Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached only his second final of the year after upsetting Rafael Nadal 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 at the Shanghai Masters on Saturday.
Nadal had been attempting to reach back-to-back finals following his run last week at the China Open in Beijing, where he eventually lost to Novak Djokovic.
The Spanish star had displayed some of his best tennis of the season this week — beating top-10 players Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka — but he played tentatively at the start against Tsonga, fending off four break points in the first set before the Frenchman finally converted on his fifth.
After Nadal easily won the second, Tsonga broke Nadal again to go up 6-5 in the third and then got to match point with a diving volley that clipped the baseline. He closed it out when Nadal dumped a backhand into the net.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic reached his 13th consecutive ATP Tour final with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Andy Murray.
The top-seeded Djokovic broke Murray five times in the match and committed just seven unforced errors to 30 for the Scot. He has now won nine of his last 10 matches against Murray over the past two years.
Djokovic will be aiming for his ninth title this season. The Serbian star has reached the final in every tournament he has played since the Qatar Open in January when he lost to Ivo Karlovic in quarterfinals.
In doubles, Rohan Bopanna and lukasz Kubot were ousted from Shanghai Masters after losing their semifinal against Marcelo Melo and Raven Klaasen.
The eighth seeded Indo-Polish pair lost 3-6, 7-6(1), 10-7 to the sixth seeded Brazilian-Protea combine in one hour and 34 minutes.
Jankovic beats Venus
HONG KONG: Venus Williams saw her chance of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Finals slip away on Saturday after losing in straight sets to Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, seeded third, was defeated 6-4, 7-5 in a tense encounter which lasted 2 hours, 4 minutes.
The 35-year-old Williams needed to reach the final on Sunday to boost her chances of playing in the lucrative WTA Finals, starting Oct.25 in Singapore. The last time Williams played in the WTA Finals was in 2009 in Doha.
Yuki loses
Tashkent: Yuki Bhambri made an exit from the Tashkent Challenger after losing Friday’s unfinished semifinal 6-4, 3-6, 3-6 against top seed and home favourite Denis Istomin, here on Saturday.
Yuki was leading Denis 6-4 3-4 when rain halted play on Friday and was broken in first game of the day to let Istomin serve out the second set and force a decider. However, the 45 points Yuki earned from the event is expected to break into top-100 when new rankings are issued on Monday. He is ranked 105 now.