David Goffin reached his second successive final at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 on Saturday, a result which moved the Belgian into the final automatic qualification spot for next month’s Nitto ATP Finals.

Goffin moved up one spot past American Sam Querrey (2,435) to No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Race To London — with 2,540 points — for a spot at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November. Goffin started the week at No. 13 in the year-to-date standings.

Fourth seed Goffin improved to 48-18 on the season with a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) victory over fellow baseliner, eighth-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman, in two hours and three minutes for a place in his fourth ATP World Tour final of the year. Goffin is on an eight-match winning streak, which includes his third trophy last week at the Shenzhen Open (d. Dolgopolov).

He will face top-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic, also vying for a berth in the English capital at No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, or Adrian Mannarino of France in the Tokyo final on Sunday. Last year, Goffin lost to Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the championship match.

At the end of a high-quality first set won by Goffin, dominated by tactical guile and fine groundstroke winners, Schwartzman was left to rue snatching at a forehand destined for down the line and into space at 4-4, with his opponent serving at 0/30. Ultimately, three straight forehand errors by Schwartzman in the tie-break handed Goffin the set.

Goffin broke Schwartzman’s serve in the fifth game of the second set, then recovered from 15/40 in the next game to seize control of the pair’s fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Schwartzman, a 5’6” in height and the possessor of a blistering forehand, continued to battle and was rewarded — in a run of three straight games — with a Goffin forehand error when the Belgian served for the match at 5-4, 15/40.

Goffin took a 4/2 advantage in the tie-break, but soon found himself at 4/5. He dug deep to respond and lead 6/5, but Schwartzman saved the match point and subsequently double-faulted. The match ended when Schwartzman hit a backhand long of the baseline. Goffin has an 8-1 match record at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament.

Schwartzman, 25, was appearing in his second ATP World Tour semi-final of the year. He reached the same stage at Istanbul in May (l. to Cilic) and has a 32-24 match record in 2017.

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If there is one thing you can be certain of Saturday, it is that the China Open semi-finals will not disappoint.

For the first time in the tournament’s history (since 2004), the top three seeds are in the semi-finals in Beijing. It just so happens that those three seeds are three of the top five players in the Emirates ATP Race To London, with World No. 1 Rafael Nadal leading the way. There is no shortage of talent behind him either, with World No. 4 Alexander Zverev, who officially qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals Friday, World No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov and three-time ATP World Tour titlist Nick Kyrgios completing the stunningly talented quartet.

Nadal is the only former champion of the group, having captured the glory in 2005. And while Dimitrov was a finalist last year, Kyrgios and Zverev are appearing in the semi-finals for the first time.

In the first semi-final on National Tennis Stadium, Nadal brings an 8-1 head-to-head record into a clash against Dimitrov, with their last meeting resulting in a five-set thriller at this year’s Australian Open, which the Spaniard won. Dimitrov’s lone win came in the Beijing quarter-finals last year.

Nadal hasn’t lost in any of his eight semi-finals this season and is appearing in his fifth Beijing semi-final (3-1). The 31-year-old Spaniard comes in with a tour-leading 59 wins in 2017 (59-9) and he’s trying to win 60 matches for the ninth time in his career. Nadal is attempting to reach his 110th singles final and win his 75th title.

Dimitrov, who lost to Andy Murray in last year’s final, is 3-2 in semi-final matches this season. He’s trying to capture a fourth ATP World Tour title in 2017, which would put him one behind the tour lead at five (Nadal, Zverev, Roger Federer). The 26-year-old Bulgarian is seeking his eighth title. And if he is to make the final to earn the opportunity to do so, he will have to beat a World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the second time (1-7).

In the next semi-final, two of the bright young stars on the ATP World Tour, 22-year-old Kyrgios and 20-year-old Zverev square off for the fourth time this season. The Aussie has won two of the three meetings, but the German won their last encounter in August at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.

Zverev became the third player to clinch a spot in the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London by virtue of his quarter-final victory over Andrey Rublev. Like Nadal, he has an opportunity to become the tour’s solo leader with six titles should he go all the way in Beijing.

A berth in the final will not come easily against Kyrgios, who has only been broken once in 25 service games this week while also leading the tournament in return games won at a 50 per cent clip (12 of 24). Kyrgios is attempting to claim his first title since last year’s Rakuten Japan Open (d. Goffin).

In doubles play, top-seeded Henri Kontinen and John Peers will face Paolo Lorenzi and Mischa Zverev for the right to play Americans John Isner and Jack Sock in Sunday’s final.

Top-seeded Marin Cilic leads a crop of three seeds into the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships on Saturday, with Frenchman Adrian Mannarino attempting to spoil the party. At the end of the weekend, one member of the semi-final quartet will earn their first Rakuten Japan Open title in Tokyo.

Cilic, Mannarino and No. 8-seeded Diego Schwartzman have shown good form by now dropping a set yet this week. But with an ATP World Tour final on the line, anything can happen.

In the opening match on Colosseum, 2016 finalist David Goffin, the No. 4 seed, brings a 2-1 head-to-head record on hard courts against Schwartzman, who is the first Argentine to reach the Tokyo semi-finals since Juan Martin del Potro won the title in 2013 (d. Raonic). The 26-year-old Belgian comes in on a seven-match winning streak after earning his third career ATP World Tour title in Shenzhen last Sunday.

Schwartzman is making his second semi-final appearance of the season, and his first since Istanbul in May. The Argentinian is trying to advance to his third career ATP World Tour final (1-1), having won his maiden title in Istanbul last year.

The match has plenty of importance for the Emirates ATP Race To London, in which Goffin has moved to No. 11, just 15 points behind Sam Querrey, who holds the final spot due to the seasons of Stan Wawrinka (No. 7) and Novak Djokovic (No. 9) ending prematurely due to injury. 

In the next match on, Cilic looks for his second win against Mannarino, who is appearing in his second semi-final of the season.

Cilic, who won the pair’s only previous meeting in three sets, is making his second straight semi-final appearance in Tokyo. It is the Croat’s first semi-final since July, when he reached the Wimbledon final (l. to Federer). Cilic is trying to reach his 31st career final as he pursues his 18th ATP World Tour title, which would make him the first player from Croatia to earn the trophy.

Mannarino is trying reach his second ATP World Tour final of the season (Antalya in July), which would provide him an opportunity to win his first title.

In the lone doubles semi-final, the Japanese wild card pairing of Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama, the first-time semi-finalists who upset US Open champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, take on the first-time duo of Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Julio Peralta of Chile. No. 2 seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares await the winner in Sunday’s championship match.

Quietly and precisely, #NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson has climbed the Emirates ATP Race To Milan this season.

The 20-year-old right-hander began the season in 17^th place in the Race, which will determine seven of the eight 21-and-under players who compete at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

But this week, after making his second ATP World Tour quarter-final at the Chengdu Open (also 2017 Cincinnati), Donaldson is in sixth place, good enough to qualify for the inaugural event, to be held 7-11 November in Milan, if the Race ended today.

See Who’s Pushing Donaldson In Emirates ATP Race To Milan

“The thing that has allowed me to make the biggest strides is lots of quality matches throughout the entire year. I have had a great deal of exposure to ATP World Tour-level matches, which has allowed me to be not only a better player but a more consistent player,” Donaldson said.

“My serve has become more consistent and allowed me to be more aggressive on my service games. I have also returned well these past few months, which has allowed me to break serve more often and more easily. My game is centered around playing offensive tennis, so the better I serve, the quicker I can go on the offensive on rallies, which allows me to play dictating tennis.”

The American fell short in his bid to reach his first ATP World Tour semi-final, losing to eventual Chengdu champion Denis Istomin. But this season has featured steady and consistent improvement all year for Donaldson, who has averted the traditional path of a young ATP World Tour player in many ways.

As a youth, Donaldson was your prototypical American tennis player: Big serve and big forehand. But his father, Courtney, knew Jared would have to develop more of his game if he wanted to have success outside the indoor courts of Rhode Island, where the family lived.

So 14-year-old Jared Donaldson moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and trained among the likes of current ATP World Tour Argentines Diego Schwartzman, Guido Pella and Horacio Zeballos. The training included a regular fitness session with Schwartzman, who’s had his own breakout season this year, reaching a career-high No. 29 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The experience showed Donaldson what it takes to compete amongst the best in the world. “I was able to see from a really young age how professionals trained, what they did for fitness, recovery, how they trained for tennis,” Donaldson said. “That was the most important thing I took, was how to work really hard at a young age.”

Look at Donaldson’s coaching box for another example of how he’s bypassed the typical path. In the past four years, as some players have cycled through coaches bi-annually, Donaldson has had only two sets of experts by his side.

For three years, Donaldson worked with former American pro Taylor Dent. But in December, Taylor and Phil Dent moved from California, where Donaldson lives, to Texas. So the #NextGenATP star began working with two other former American pros, three-time ATP World Tour titlist Jan-Michael Gambill and former World No. 7 Mardy Fish, who works with Donaldson through the USTA. Donaldson said he has benefited from the continuity.

“The good thing about high-level coaches who have played, they see the game very similar. So it wasn’t like I went from Taylor telling me one thing and now JM and Mardy are telling me something completely different. It’s been a really good transition. I think they’ve added a lot to my game. Incremental tweaks but they mean a lot,” Donaldson said.

In particular, they’ve focused on Donaldson’s positioning on the court, he said. In the past, he tended to be more straight up and down when hitting, rather than lower to the ground so he could place the proper spin on the ball.

Read More: ATP FIrsts with Donaldson

“JM has really pushed me to make good decisions on the court and to get lower, and just continue to work on my serve and my movement and everything. I think he’s been a really good influence. And I think Mardy’s been a really good influence,” Donaldson said.

The American hopes the work pays off with a trip to Milan next month, but the down-to-Earth Donaldson also knows he can control only what he can control.

“I’m just honoured to be part of a group of young players who are playing amazing,” he said. “Whether I make it or whether I don’t, it would be really cool, I would love it… I just have to keep worrying about improving my game and trying to play good tennis. I feel like if I do that, I’m going to make it anyways.”

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares edged a high-quality doubles semi-final on Friday to remain on course at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017. Soares is now one match win away from 400 career victories.

Second seeds Murray and Soares scraped past Dominic Inglot and Daniel Nestor 6-7(3), 6-1, 11-9 in 87 minutes for a place in the Tokyo final.

Murray first served on match point at 9/8 in the Match tie-break, but Inglot poached for a superb backhand volley at close quarters. Two points later, on Murray and Soares’ second match point, Soares struck a crosscourt backhand lob to seal victory.

Murray and Soares move up one spot to No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London, adding 120 points for a total of 4,460 points, as teams battle to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November.

Murray and Soares, the only seeds left in the field, have a 3-2 finals record this year (7-4 overall as a team). They await the winners of Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta versus local wild cards Ben Mclachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama, who play their semi-final on Saturday.

Isner/Sock Advance In Beijing

The unseeded American pairing of John Isner and Jack Sock continued to cause destruction in the China Open doubles draw on Friday. Isner/Sock knocked out Nitto ATP Finals hopefuls Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-6 to make the Beijing semi-finals.

Cabal/Farah had upset second seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the first round and were looking to gain crucial points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. The Colombian team is 12th in the Race; the top eight teams qualify.

Isner/Sock, who won the 2016 Shanghai Rolex Masters together, started the week by ousting fourth seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. In the semi-finals, Isner/Sock will meet either top seeds Henri Kontinen/John Peers or Italian Paolo Lorenzi and Mischa Zverev of Germany.

Twenty-year-old Alexander Zverev is set to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 12-19 November at The O2 in London. A winner of two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles this season, the German joins Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the 2017 field, leaving five places up for grabs with six weeks to go until the season-ending tournament.

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“It’s obviously a great event, playing in The O2 arena is something amazing for any player,” said Zverev, who attended the tournament in 2015 to receive his ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates. “The atmosphere is amazing. I’ll be ready for it. This shows me how well I played all over the season, how consistent I was and I think that’s something every player is very proud of.”

Zverev, who qualified by reaching the semi-finals at the China Open in Beijing, is the youngest player to clinch a berth at the season finale since a 20-year-old Juan Martin del Potro in 2008 and the first German singles qualifier since Rainer Schuettler in 2003.

One year since lifting his first ATP World Tour trophy at the St. Petersburg Open, Zverev has won five in 2017 – tied with Nadal and Federer for the most singles titles this season. With his triumphs on clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Djokovic) and on hard court at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal (d. Federer), he became the first player outside the ATP’s ‘Big Four’ to win multiple Masters 1000 titles in a season since David Nalbandian in 2007.

Zverev additionally won the ATP World Tour 500 title at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., and claimed a pair of ATP World Tour 250 titles – at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier and BMW Open by FWU in Munich. In Montpellier, he also teamed up with older brother Mischa Zverev to win the doubles title.

The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena each year, as well as generating a global TV viewership of more than 100 million, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.