Garber: Djokovic’s ideal end to a flawless season

However, any question marks about his form were put to bed by a ruthless display against Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Having reached three finals at Roland Garros in the last four years, Djokovic has already shown his pedigree on the surface is second to none.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer plays a return to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic during their ATP World Tour Finals tennis match at the O2 Arena in London, England, Tuesday November 17, 2015. Add on his bonus pool pay-out for playing – and winning – at the Masters events and his on-court earnings for the year are more than $20 million. But that is only the beginning.

For the fourth consecutive year, appropriately, Novak Djokovic is your Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion.

Djokovic joins legends Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl on five victories at the season-ending event, but the overall record is held by Federer who has come out victorious six times. Of those six losses, three have been down to Federer. And then Djokovic did what Djokovic always does in a final: he snuffed out any glimmer of hope and ground his way towards yet another trophy. With Federer serving at 30-30, the Swiss player thought he had his first ace of the match.

Had Djokovic won the French Open, there would surely be no argument about it being the best season in tennis history. He could not have played much better and his clinical dispatching of the world’s top players has been staggering to watch.

“I cherish every moment that I play competing on such a level”.

Including, obviously, Djokovic, although Federer knows from experience how small the margins are at the top of men’s tennis and how hard such dominance is to sustain. Federer was living dangerously with his second serve, knowing that nothing less than a quality second delivery would get him ahead in the point.

Nadal, on how far away he is from the level of Djokovic and Federer: “Today, I here”. The Serbian has been methodically crushing all opposition and finished the season with a comprehensive win over Federer, who in a few terms could be called his closes competitor in the year. He played a great match against Rafa… and I’m sure it will be a fantastic meeting.

Djokovic’s telescopic reach had nullified Federer’s tactic of exchanging baseline blows and though the Swiss rediscovered his consistency, his game continued to be littered with errors. There was little chance of a repeat lackluster performance from Novak in the last match of the season, and that was bad news for Federer. And Djokovic punished him time and again.

In fact, the utility of Djokovic’s serve, and the unreliability of Federer’s own delivery, was the single outstanding contrast in their two matches at the year-enders.

Djokovic was unrelenting though and wore the 34-year-old Federer down with one brutal rally two games later, clinching victory on his second match point when Federer’s second serve sailed long. We’re going to come back next year stronger, healthier and hungrier to do this again because we know what the feeling feels like.