Top seed Novak Djokovic brushed aside no.3 seed David Goffin with very little fuss on Saturday, beating the Belgian in straight sets to reach the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships final on his tournament debut.
The world no.1 completed a 6-3, 6-4 victory in 90 minutes and will be hot favourite to win the title for the first time.
Novak moved into his 110th career ATP final with a yet another command performance. The Serb was in cruise control from the start. He made a break in each set and saved all four break points he faced during the eighth career encounter with the Belgian (7-1 H2H mark).
Djokovic won 10 of 12 points at net and a remarkable 87% of points on first serve.
Match statistics: aces (7-7), double faults (0-1), winners (24-23), unforced errors (18-19), total points won (68-56).
Novak faces qualifier John Millman in Sunday’s Tokyo final (2-0 H2H record), after the Australian overpowered USA’s Reilly Opelka 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Photo: Profimedia
