Frustrated Alcaraz survives Ruud scare to reach final

World number one Carlos Alcaraz will face Taylor Fritz in the Japan Open final after coming from behind to beat Casper Ruud in Tokyo.

The Spaniard dropped the opening set - the first he has dropped in the tournament - but recovered to beat the Norwegian 3-6 6-3 6-4.

It was Alcaraz's 66th win of the season and he is the fourth male player in history after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to reach nine successive ATP-level finals.

Despite his victory, the six-time Grand Slam winner was angry about his performance in the opening set.

"I had a lot of chances in the first set," said Alcaraz.

"I had four break points if I'm not wrong. It's just about details, so I just tried to be more positive than the first set.

"I was a little bit mad with myself, so I just tried to play with joy again, putting a lot of positive thoughts in my mind."

After committing 15 unforced errors in the first set, Alcaraz won 20 of 24 points on his serve in the second as he took charge of the match.

There was little evidence that the six-time Grand Slam winner was struggling with an ankle problem, which has been troubling him since his tournament opener against Sebastian Baez.

Second seed Fritz, who defeated Alcaraz in the Laver Cup last week, beat compatriot Jenson Brooksby 6-4 6-3 in the other semi-final.

"I know he's playing great tennis lately," Alcaraz said of Fritz. "It's another challenge for me and I'm looking forward to it."

The American hit 13 aces as he reached his first hard-court final of the year.

"I served insanely well," said Fritz. "High percentage first serves and spots too. It felt like any game that I didn't hit three aces, he was really outplaying me from the baseline. My serve got me through it."

World number two Jannik Sinner moved into the semi-finals of the China Open in Beijing thanks to a 6-1 7-5 victory over Hungarian Fabian Marozsan on Monday.

Italian Sinner claimed a seventh semi-final spot from the eight tournaments he has played this year and only needed 26 minutes to clinch the opening set.

In the second he fell awkwardly in the eighth game and was a break down at 4-5 but hit back immediately to deny Marozsan the set.

Sinner held and pounced on his opponent's serve again in the 12th game, sealing his 40th tour-level match win of a season in which he served a short doping ban.

"I feel like I started off very well in the first set. We both played well in the second set. I had some break chances at 4-3 - I couldn't use them," Sinner said.

"He's someone whose peak is high, which I knew before the match. When he was serving for the set he made a couple of unforced errors which helped me to come back and win in two."

Up next for the four-time major champion is Australian third seed Alex de Minaur, who reached the semi-finals when Czech 20-year-old Jakub Mensik retired from their match with a left-leg injury while trailing 1-4 in the opening set.

American teenager Learner Tien reached his first ATP Tour semi-final when fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti retired trailing 4-6 6-3 3-0. The Italian appeared to be hampered by a thigh or groin issue.

Eighth seed Daniil Medvedev cruised past German second seed Alexander Zverev 6-3 6-3. The Russian has beaten Zverev 14 times in 20 meetings, including eight of their past 10 matches.