Djokovic Wins 3rd Straight Tournament in Paris; Battle for Year-End #1 Alive
Novak Djokovic won his third straight tournament and continued his sharp play this fall with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over defending champion David Ferrer in Paris.
Djokovic has won six titles this year (matching his 2012 total) and has won three Masters 1000 events this year. With the win, he has a slim chance of surpassing Rafael Nadal for #1 after the World Tour Finals, but it will take a lot of things going his way.
Djokovic has also won 40 ATP tournaments as of today.
The Serb got off to a slow start in Paris but dispatched Pierre-Hugues Herbert in straights, John Isner in 3 sets, again with a slow first set start, Stan Wawrinka in straights and a resurgent Roger Federer in 3 sets to reach the final.
In the final, Ferrer served for both the first and second set at 5-4 after getting early breaks in both sets, but twice Novak would break and win 3 straight games to take the sets.
Ferrer nearly shocked everyone and came up one match short of defending his title with wins against Lukas Rosol in 3 sets, Gilles Simon in straights, Tomas Berdych in 3 sets, and his formidable Spanish adversary Rafael Nadal in straights to reach the final.
The win over Nadal was shocking and Ferrer came close to beating the #1 and #2 players back to back but it wasn’t to be as Novak had just that extra bit of edge.
Ferrer, meanwhile, has played a lot of tennis this fall and seems to have found top form again, oddly enough.
The Bryans beat Alex Peya/Bruno Soares to take the doubles title. They now have 11 titles this year, matching their career calendar year record.
—Steen Kirby, Tennis East Coast
Tennis Atlantic 