Nadal lifts China Open; Garcia shocks Halep

Beijing: World number one Rafael Nadal produced a ruthless performance to win his 75th singles title, beating Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-2, 6-1 in the China Open final on Sunday.

The Spaniard, appearing in the 110th final of his career, cruised to his first China Open title since 2005 as eighth-seeded Kyrgios was hindered by his own inconsistency and rarely troubled the top seed.

World number 19 Kyrgios, who was looking for his first title of the year, held his opening two service games, but faded as Nadal broke twice to grab the first set.

The 31-year-old almost shut out Kyrgios in the second set and took a 5-0 lead before the Australian won his solitary game to slightly delay the inevitable as Nadal sauntered to his 12th consecutive win.

The victory marks the first time since 2013 that Nadal has won at least six titles in a year and puts him ahead of Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev, who have both won five each this season.

Unseeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia won the biggest singles title of her career with a 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over soon-to-be world number one Simona Halep in the China Open final in Beijing on Sunday.

Garcia extended her winning streak to 11 matches and added to her Wuhan Open triumph last week. The current world number 15 will climb to ninth in the rankings on Monday, marking her Top 10 debut.

Halep, who will take over as number one in the next rankings, broke Garcia's serve in the first game of the match but the 23-year-old hit back immediately, breaking the Romanian twice to win the first set. With the score tied at 3-3 in the second set, Garcia saved nine consecutive break points in the seventh game, before taking a 4-3 lead but Halep recovered to force a tiebreak.

The Frenchwoman became the first to complete the Wuhan and Beijing double and is now on track to qualify for the season-ending WTA finals, as her win took her past Briton Johanna Konta to number eight in the Race to Singapore rankings.