This is Noel Alberto, signing off. Thank you for joining us for our coverage of the first semi-final today in Beijing.
The Spaniard soars into the China Open final with a straight sets win. Overall it was a good performance from Nadal, who was moving well, serving well, and had more spark in his performance than his previous match, where he took a while to get going. He'll play either Djokovic or Ferrer in the final, which is his first hard-court final since the 2014 Miami Open.
Game, set and match Rafael Nadal! 7-5 6-3
Adv Nadal: The Italian makes the error.
Deuce. Fognini makes an incredible passing shot.
Adv Nadal: error from the Italian.
Deuce. Beautiful cross court forehand from Nadal.
Break point Fognini: backhand clips the baseline.
30-30: Forehand into the net.
30-15: Ace.
15-15: Good placement from the Spaniard.
0-15: Nadal's forehand is long.
Game Fognini, he claws himself out of a very tight game. Nadal will serve for the match 5-3.
Adv Fognini: Nice serve and deep hitting.
Deuce: Forehand drifted long for the Italian.
Adv Fognini: Ace.
Deuce: Unlucky netcord for Fognini.
Adv Fognini: Another good smash from the Italian.
Nadal's shot JUST clipped the line. Deuce.
Adv Fognini: Heavy serve.
Deuce: Fognini saves it again, with some deep hitting on Rafa's backhand side.
Adv Nadal and match point once more as another error comes off the Italian's racket.
Deuce: He saves it with a cross court smash.
30-40: Unforced error from Fognini gives the Spaniard match point!
30-30: Nice approach to the net from the Italian.
15-30: Fognini dumps another forehand into the net.
15-15: Lucky netcord for the Spaniard.
Game Nadal 5-2. With a forehand down the line winner, the Spaniard closes out the game and puts himself just one game away from another Beijing final.
40-0: Fantastic firing few points from the former world number one. Nadal has a quick touch at the net.
Break and game Nadal! The Spaniard leads 4-2 after a sloppy game from Fognini.
Adv Nadal: The Italian's forehand down the line attempt is out once more.
Deuce: Fognini saves it with some deep hitting strokes.
40-30: Fognini dumps a forehand into the net. Break point for Nadal.
30-30: Forehand down the line attempt was out.
30-15: Cross court forehand winner.
15-15: Nice forehand down the line followed by a smash to level the score in Fognini's service game.
0-15: Unforced error from the Italian.
Apologies for the technical difficulties. Nadal leads by a set (7-5) and 3-2 in the second.
15-30: Fognini sends a forehand long. Could be danger time here.
0-15: Nadal sends it out.
0-0: Brilliant reaction from Fognini to return that netcord volley for a winner.
40-15: A backhand long from Fognini gives Nadal the hold.
30-15: Another error from the Italian.
15-15: The Italian sends a backhand long.
0-15: Fognini takes the point.
0-0: Nadal nets one.
Due to technical difficulties, we have returned. Nadal takes opening set 7-5 and wil serve to begin the second.
40-Ad: Nadal double faults and Fognini breaks to get it back on serve.
40-40: Nadal drops the point.
40-30: The three seed just sends his forehand wide going for the winner to take the game.
30-30: Fognini drops the point as Nadal now has game point.
15-30: Fognini took his chance and went for the winner with Nadal on his backhand side but sends it wide.
0-30: Nadal gets Fognini to move a bit, and the Italian frames one and sends it wide.
0-15: Nadal thought he had a cross-court forehand winner, but Fognini sent it down the line for a winner. Shot of the tournament so far!
0-0: Nadal sends a forehand long
40-Ad: Fognini fires wide on his backhand. Break for the Spaniard who now leads 3-1.
40-40: Nadal really finding his range with his backhand. Another break chance here.
40-Ad: Fognini finishes off a Nadal lob with an overhead.
40-40: Error from the Italian.
Ad-40: After replaying the point, Nadal uses his groundstrokes to keep his opponent off-balance and forces him to net one.
Ad-40: Fognini challenging another call that didn't go his way, but is right this time.
40-40: Nadal now sends one of his shots long.
40-30: Fognini challenges the call of his forehand being long but it's confirmed long.
30-30: Nadal sends a backhand wide.
15-30: Delightful drop shot by Fognini gets him level.
15-15: Poor backhand from the Italian as it finds the net.
0-15: Nadal nets one.
0-0: Big cut on the backhand from the Spaniard to force another netted ball from the Italian.
Ad-40: The Italian nets a backhand return. First hold of the match to Nadal who leads 2-1.
40-40: A big serve by Nadal standards gets him another game point.
Ad-40: Fantastic return by Fognini off the serve to force Nadal into a defensive position and gets it back to deuce.
40-40: Delightful backhand smash from Nadal gives him another game point.
40-30: Great penetration by the Italian forcing Nadal on the backfoot as he nets one.
30-30: Nice change of direction on serve for the third-seeded Spaniard. Game point.
30-15: Fognini moves Nadal all over and nearly finishes off with an overhead which the Spaniard gets to but just sends it long.
30-0: A ill-advised backhand slice there by Nadal as he sent it wide.
15-0: Another strong serve as the Spaniard is beginning to find his first serves as Fognini nets it once again.
0-0: Fognini nets a backhand.
15-40: Nadal finishes off a breathtaking 20-shot rally with a forehand winner cross-court to break back. 1-all.
15-30: The Italian sends another forehand wide. Two break back points for Nadal.
15-15: Nadal pushing Fognini a bit there and making him move. Mini-opening here as the Italian sent a forehand wide.
15-0: Fognini nets one.
0-0: Nadal is unable to return the Fognini serve.
40-Ad: Nadal overcooks a forehand, and the choice to return serve first has paid off for the Italian as he opens up with a break!
40-40: Nadal nets a backhand after the longest rally of the match. Break point once again.
30-40: Fognini's return off Nadal's serve goes long.
30-30: A double from Nadal gives the Italian a break opportunity.
30-15: A net cord from Fognini was knifed by Nadal but a great lob by the Italian gets it to 30-all.
30-0: Nadal finally finds a first serve but sends a backhand long.
15-0: Another second serve for the Spaniard but a strong backhand forces the Italian to net one.
0-0: Nadal has a second serve, but Fognini's return goes wide.
We are underway.
Warmups are nearly done and they are almost underway.
Fognini has won the toss and has elected to receive. Nadal will serve first.
A spot in the final is on the line between these two against the winner of the second semifinal, which will be played at 730 AM, between Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer.
If there’s anything you should expect in this match, it’s going to be that you’ll see Fognini get sporadic at times while Nadal fails to land the devastating blow. This match has three sets written all over it being that Nadal’s level of play isn’t still up to par of what it was the last three to four years while Fognini’s level of play seems to alleviate from set-to-set. The player who finds their rhythm early in the third set will take it, and I think Fognini pulls off yet another upset and books his spot into the China Open final.
Just like throughout his whole career, we’ve seen glimpses of the good, the bad, and the ugly of Fognini, and this tournament was no different. After absolutely destroying Martin Klizan in his opener, the Italian ran into a bit of trouble when facing Belgian superstar David Goffin. After taking the opening set 6-2, the Belgian flipped the script and took the following set 2-6. Fognini once again turned on the green light though to take the final set 6-2. In his quarterfinal match, he met Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. Cuevas, usually a clay-court specialist, found himself into the quarters after upsetting second-seeded Tomas Berdych and newly-crowned ace king Ivo Karlovic. Like his previous match, the Italian flew out to a quick start, 6-1 this time, however, his play dramatically slipped once again as he dropped the second 2-6 for a second consecutive match. Despite that, he found his way around once again to take the final set 6-2 to set up this masterful showdown. Fognini’s set wins this week are: 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. His set losses this week are: 2-6, 2-6. That just shows you when Fognini is on, he’s on and when he’s off… well you get the picture.
Nadal’s road to the semifinal wasn’t the most straightforward. He ran into some trouble in his opening round match against Chinese wildcard Di Wu. Wu often gave Nadal fits breaking his serve a few times and playing some phenomenal defense on points where it looked like the former China Open finalist had the point won. He came up against Canadian Vasek Pospisil next. The Canadian had the weapons, big serve and forehand, to really trouble the Spaniard on these faster courts, but as always, Nadal stood firm on his ground to take the match 7-6, 6-4. His last match was against American Jack Sock. They only had one previous meeting at this year’s French Open where the American shockingly took a set off the “King of Clay”. This one nearly went Sock’s way as his aggressive tennis paid off in the opening set as he landed the first devastating blow to Nadal taking the first set 6-4. However, the Spanish number two regained control and kept his composure in the key moments to take the final two sets to book his spot in the semifinals.
This wasn’t their only match that came with a bit of spice to it. Back in Hamburg, where Nadal only entered because of his early exit at the All England Club, Fognini and Nadal exchanged words during a changeover where the Italian looked to be irritated over something Nadal was doing. Back in their first match in Rio, Nadal had trouble with chair umpire Carlos Bernardes over giving him time warnings at the most inopportune times. After that, Nadal had requested that Bernardes not work his matches anymore.
The last of their four encounters this year was at the US Open. Nadal closed out the first two sets without a problem. After that though, it all changed. Fognini, who looked dead and gone, all of a sudden ramped up the pressure on the world number eight. The Italian came roaring back to take the third and fourth set. The fifth set was absolutely dramatic. Breaks of serve were happening left and right. As soon as it looked like one man had control of the set, the other would break right back. It was a matter of who could hold serve first. It was Nadal who cracked in the end as he crashed out in the third round of US Open, giving him back-to-back early exits to end his season (lost in the second round of Wimbledon to Dustin Brown).
This will be the fifth meeting between Nadal and Fognini this year, and it is set to be another thriller. They previously met in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, Hamburg, and at the US Open. Fognini leads this year’s head-to-head 3-1, but Nadal leads the current head-to-head 5-3. The enigmatic Italian has closed the gap against the Spaniard with his fantastic play against him, but he has not managed to really follow that up in the following matches.
Hello everyone and welcome to live coverage of Rafael Nadal - Fabio Fognini at the semifinal of the China Open. This is Noel Alberto, and I will be bringing you live coverage and commentary of this first semifinal in Beijing. The match is set to begin at 1230 AM EDT at the National Tennis Stadium in the National Tennis Center. Stay tuned for a preview to the match as well as live commentary and updates during the match.