Djokovic and Monfils in final at Paris Masters
Published 4:00 am Sunday, November 15, 2009
PARIS — Novak Djokovic overpowered Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 Saturday to reach the Paris Masters final for the first time.
The Serb will face Gael Monfils of France on Sunday. He advanced to the final with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Radek Stepanek.
Djokovic is 3-0 overall against Monfils.
“He is one of the players who is very unpredictable,” Djokovic said. “He can play really, really fast. And with a big serve, he can do a lot of damage to opponents.”
The third-ranked Djokovic was dominant from the start and didn’t face a single break point en route to the victory over Nadal. Winning 83 percent of first-serve points, Djokovic also had 31 winners.
“I felt so good on the court that all the shots I hit transformed into winners,” Djokovic said. “It was perfect, exactly the way I wanted.”
Djokovic defeated Nadal for the second consecutive time to improve his overall record to 6-14 against him. He reached his 10th final of the year.
Nadal defeated defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals after two difficult three-set matches in the previous rounds.