Rafael Nadal of Spain was guaranteed of returning to the World No. 1 spot for the first time since July 2011 after his opponent Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic retired from their semifinal clash at the China Open here Saturday.
Current No.1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will take on Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal and no matter the result of the match, he will lose the top spot to Nadal.
Nadal had two breaks while Berdych had one in the first six games and the Czech seemed to twist his back hitting the ball while trailing at 2-4. And after five minutes' medical time, the Czech opted to quit.
Djokovic has stayed at the top of the ATP rankings for 101 weeks.