Rafael Nadal beats Fognini to reach final of China Open

BEIJING: Rafael Nadal reached his first hard-court final in more than a year on Saturday, beating Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-3 in the China Open semifinals.

The third-seeded Nadal's previous hard-court final was at the Sony Open in Miami in March 2014. The Spaniard last won a hard-court tournament two months before that in Doha, Qatar.

Each player dropped serve twice in the opening set before Nadal got another decisive break when Fognini served at 6-5 down.

The Italian had beaten Nadal three times this year, including in the third round of the U.S. Open.