Holder Djokovic crashes out

Michael Llodra won a potential dress rehearsal for next month’s Davis Cup final as the French-man shocked Serbian defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 at the Paris Masters yesterday.

Llodra, a member of the French team that visits Belgrade on December 3-5, roared into the quarter-finals after winning 13 of the last 16 points against Djokovic, who came onto court wearing a nose-and-glasses joke disguise.

But the joke was on Djokovic, who sank to an 83-minute defeat just over a week before play begins in London at the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals.

“Any time I needed a point when it was important, he comes up with a huge serve,” said Djokovic.

“He comes up with an incredible first volley or something like that. All credit to him. He stepped in when he needed to, and he deserved to win.

“I’ll have a little bit more time off. I really feel that I need a couple of days off to rest, and then perform as best as I can in London.”

Djokovic served for the first set at 6-5 in the tie-break but failed to capitalise on the opportunity and managed to win only a measly 20 points from then until the end of the match.

ATP Tour Finals

Meanwhile, the last three pieces of the qualifying jigsaw puzzle for the ATP Tour Finals fell into place as a victory for Gael Monfils determined the London line-up.

The 12th-seeded Monfils, a losing finalist to Djokovic in Paris a year ago, produced a spectacular 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/2), 7-5 win over Fernando Verdasco that ended the Spaniard’s hopes of making the eight-man roster.

The third-round victory by Monfils means Tomas Berdych, Spain’s David Ferrer and American Andy Roddick will complete the field for the season-ending event that starts a week on Sunday.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling had already secured their places at the event at London’s O2 Arena.

Earlier, Roddick defeated Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 7-6 (10/8) to knock Jurgen Melzer out of the race for the season finale.

Fourth seed Soderling beat Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.

It fell to Monfils to play the qualifying puppeteer for the London season finale in front of a sold-out 14,000 capacity Bercy arena, as the popular home player rode a roller-coaster against Verdasco.

Twice the Spaniard failed to convert match points, allowing Monfils to secure a key break to put him 6-5 up in the final set.

A game later, Monfils was celebrating along with the fans as he moved into the quarter-finals.

Other results: Davydenko bt Berdych 4-6 7-6 6-0; Federer bt Stepanek 6-4 6-3.