The victory gave Djokovic back-to-back ATP Tour titles after his win over top-ranked Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final last Sunday.

The third-ranked Djokovic also beat World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals in Paris and will be a strong favorite when he’ll try to defend his title at the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 22-29 in London.

The former Australian Open winner fell on his knees and screamed on the center court when Monfils double-faulted on the first match point to give Djokovic his 16th career title.

Losing only three points on his serve in the first set, Djokovic pumped his fist when he took a 5-2 lead with a forehand winner down the line. He won the set in the next game when Monfils hit his first double-fault.

But Djokovic made 21 unforced errors in the second set and Monfils finally gave his supporters something to cheer by converting his first break point of the match in the fifth game after Djokovic missed an easy backhand volley.

Monfils then leveled at 3-3 and kept the pressure on Djokovic, failing to convert three other chances to break before taking the Serb’s service with a return winner for a 6-5 lead.

In the final set, Djokovic broke in the fourth game with a little help from Monfils, who lost his serve with his third double-fault of the match. Djokovic also double-faulted on Monfils’ break point in the seventh game and the 15th-seeded Frenchman leveled at 4-4 and eventually force a tiebreaker

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The unseeded Lopez said he woke up with a right foot infection, and then twisted his right ankle on the last point of the first set. He was trailing 6-1, 3-0 when he retired.

The top-seeded Nadal will play in Sunday’s final against sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who outlasted second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1).

“He’s playing very well today,” said Nadal, who holds a 4-2 advantage over Davydenko in their previous meetings. “He has a lot of rhythm, and he’s playing with a lot of intensity. It’s going to be a really tough match.”

Nadal only lost four points in the five service games he played against Lopez in the semifinal, which he gained when Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia retired with a left hip injury.

The Spaniard is looking for his sixth title of the year, and the first since returning from an injury layoff to recover from knee tendinitis, which prevented him from defending his Wimbledon title. He also struggled with a stomach muscle injury at the U.S. Open.

“I’m in a final and that’s very important,” Nadal said. “It’s my first final since I’ve been back and that’s a good result for me.”

Davydenko reached his fourth final of the year after a hard-fought match that lasted more than three hours. The Russian dominated the final tiebreaker, racing out to a 5-0 lead before sealing the win.

Djokovic had saved all three break points he faced in the first set, before breaking Davydenko with his second set point when the Russian smacked a crosscourt backhand wide.

Davydenko then took control of the second by breaking for a 4-3 lead when Djokovic’s forehand sailed long at 15-40. The Russian had two set points on Djokovic’s serve in the ninth game but couldn’t convert either. Instead, he served it out in the next game with two aces.

Davydenko has won all three finals he has played this year, in Hamburg, Umag and the Kuala Lumpur tournament two weeks ago.

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SPAIN (s)(c) v SWITZERLAND

GERMANY (s) v FRANCE (c)

RUSSIA (s)(c) v INDIA

ARGENTINA (s) v SWEDEN (c)

ECUADOR v CROATIA (s)(c)(*)

SERBIA (c)(*) v USA (s)

CHILE (c) v ISRAEL (s)

BELGIUM (c) v CZECH REPUBLIC (s)

First Round ties to be played on 5-7 March 2010.

Key
(s) = seeded nation
(c) = choice of ground
(*) = choice of ground decided by lot

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