World number three Djokovic, who had outclassed Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and had dropped only one set en route to the final, had to dig deep to win his second title in as many weeks.
Outplayed at first, Monfils, seeded 15th, thrilled a partisan 14,000 crowd packing the Bercy hall by fighting back to win the second set and recovering from 4-1 down to level the decisive set before losing it 7-3 in a tiebreak. Relying on his devastating forehand and hardly making an error in the first set, Djokovic put the pressure on by winning the first game to love and then breaking his opponent courtesy of an unforced error from Monfils. The Frenchman went on to lose the set with a double fault after just 30 minutes.
The second set's script was similar at first, another unforced error from Monfils handing Djokovic a 2-0 lead, and a crushing win looked on the cards but the Serb then dropped his guard, enabling his opponent to find his way back into the match.
Hope returned for Monfils when Djokovic netted a volley to lose his service game in the fifth game. The 23-year-old Paris-born player went on to earn break points in the seventh and ninth games but wasted them both. In the 11th game, however, Monfils seized his chance by hitting a return winner to serve for the set, which he took with a service winner.
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