Novak Djokovic avenged his Wimbledon final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz by beating the Spaniard in under four hours to win the Cincinnati Open.

The Serb survived a match point in the second set before winning 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-4). Top seed Alcaraz beat Djokovic in five sets in last month's Wimbledon final.

Djokovic compared the draining win to his Australian Open final victory 2012 when he defeated Nadal in five hours and 53 minutes.

"The feeling that I have on the court reminds me a little bit of when I was facing [Rafael] Nadal when we were at our prime," Djokovic said. "I don't think I've played too many matches like this."

After missing out on a match point in the second-set tie-break, Alcaraz found himself 5-3 down in the third, but he saved two match points to pull back to 5-4 before breaking Djokovic's serve to level the set.

However, Djokovic went 5-4 up on Alcaraz's serve in the tie-break before winning the next two points to claim victory in three hours and 49 minutes - the longest best-of-three-sets final in ATP Tour history.

Both players will be in action next week at the US Open, where Alcaraz will attempt to defend his title. At the same time, Djokovic, bidding for a 24th Grand Slam win, returns after missing last year's tournament because of his Covid vaccination.