Serbia's Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title by beating unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 in the Australian Open final.

Djokovic, who beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals, was forced to work hard by Tsonga before sealing the match at the first attempt after three hours and six minutes.

Tsonga has been the breakout star of the 2008 tournament powering past seeded players Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet, Andy Murray and Mikhail Youzhny to reach the final, but Djokovic proved to be just too strong for the Frenchman as he bid to keep his dream run alive.

Despite looking nervy in the opening game of the match, when he dropped serve, it was Tsonga who looked more positive in the early stages breaking back immediately and using his fearsome groundstrokes to cause the third seed real problems.

Djokovic took a few games to settle into the match, being forced to save break points in the fourth game, but loosened up as the set went on and stuck with the Frenchman.

As was expected before the match, the pair produced several long rallies as they did battle from the back of the court and it was Tsonga who seemed to be growing in confidence as the match progressed.

Indeed it was Tsonga who drew first blood sealing the first set with a stunning, inch-perfect forehand lob shortly after thrilling the crowd with backhand passing shot winner taken at full stretch.

The Frenchman continued to batter Djokovic in the early stages of the second set and looked to need only a small opportunity to run away with it as the Serb's body language deteriorated.

But the first love service game of the match, produced by Djokovic to level up at 3-3, seemed to energize the world number three and sure enough he broke in the very next game after a scintillating blocked backhand return of serve winner straight down the line had left him pounding his chest in joy.

One break of serve was enough to decide the second set with Djokovic serving out to love just four games later to level the match.

Despite Tsonga opening the third set with a love service game of his own, the momentum had firmly switched to the hands of Djokovic and the Frenchman appeared to be wilting under the pressure as he went a break down as early as the third game.

Tsonga did recover to hold and stop Djokovic running away with the set but could not find a way past the Serb's serve and quickly found himself serving to stay in the set trailing 5-3.

Djokovic raced out to a 0-40 lead but Tsonga, determined not to surrender the set so tamely, managed to save all three as well as a further three set points before dumping a tired looking forehand into the net to gift Djokovic the two sets to one lead.

Although his opponent was rapidly closing on victory, Tsonga recovered his composure to stick with Djokovic in the fourth set and even looked to be the fresher of the two when the Serb was forced to receive treatment on his tired muscles after the fifth game.

Tsonga was twice forced to serve to stay in the match but proved equal to the task forcing the tiebreak despite slamming down his first double fault of the match in the 12th game.

But Djokovic lifted his level right from the start of the breaker taking points against Tsonga's serve in the second and sixth points to lead 5-1 at the change of ends.

Djokovic then earned himself four championship points as Tsonga's attempted forehand down the line sailed wide, and dropped to the court as the Frenchman again hit wide to hand Serbia their first Grand Slam champion.

Pippa Davis / Eurosport