After losing in the final last year, Novak Djokovic returns to the Paris Masters winner's circle by beating Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets.
After playing a wonderful week of tennis, Dimitrov got a chance to contest the Paris Masters final against good friend Novak Djokovic. It was his first Masters final since 2017 and a pretty big moment for him.
On the other side was Djokovic, of course, a man who won in Paris six times and who was seemingly unbeatable. Holger Rune gave it a good shot and came up short.
Andrey Rublev gave it a really good shot and still came up short as Djokovic remained standing. Stomach issues; doesn't matter. Back pain, doesn't matter. Back-to-back marathon matches at age 36, doesn't matter.
It's quite a sight to see, Djokovic dominating as much as he is, especially how easily he bested Dimitrov today. The match wasn't easy of course and was quite complicated but you never got a sense that Djokovic won't win.
The opening set was played pretty well by both. Djokovic served a bit better and was far more stable from the baseline, which proved key. The second set saw Dimitrov risk a bit more as he needed to take control of the match, but it didn't work out.
He didn't serve as well which created obvious problems and he couldn't compensate for that from the baseline either. The problem for Dimitrov was the inability to break down Djokovic as it mostly resulted in an unforced error.
The final score was ultimately 6-4 6-3 for the Serbian, who won his first title since the historic US Open triumph. He proves once more to be one of the best and sends a good warning to the rest of the ATP Finals field. Remember, he went undefeated in Turin last year.