PARIS - NOVEMBER 15: Novak Djokovic of Serbia lifts the winners trophy after winning the Final match against Gael Monfils of France during the ATP Masters Series at the Palais Omnisports De Paris-Bercy on November 15, 2009 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

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A final that started out as a total clunker finished as one of the best of the year in Paris, with Novak Djokovic starting hot and then surviving several icy patches to defeat Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(3).

Two of the game's most braggadocious played some incredibly flashy tennis throughout, but too often it seemed as though all the flashiness had left both blinded.  In the end, it was a Monfils double fault that ended the epic, a disappointing end to a match that was high on drama and flair if nothing else.

There's not a whole lot of doubt out there that Novak Djokovic is playing better tennis than anybody out there right now.  Whether or not he's peaking at the best time is another issue altogether.   But he does appear to be setting himself up very well to defend his WTF title in London next week. 

It could probably even be said that he's something of a favorite to win next week, which is the first time Djokovic has been the legitimate favorite for a major event since who knows when.

Julien Benneteau, via d.yimg.com

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There was only one upset in the matches second round matches Wednesday involving top ten players, but it was a big one.  Top seed and world #1 Roger Federer fell in his first match at Paris-Bercy to France's Julien Benneteau, who pulled off the upset by the score of 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

With his dangerous power game clicking, Benneteau blew through an uncharacteristically listless Federer, obtaining an early break in the third game of the third set and never relented.  When, Benneteau collapsed to the ground, overcome by his achievement, and continued the display of emotion into his chair, where he sat crying and bleeding.  It was all very French.

Benneteau is one of the most hot-and-cold players on the tour, capable of perhaps more mind-bogglingly bad play than anyone else on the tour.  He has all the weapons to beat a player of Federer's caliber (as he displayed yesterday), but also has the inconsistency to lose to someone like #155 Tomas Tenconi, who he lost to a few months ago at a challenger in Scheveningen.

Hopefully this emotional win can translate into some more consistent results for Benneteau.  When he's at his best, he plays one of the cleanest power games on the tour, and tennis would be much better off for having him in the mix.

This loss, Federer's second in a row, gives him plenty of time to get back on track before he begins his quest at the year's final tournament, the World Tour Finals in London.  Federer obviously has had a great deal of success in the other tournament in the London metropolitan area, and one would think he'd be able to channel some of that same Anglophilia into success at the WTF, even without any momentum from the indoor season.

There were a couple other close calls with the big names on Wednesday.  Rafael Nadal had to save five match points against Nicolas Almagro in one of the lowest quality ATP matches I can remember.  Andy Murray also had his hands fuller than expected, needing a third set tiebreak to oust James Blake.

After the jump, a nice highlights package from Benneteau d. Federer:

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Another Marat who met his end in Paris. Image via wikimedia.org

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In his last ATP match, wild card Marat Safin fell 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, in a valiant effort befitting the great tennis abilities he showed over his career.

The story of the middle part of this match was mostly about nerves, surprisingly more del Potro's than Safin's.  It can't be an easy thing to be charged with terminating a colleague's career, which was exactly the task set before del Potro.  Del Potro completely choked away the second set, breaking himself at 5-6, but obtained and held onto an early break in the third that gave him the win.

Safin was pretty thoroughly outplayed throughout the entire match, but managed to keep things uncomfortable for del Potro with some aggressive serving and go for broke groundstrokes, always aiming for the lines constantly with little if any margin for error.  He fired 15 aces during the match, and threw in another dozen or so service winners, including some on match points late in the third to force del Potro to serve it out.

As the PA played "Crimson and Clover," Safin gathered for photos with a collection of some nice names from the recent past of tennis (Younes El Aynaoui, Marc Rosset, Albert Portas, Cedric Pioline) as well as some current tournament entrants who didn't have anything else going on at that time in the afternoon (del Potro, Novak Djokovic, Gilles Simon, Ivo Karlovic, Tommy Robredo).  Safin was presented a key to the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, though it was mounted to a glass stand so it's unclear how it would actually open any doors.

I'll have more of a big-picture retrospective on Safin's time in tennis during his profile in the upcoming series on the top ten ATP players of the decade, which will run on The Daily Forehand during the off-season (along with a parallel series for the WTA).  There were as many big downs as big ups in Safin's relatively short career, but it's better to have burned brightly and quickly than never to have shone at all, I suppose.

Tomas Berdych, via The Daily Forehand's Tomas Berdych Gallery

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As promised, here is the second part of the interview I did a little while back with Tomas Berdych.  Since making some waves with his comments about Nicole Vaidisova in the first part of the interview, Berdych has had a pretty decent run through the Asian swing and European indoor circuit, making the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, then notching two big wins in Shanghai before crashing out to Gilles Simon, who would also take him out last week in Valencia.

Along with the rest of the upper echelon of the ATP  Paris Bercy Masters 1000 this week, a tournament he won in 2005. Berdych won his first round match on Monday over Vincent Millot, and faces #14-seed Tommy Robredo in the second round later today.  Should he win that match, it lines up a potentialthird-round match with Rafael Nadal, a player against whom Berdych has had a very decent amount of success in his career.

After the jump, the second (and final) part of my interview with the current ATP #20.

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