Djokovic Continues Hot Streak, Wins Beijing

Novak Djokovic, the #2 seed in Beijing, defeated eighth-seed Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-6(4) to win the China Open in Beijing to win his third title of 2009 (though it's tough to say that his Djokovic Open title in Belgrade should count).

A rain delay in the first set helped Cilic find his way back into the match, a match which he should have been able to extend to a third set.  Cilic served for the second set at 5-4 and again at 6-5, broken twice by Djokovic due to lose Cilic errors and a couple costly double faults.

While he didn't have to beat any top five opponents on his way to this title, this is a real nice title for Djokovic.  Starting around Cincinnati, Djokovic has had an incredible turnaround int he second half of this season.  He's won fourteen of his last sixteen matches, with the only two losses coming to Roger Federer in the finals of Cincinnati and semifinals of the US Open.

Djokovic is certainly trending up, reclaiming the #3 ranking from Andy Murray this week, and could even take Rafael Nadal's spot at #2 before all is said and done this year.  For a guy who had been generally considered to be in decline for most of this year, that's a pretty incredible possibility.