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Novak Djokovic celebrates - Source: Reuters -
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Serbia's Novak Djokovic shrugged off a brave challenge from crowd favourite Gael Monfils to claim the Paris Masters title with a 6-2 5-7 7-6 win on Monday.
World number three Djokovic, who had outclassed Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals 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.
Djokovic, who beat world number one Roger Federer in the Basel final week, showed signs of nerves at times and had to wait for Monfils to double fault on the first match point to seal victory after two hours 43 minutes.
