Perhaps if the French Open were played indoors, the French would fare better.  In the battle of the two countries divided by the Pyrenees, Spain has had the decided edge over Spain boasting more top 100 players and, at one point, the number 1 player in the world.  They’ve also fared much better in Paris with 4-time winner, Rafael Nadal and Sergi Bruguera as past champions with nary a French finalist during those span of years.

Last year, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, arguably one of the surprise players of 2008 won in Paris, taking the final over Argentine, David Nalbandian.

This year, compatriot Gael Monfils made the finals, having held his nerves to beat Czech, Radek Stepanek in the semifinals.  With opportunities to serve it out, Monfils lost serve in the second and eventually lost the set.  Monfils would again battle nerves in the third set with one of the few players that routinely attacks the net, at least as much as anyone attacks the net these days, against Radek Stepanek beating him: 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Given Djokovic’s pummeling of world number 2, Rafael Nadal, in the semifinals, one would imagine that Djokovic would have no problems handling the lower ranked Gaul despite his flashy style of play.  However, it’s arguable whether Nadal is anywhere near 100%.  Nadal at 80% is still better than all but the top 3-4 players in the world.  His competitive fires are often good enough to win matches where he’s struggling.  Witness the fact that Nadal dropped sets against Almagro and Robredo, something he’s never done with either player.  Nevertheless, he still won both matches in typical gusty Nadal fashion.

Djokovic, for his part, has had something of a disappointing year.  He reached only one semifinals of a Slam all year, losing to Roger Federer somewhat tamely at the US Open this year.  He retired in the Australian, lost somewhat tamely to Kohlschreiber early in the French, lost to Haas for the second time on grass in the quarters at Wimbledon.  He had won no Masters 1000 titles this year.

Despite the lack of wins that we’ve come to expect from the talented Serb, Djokovic, by other measures, has had a fantastic year.  With today’s win, he has 76 match wins this year, leading the men’s tour.  Although he has won no Masters 1000 finals, he’s been in the finals of five.  He was a finalist at Miami (lost to Murray), at Monte Carlo and Rome (lost to Nadal in both), and a finalist at Cincinnati (lost to Federer).  Much like last year, Djokovic’s play tends to perk up right after the US Open as play moves indoors and hard courts and the rest of the players struggle with injuries.

Djokovic started this match against Monfils mostly where he left off with Nadal, hitting winners, and eliciting errors from the Monfils forehand.  Unlike Nadal, Monfils plays a more aggressive style of tennis blended with his gangly speed that often results in Clijsters-like splits to reach balls that would be winners against other players.  Perhaps a player as flexible as Djokovic (who can himself do the splits) might be one of the few who can comprehend this feat of elasticity.

But where Nadal could not find the tools to mount a comeback against Djokovic, Monfils did, primarily because the Djokovic that we saw play Saturday, much like the Davydenko that played Nadal in the finals of Shanghai, was playing peak-tennis, and few players play peak-tennis time and again.  To be fair, Nadal’s somewhat passive style lends itself to attack.

Monfils also had one weapon that Nadal lacked.  He was in front of his home crowd.  The partisan Parisian crowd, polite but vocal (no boos for the Serb), were constantly egging their man on, and Monfils came through managing to recover a break in the second set (after tamely dropping the first set), 6-2, then breaking a second time late to take the second set 7-5.  Djokovic again appeared to take control in the third set, going up 4-1, before Monfils again clawed his way back to regain the break, and push the final set to a tiebreak, a situation that Djokovic found himself against a few weeks ago in the semifinals against Davydenko.

Where Davydenko only dropped one point to Djokovic in that tiebreak, Djokovic took an early lead.  Although he gave up the early lead, he regained it again, and never let up, taking the tiebreak, 7-3.  After that, Djokovic was hooping and hollering, fist-pumping his victory.  In a way, he may be the Connors of today, albeit with extraneous histrionics on victories, minus the chair umpire beratement that Connors was known for.

Consider Djokovic’s resume the last two weeks.  Last week in Basel, he beats the world number 1, Roger Federer, to win Basel.  This week in Paris, he beats world number 2, Rafael Nadal, convincingly.  To be fair, neither Federer nor Nadal seemed to be playing top-flight tennis.  Both had taken a good deal of time off after the US Open, and it was Djokovic, not them, that was the man in better form.

How does Djokovic do it?  He doesn’t hit with the power of Federer or Gonzalez or Verdasco.  However, much like Davydenko, he is fast and precise.  He can work angles, hit inside out winners, and can both hit up-the-line backhands and wicked crosscourt backhands with equal ease.  His serve, while not monstrous, is quite effective, more so than Davydenko.  It’s this combination of precision and power and speed that has lead Djokovic to the number 3 spot, and with his recent play, he may become the guy that moves to 2 or 1.

We say this now, of course, when mere weeks ago, we were ready to anoint Davydenko as the comeback kid, when he lost tamely in Moscow to Marat Safin after a victory in Shanghai.  The key to being at the top is consistent performance in the big tournaments.

Going into London, Djokovic ought to be favored to win.  Obviously, the ATP World Tour Finals will be played in Murray’s country for the first time, and Murray will be amped to win a fast-court tournament in the UK.  Murray did, after all, win Valencia, but the competition was decidedly weaker.  Murray then lost (or tanked?) to Stepanek in three sets.  To be fair, Stepanek made his way to the semifinals so a loss to the Czech is not shocking.  Stepanek, along with Youzhny, have played the indoor season quite well.

The men take a week off next week, then play in London where both singles and doubles are played.  That tournament, played in round-robin fashion (it would be nice if more tournaments did round-robin) will feature the top 8 players.

With this, the last tournament before the ATP World Tour Finals, the eight players that qualify to play are: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, del Potro, Roddick, Dayvdenko, and Verdasco.  Last year, Gilles Simon was the 9th player and filled in for Nadal who was injured.  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup (as it was called then).  This year, Verdasco is in and Tsonga out, with all other qualifiers the same as last year.