Serbia's world number three Novak Djokovic crushed Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-1 7-5 to win the $4.45 million Masters Cup on Sunday.
The Australian Open champion, who lost all of his matches without winning a set on his debut at the season finale last year, played his best tennis of the week in the Shanghai final.
Djokovic, the first Serb to win the men's year-ending championship, earned $1.24 million to move to within 10 ranking points of world number two Roger Federer, who crashed out at the round-robin stage.
The 21-year-old Djokovic celebrated by kissing the court and tossing his racket and shirt into the crowd after seeing off Davydenko in one hour and 42 minutes.
Having been a model of inconsistency all week, Djokovic played almost perfect tennis on his way to winning the first set in just over half an hour.
World number five Davydenko, who beat Briton Andy Murray to reach his first Masters Cup final, was bludgeoned into submission by the young Serbian's powerful groundstrokes and sizzling winners.
Even when the hard-working Russian tried to mix it up at the net, Djokovic had an answer for almost everything and it was not a great surprise when the 27-year-old started fluffing simple shots.
He managed to save two championship points at 5-3 in the second set and grabbed his first break of the match for 5-5 but Djokovic regrouped to break back and wrapped up his fourth title of the season when the Russian netted a service return.
{{/usCountry}}He managed to save two championship points at 5-3 in the second set and grabbed his first break of the match for 5-5 but Djokovic regrouped to break back and wrapped up his fourth title of the season when the Russian netted a service return.
{{/usCountry}}The season-ending championship moves to London next season after four years at the 15,000-seat Qizhong arena in the suburbs of China's financial capital.