Djokovic wins Paris Masters

Murray, 28, made too many unforced errors against an in-form Djokovic, who has now beaten the British number one in six of their seven encounters this year.

“Congratulations to Novak. It’s been a great year for him”, he said. He went to the net to level for 2-2 and in the sixth game he managed to lead 30-0 on Djokovic’s serve.

The man to whom Djokovic dictated the match was gracious in defeat.

The Scot broke back, capitalising on a momentary lapse in concentration from the Serb, as a punishing second serve return of his own would secure the break to love. Murray was again in trouble at 3-1, facing multiple break points. Sometimes Murray won rallies with the sort of dream tennis you might create on a computer simulation, stringing together two or three shots that would have been winners against anyone else.

Murray appeared to be in trouble again early in the second set as the world number one tried to quickly wrap it up, but Murray saved a break point.

Not since No. 1 Stefan Edberg beat No. 2 Boris Becker in 1990 have the Top 2 seeds met for the BNP Paribas Masters title. The season ender starts on Sunday and no one will be looking forward to facing him with the form he is in at the moment.

So, can Andy Murray win the Aussie Grand Slam next year? That gave him a chance to serve out the match, but from 40-15 his composure deserted him. 6-2, 6-4 was the final score in a match that lasted only 92 minutes.

“It was sort of the right side of my back that tightened up here in Paris and it’s normally been the left side that is where I’ve had the issues, so I’m not really concerned about that”, Murray said. He has lost only two matches – both finals – since and has a remarkable 27-4 against Top 10 opponents this year. He has won three Grand Slam titles, six Masters Series titles and has not lost a match in 22 outings. With the win, Djokovic advanced to his 14th consecutive tournament final, a feat unmatched by another male player since reliable statistics began to be kept. Aside from putting 63 percent of his first serves in play, Djokovic won 72 percent of points on his second serve to Murray’s 35 percent.

The world No 3 will report to London’s Queens Club on Monday morning for the start of four days of “hard training” on clay, and will then appear at the World Tour Finals which is being played on a hard-court surface.

It has been an incredible season for the Serb with few parallels, if any, in men’s tennis.