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A resurgent Novak Djokovic, fresh from his victory over Roger Federer at Basel, produced a near flawless display of tennis to destroy Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the Paris Masters. In a commanding performance, the Serb hammered the World no.2 in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3 within just 76 minutes to record his 75th match win this year. The Paris crowd will have a home-hero to cheer for after Gael Monfils came through a ding-dong battle against Radek Stepanek 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. This is the second straight year that a Frenchman will contest for the Paris Masters Shie ld after Tsonga's win last year.

In the first semi-final, Novak Djokovic continued his terrific form this week to cruise through to the finals, implementing with aplomb his approach of staying positive against the Spaniard. After the initial few games which stayed even at 2-2, the Djoker pulled away racking up an amazing 7 straight games to take the first set 6-2 and go up 3-0 in the second. From there it was smooth sailing as he cruised through to take match 6-3 in the second. The Serb dominated the match with his backhand both when striking it crosscourt, and when driving it down the line. His cross court was especially impressive as he peppered the Nadal forehand with powerful deep shots interspersed by pulling the Spaniard off court with some short-angled balls. His blistering cross court backhand return to take the first set encapsulated the performance nicely. "There's not much to say about today's performance, except it was perfect, exactly the way I wanted it. I have done, tactics-wise, everything that I imagined to do and planned to do before the match. I was very aggressive.", said Djokovic

The word that best described Rafael Nadal today was beleaguered. The old deficiency in his hard court game caught up with him today - his forehand was too short sitting up invitingly in the middle of the court; The Spaniard was simply outplayed, unable to get his teeth into the rallies and against a player with the versatility of Djokovic (who hit 31 winners), did not have the answers. This was Novak's 2nd straight victory against Rafa following his straight sets win at Cincinnati.

In the other semi-final, Gael Monfils produced a typical two parts flamboyance & one part infuriating performance to sneak past Czech Radek Stepanek in a tight three-setter. As expected in a match between two players who like to do the unexpected, the match featured some really entertaining rallies. With Monfils' athleticism, Stepanek's inclination to come forward & both players showing some deft touch, there were multiple highlight reel one-twos right through the match. In the end though, Monfils handled the situation better, took his chances, and went through.

After losing serve straight away in the first set to go down 0-2, Gael broke back immediately to level the set and then settling in nicely broke the Stepanek serve once more to take the set 6-4. Stepanek was strangely unconvincing in his attack at this stage clearly flustered by Monfils movement. The second set went along similar lines with an initial exchange of service breaks and Monfils grabbing the break in the all important 7th game of the set. Monfils then served for the match at 5-4. This was when the match turned on its head as Stepanek found his touch at the net breaking Monfils in consecutive service games to take the second set 7-5.

The third set was a tennis feast as both players unveiled their best play at crunch time. After what was for this match the customary early service break exchange the third set stayed on serve till 4-4. In a marathon 9th game, Stepanek staved off multiple break points but squandered game points of his own, and a missed forehand volley finally gave Monfils the crucial break. Monfils then stepped up to serve for the match for the second time - this time he didn't disappoint, gleeing up the crowd and proceeded to his first Masters Series Final

File Photograph Copyright: John Togasaki

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