Title-hungry Novak Djokovic admitted to delving into previously untapped reserves of mental strength to defeat Roger Federer in the longest singles final Wimbledon has ever witnessed.

Djokovic assumed the status of the first man in the Open Era to win the title after saving Championship points, defeating Federer 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(4) 4-6 13-12 (7-3) in an epic contest which included the first ever 12-12 tiebreak in singles.

It took four hours and 57 minutes to separate these two sporting icons, with Djokovic holding his nerve to seal his 16th Grand Slam crown and fifth at the All England Club. The irrepressible Serb is now four Grand Slams adrift of Federer, having won four of the last five.

When the moment of victory finally arrived, Djokovic gave his box and the whole of Centre Court a wry smile before performing his tradition of crouching and consuming plucked blades of grass.

“It was a huge relief in the end, honestly,” said Djokovic.

“These kind of matches, you work for, you live for, they give sense and they give value to every minute you spend on the court training and working to get yourself in this position to play the match with one of your greatest rivals of all time.

“It was probably the mentally most demanding match I was ever part of. I had the most physically demanding match against [Rafael] Nadal in the finals of Australia that went almost six hours. But mentally this was a different level, because of everything.

“I’m just obviously thrilled and overjoyed with emotions to be sitting here in front of you as a winner. I was one shot away from losing the match. This match had everything. It could have gone easily his way.

“In these kind of moments, I just try to never lose self-belief, just stay calm, just focus on trying to get the ball back, return, which wasn’t serving me very well today. But, in the most important moments, all three tie-breaks I guess, I found my best game.”

At 37 years 340 days, Federer was bidding to become the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam men’s title, and just the second man, after fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka at the 2014 Australian Open, to beat both Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the same major.

At times victory was in his grasp, no more so than when holding two Championship points at 8-7 in the fifth and decisive set, but ultimately a record-equaling ninth Wimbledon singles title proved elusive.

After finishing the fifth set having won 14 more points than Djokovic and hit 32 more winners than unforced errors, compared to his opponent’s tally of just two more winners than unforced errors, Federer revealed the depth of his despair.

“I don't know what I feel right now. I just feel like it's such an incredible opportunity missed, I can't believe it,” he said, before contemplating whether he would prefer to have been beaten comfortably rather than missing out in such agonising circumstances.

“It’s hard to tell. I don’t know if losing 2-2-2 feels better than this one. At the end it actually doesn’t matter to some extent. You might feel more disappointed, sad, over-angry. I don’t know.”

In the women’s doubles, meanwhile, Czech Barbora Strycova – a singles semi-finalist – and Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su-wei brushed aside Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski and China's Yifan Xu in straight sets, 6-2 6-4. Following a first Grand Slam title for the pair, Strycova moves to No. 1 in the women's doubles rankings.

In the mixed doubles final, Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan overcame Robert Lindstedt and Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-3.