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Novak Djokovic likes Paris a whole lot. This year he has won the city's two biggest titles; in June it was the French Open and now he has claimed a sixth Rolex Paris Masters. In two hours, 15 minutes the world No.1 rallied from a set down to beat defending champion and world No.2 Daniil Medvedev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
It was only the second time in the tournament's history and the first since 1990 that the world;s top two ranking men played the final. In 1990 Stefan Edberg (1) defeated Boris Becker (2).
"Even though I lost the first set, I still felt it was quite close," Djokovic said. "I was 3-2 up and breakpoint. He played, he served well, played the next game when he broke my serve pretty well. I was still trying to read his serve and I wasn't really, I think, consistent from baseline. Was making some unforced errors that allowed him to kind of clinch out the first set, close out the first set with not too many problems and struggles.
"But, I knew that things will get better and better, because I felt good on the court coming into the match today. More relaxed, you know, because I didn't have the pressure that I need to win because of the rankings or anything like that. I just felt like I could maybe play the style of tennis that I really want to play every single match, you know, come in to the net and be a little bit more free on the shots, swing through the ball.
"That's what was happening pretty much the entire match, especially in the second and the third set. Yes, you know, that break of his serve in the fourth game of second set was probably the turning point. I got the crowd involved. We played some great rallies. I held my serve very well from that moment.
"Actually, I got probably more free points on my first serve than I would expect, because he's such a great returner, he reads the game well, he makes you suffer really on his return games. He just makes you play always an extra shot. He always puts you in a very uncomfortable position on the court. But on the other side, he wins his service games quite fast and comfortably, because he just has a big serve. And he's improved over the years, coming to the net, not afraid to be aggressive.
"So, it was just a very close match, a game of very small margins here and there, a few points. Just been very pleased with the way I held my nerves in the end and managed to close out the match with a winner."
When Medvedev won the first set, that was the fourth consecutive set he had won against Djokovic because he beat him in straight sets the last time which was the US open final. He admitted that Novak player many of the important points well that that made a difference in the crunch.
"There are definitely things I could have done better in terms of winning some points, some crucial points," Medvedev said. "But I feel like there is not much to talk about tennis, tennis-wise, unless it was a really great match with a lot of good points where he was a little bit better, maybe did few winners more, few volley winners were good ones, and he was better in crucial points today. That made the big difference. Where I was actually better at usual crucial points in the first set and that's why I won it, and that's what I didn't manage to do in the second and third."
This victory for Djokovic comes on the heels of him clinching the year-end world No.1 record. It is an incredible achievement because he has created a new record as this is the seventh time he has achieved such a feat. He was tied with his childhood hero Pete Sampras on six. Earlier in the year he broke the record Roger Federer held for most weeks at No.1 and at the time of writing he was at 345 weeks.
The win is his 37th Masters 1000 title and that too is a new record and moves him one ahead of Rafa Nadal. It is his 86th career title.
The doubles title went to Tim Puetz and Michael Venus, they defeated third seeds Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 63 67 11-9.
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