Nadal through to 99th career final

DOHA — Rafael Nadal served his way to his first final of 2016 — and the 99th of his career — at the Qatar Open Friday, beating Ukraine's Illya Marchenko in straight sets. The Spaniard, who endured a miserable 2015, showed he could be returning to his best with his most impressive performance of the week, winning 6-3, 6-4 in little over an hour. "To be back in a final is always a great feeling, especially the first week of the season," said the Spaniard. "I finished last year playing better and started again." Nadal's serve dominated throughout against a player who troubled the best all week and knocked out the reigning champion and No. 4 seed David Ferrer in round one. Nadal won 100 per cent of all his first service points in the first set, 89 per cent overall and gave up only one break point, which he held. He also fired down six aces and hit 16 winners. Nadal, the No. 2 seed in Doha, has set up the enticing prospect of meeting Novak Djokovic in the final. The world No. 1 plays Tomas Berdych in the other semifinal. Djokovic, the No. 1 seed, is the overwhelming favorite having won 21 of his previous 23 matches against the Czech and neither of those two losses were on a hard court as in Doha. Marchenko, the world No. 94, was by no means disgraced in his first ever match against Nadal. Prior to this tournament, he had never taken a set off a top 10 player but as well as beating Ferrer, the amiable Ukrainian also saw off France's Jeremy Chardy and Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili, both well above him in the rankings. He may be consoled by one of the biggest pay days of his career, $57,380 (52,715 euros). Safarova to miss Australian Open World No. 9 Lucie Safarova will miss this month's Australian Open as she has yet to regain full fitness following a bacterial infection last year, the Czech said Friday. "As an athlete I'm used to fight, usually on the court to get a win, today it's off court to get my health back," the 28-year-old, who was runner-up at last year's French Open, posted on social media. "I'm really sad I will miss Australia this year! Sorry my friends and fans there! I hope I will be back in February!" Safarova enjoyed a breakout year in 2015, winning the Australian Open and French Open doubles titles with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and also reaching her first grand slam singles final in Paris. Doubts also remain about the fitness of the top four women in tennis ahead of the Australian Open. World No. 1 Serena Williams (knee), Romania's Simona Halep (Achilles), Garbine Muguruza of Spain (foot) and Russian Maria Sharapova (arm) all pulled out of matches in Australia this week due to various ailments. The Australian Open gets underway on Jan. 18. — Agencies