Naomi Osaka is into the final ©Getty Images

Naomi Osaka reached the final of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Cincinnati Masters a day after there was no play to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The former world number one originally pulled out of her scheduled semi-final against Belgium's Elise Mertens on Wednesday (August 26) in response to shooting, but remained in the tournament after all play was suspended for a day.

Video footage showed Blake, an unarmed black man, being shot seven times in the back by police in Wisconsin.

The incident led to the postponements of several sporting fixtures across the United States, with National Basketball Association, Women's National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer matches all called off as players led a boycott.

After Osaka withdrew from her semi-final, the WTA and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) postponed yesterday's play at the Cincinnati Masters, leading to the 22-year-old, seeded fourth for the tournament, reconsidering her stance and agreeing to play the match.

Osaka triumphed 6-2, 7-6 against Mertens, seeded 14th, in a match played on the Grandstand Court.

Osaka set up a final with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka, unseeded for the tournament, came from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 against Britain's Johanna Konta, the eighth seed, in a match played simultaneously on Court 10.

Novak Djokovic was taken all the way to a deciding-set tiebreak before he overcame Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the men's final ©Getty Images
Novak Djokovic was taken all the way to a deciding-set tiebreak before he overcame Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the men's final ©Getty Images

Both men's semi-finals were played on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court, with top seed Novak Djokovic victorious in a closel contest with Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut, the eighth seed.

After Bautista Agut took the first set 6-4, Djokovic responded by taking the second set by the same scoreline to force a decider.

In the final set, the Serbian reeled off three straight games from 2-2 to put himself on the brink of victory at 5-2, before Bautista Agut fought his way back to 5-5.

The players then exchanged breaks before Djokovic won the deciding-set tiebreak emphatically to win the match 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.

Djokovic will play Milos Raonic in the final after the unseeded Canadian sprung a surprise to beat Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6, 6-3.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's tournament is being played at Flushing Meadows, New York, which is scheduled to host the year's second Grand Slam, the US Open, from August 31.