Novak Djokovic saved five match points on his way to a 5-7, 7-6 (11), 6-3 victory over Andy Murray in the final fo the Shanghai Masters.
Murray was looking for his third straight title in Shanghai, but djokovic showed his typical fighting qualities to lift the crown from the Brit's grasp and with it gain a measure of revenge after his loss to Murray in the U.S. Open final.
"It's difficult to judge who was better because it was so close throughout the whole match," Djokovic said. "We had so many rallies in three and a half hours for best of three set match is a very long time.
"Could have easily gone the other way. He was five match points up. When I faced those match points, I tried to focus on each individually. He was so close to the victory that I cannot say I was the better player.
"I won the match. But, you know, as spectators could see, we were very close. It was a very even match throughout the whole three sets."
The title saw Djokovic becoming the first ever player to win seven of the nine Masters titles.
"I've had an unbelievable season," Djokovic added. "Comparing to 2011, results wise maybe wasn't at the top, because I had three Grand Slam titles, this year I have only one.
"But I've had an incredible year. We have to pay a little bit of respect to the other players. They've had an amazing year also.
"At this level you cannot expect to win all the matches. With this Asian swing so far, maybe comparing to 2011 also it's one of the best years I've had in my life. So I'm enjoying this moment. I'm enjoying every match that I play against them.
"Over the course of a couple of years before 2011, I was losing most of my matches against top guys, especially important matches. Then that changed. In 2011, I won basically all the matches I played against them.
"This year, it's quite even with all of them. I'm enjoying my time. I'm playing well and I have a confidence."
Murray was understandably disappointed by the loss, especially after throwing away five match points, but the world number three was confident of recovering quick enough for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals coming up in London.
"The third set he played better than me," Murray said. "The first set, there were a lot of breaks. It was fairly even.
"The second set, I probably played a little bit better. But he came up, served very well on the match points. The one match point I had on my serve, he hit the forehand onto the edge of the line. I mean, on the game where I also served for the match, he also came up with some good shots.
"It's not like I threw the match away. I didn't make I don't think any real glaring errors or anything. When I had my chances, he just served very well and hit a couple of lines when he needed to.
"It was a disappointing one to lose. I've lost tougher matches than that before in the biggest events. So I'm sure I'll recover from it pretty well."
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