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Novak Djokovic improved his tournament finals record for 2009 to 3 from 7 by capturing the China Open 2009 title with a hard fought win over Marin Cilic of Croatia. The scoreline of 6-2, 7-6 (4) tends to indicate a routine outing for the Serbian no.1, but the match was anything but.

Cilic, playing his first tournament since a quarter-final run in the US Open where he lost to eventual champion Juan Martin del Potro, came out all guns blazing and created five break opportunities against the Djokovic serve in Novak's opening two service games. The new world no.3 hung in by the skin of his teeth, saving all those chances and amazingly headed into a 90 minute rain delay lo cked at 2-2, 40-40 despite being comprehensively outplayed at this stage.

The two players that came out after the rain delay looked completely different. Djokovic had calmed down and maybe put some of those 'final' nerves behind him. After holding serve for 3-2, he took his chances on the Cilic serve to break twice, and wrap up the opening set 6-2.

Cilic soon put the disappointment of losing the first set behind him and broke Djokovic thrice in the second set only for the Serb to break back on each occasion. Amazingly the young Croat served for the set twice, but was denied by Djokovic who raised his game each time it was necessary and won 12 of 17 points on Cilic's second serve.

The set finally headed into a tiebreak which Djokovic nicked 7-4 to record an important win, his first tournament triumph since the Serbian Open back home in May, and his second in China having won the Masters Cup in Shanghai last year. The result also means that Djokovic replaces Britain's Andy Murray as the new world no.3 when the new rankings are released on Monday.

In the ladies singles final French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova proved too good for 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska coasting to a 6-2, 6-4 win in just 79 minutes.

Radwanska landed an immaculate 75% of first serves in the opening set, but there just wasn't enough bite on her serve as she was broken thrice. The second set started in identical fashion to the first with Kuznetsova breaking the Radwanska serve in the opening game to take an early break. The young Pole created four opportunities to break back, but was denied by the determined Russian.

Kuznetsova served out the match in the 10th game to record her third tournament win of the year and her first since Roland Garros. She also picked up a cheque for a cool $750,000, incidentally $250,000 more than what Djokovic got for winning the men's title!

The loss dents Agnieszka perfect 4-0 record in finals this year, but does return her to the top 10 in the women's rankings, very well deserved for the 20-year old in what has been a breakthrough year.

Final Scores:
Men's Singles - Final
[2] Novak Djokovic (SRB) d [8] Marin Cilic (CRO) 62 76(4)

Women's Singles - Final
[6] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d [12] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 62 64

File Photograph Copyright: Constantini (Italian Open)