London: Roger Federer became the first player to win the ATP World Tour Finals six times after weathering a storming fightback by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to retain his title with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory at the O2 on Sunday.

The 30-year-old, playing in the title match of the tournament for the seventh time in 10 years and his 100th Tour final, faltered when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set and let a match point slip in the tiebreak.

Powerhouse Tsonga threw everything at Federer in the deciding set but he dropped serve at 3-4 and this time there was no escape for the crowd-pleasing Frenchman as the Swiss completed victory in two hours 18 minutes.

“I couldn’t be more happy and I couldn’t be more exhausted because Jo sucked all the last energy out of me today,” Federer said on court after sealing the $1.63 million jackpot for going through the tournament undefeated.

On another record-breaking day for the 16-time Grand Slam champion, Federer gained the distinction of being the oldest player to win the season-ender since Ilie Nastase in 1975.

Despite not winning a Grand Slam title in a year for the first time since 2002, he also made sure he ended the season on a high with a 17-match winning streak and a hat-trick of indoor titles having won the recent tournaments in Basel and Paris.

Federer beat Tsonga in the opening round-robin match of the tournament and prevailed against the 26-year-old the week before in the Paris Masters final.

Tsonga, bidding to become the first Frenchman to win the season-ending championship since its inception in 1970, began in impressive fashion, though, and looked the more menacing player until Federer broke serve to love in the eighth game.