Novak Djokovic captured his third ATP title of the year at the China Open on Sunday, outlasting giant killer Marin Cilic of Croatia, while Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova breezed to the women's title.
The Serbian second seed capitalised on a 90-minute rain delay at 2-2 in the first set, returning to centre court at the Beijing Olympic tennis venue with renewed focus to win the blistering baseline battle with Cilic, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
The big-hitting Cilic - who beat fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko and top seed Rafael Nadal en route to the final - pummeled Djokovic with a barrage of huge backcourt shots but the Serb successfully mixed up the pace to throw him off.
After holding serve to go up 3-2 in the first, Djokovic broke Cilic straight away and then a second time to take the set, with the 21-year-old Croatian the victim of two unlucky net cords in the final game.
The Serb closed it out on his second match point when the Croatian sent an inside-out forehand sailing wide.
Both players agreed that the light rain shower had influenced the outcome of the match, which lasted nearly two hours.
"I certainly played much better after the rain delay," said Djokovic, who went home with the 500,000-dollar winner's cheque. "I kind of got my nerves together.... I was very fresh on the court after that. Even though it was a straight set win, it wasn't easy at all."
Djokovic, by reaching the final, was assured of taking over the world number three ranking on 19th October, surpassing injured Scot Andy Murray.
He has already qualified for the season-ending championship in London in November.
Both men will head straight to Shanghai for the next leg of the ATP Tour's swing through Asia.
In the women's final, Kuznetsova, the reigning French Open champion, used her powerful ground strokes and extra experience to run Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska around the court, winning 6-2, 6-4.
The win at the 6.6-million-dollar combined ATP/WTA event ensures that Kuznetsova, currently world number six, will move into the top five when the new WTA rankings come out on Monday.
Also on Sunday, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan won the men's doubles final, defeating Andy Roddick and doubles specialist Mark Knowles in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, for their sixth title of the year.
China's Peng Shuai and Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei won the women's doubles title on Saturday, beating Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Makarova, 6-3, 6-1.
