was returning during the whole match,” the Spaniard said.

“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.”

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.

“I’m really excited. I didn’t think I’d win this tournament starting out, so I’m really happy to be here holding the trophy,” Williams, who complained of a sore back after Saturday’s semi-final, said during the presentation ceremony.

Sunday’s victory also gave the 32-year-old Williams her 56th career title.

DEL POTRO BOOSTS LONDON HOPES WITH JAPAN OPEN TITLE

TOKYO: Top seed Juan Martin del Potro survived some fierce body blows from Canada’s Milos Raonic in the battle of big-servers in Sunday’s Japan Open final, winning a heavyweight clash 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 to claim his third title of the season and boost his chances of qualifying for the end-of-season ATP World Tour finals in London.

The 25-year-old Argentine, a last-minute wild-card entry for injured Andy Murray, got the lone break of the match to go up 6-5 in the second set and then clinched victory with a whipped forehand pass and celebrated with an ear-splitting roar of delight after a hard-hitting contest lasting an hour and 46 minutes.

The win gave del Potro his third title of the year and moved him up to fifth spot in the race to London while Raonic is 10th in the qualification race for next month’s tournament involving the top eight players of the world.

“I played really well in the last two games of the match,” Del Potro said. “I broke his serve and closed out in a fantastic way and hopefully I can keep it going for the rest of the season.”

Third seed Raonic, also runner-up last year, had proved an irresistible force at the $1.43 million Tokyo event, not dropping a single set and firing a tournament-high 64 aces before running into an immovable object in the shape of Del Potro.

Another 17 failed to get the job done against the giant Argentinian.

“There’s not a lot to be down about. Maybe that double-fault in the tiebreak. But in the second set he hit four winners to break me — there’s not much you can do about that,” said the 22-year-old.

“I created opportunities and barring a double fault and a few points I could not have done much better.—Agencies