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Federer’s 30th birthday last August was supposed to have brought his reign to a halt. Now we can see that it was not the end, nor even the beginning of the end. Federer himself believes that he is maturing elegantly, like a bottle of Chateau Petrus. The rest of us can only marvel at his ongoing ability to beat the best.

The career obituaries have come with ever-greater frequency since the most recent of his 16 grand slam titles (in Australia almost two years ago). But on Sunday night, by toppling Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the O2 Arena, Federer put on a show that outshone any challenger in the world.

Okay, so it wasn’t one of the four biggies, but this round-robin tournament ranks fifth in the hierarchy of the ATP World Tour. And by clinching it with a 100 per cent record, Federer did more than just claim a cool £1 million bonus. He reminded the rest of the world’s elite that come January, in Melbourne, he will be looking for that 17th major title.

Perhaps Federer’s aura in the locker-room is not as powerful as it once was, simply because there are more aristocrats on the tennis scene than there were four or five years ago. But should he continue his 17-match winning streak far into the New Year, he will soon find himself back on top of the pile, holding court like some bandana-clad Louis XIV.

For all that this was Federer’s third victory over Tsonga in as many weeks, it was far from being routine. The Frenchman was inspired early on, firing winners off both wings and serving as if he had a bionic arm.

After seven games, Federer had taken just one point off Tsonga’s serve, while giving up nine on his own. Still, the skill in hand-to-hand combat is not to throw the biggest punches, but to catch your opponent off guard. Like a mongoose circling around a king cobra, Federer waited, waited, and then struck, with an irresistible sequence of four backhand winners in as many points.

Tsonga might have been a little naïve on the first of them, as he rumbled into the net behind his second serve, and found the return homing in on his toes like an inswinging yorker. But it wasn’t as if he did anything wrong; Federer had the ball on a string in that game.

If that break decided the first set, it was not enough to bring Tsonga down. This Muhammad Ali lookalike has a strong chin, and he kept surging forwards. Even when Federer broke him again, early in the second set, he roared back with a service break of his own — the only one that Federer suffered in the entire match.

The set went to a tie-break, in which Tsonga bravely saved a match point with a huge forehand haymaker. Then another forehand, this time a service return, forced Federer into the error and levelled the match.

The O2 may have been full of Federer-worshippers all week, but the fans were still delighted to see Tsonga extend the contest. If nothing else, it gave the Swiss a chance to show off his fitness, for he was the one moving more smoothly and swiftly as the match approached two hours.

The third set resembled the first in that Federer broke in the eighth game, moving to 5-3 and serving for the match. He reached 30-0 with the most elegant little forehand drop volley you could imagine, a moment of supreme touch in a match of violent exchanges, and it reminded us why Federer will always be the neutral’s favourite. Nobody else combines power and artistry to such devastating effect.

The match finished with a ball deflecting off Tsonga’s racket and high into the crowd, whereupon Federer’s pumped-up celebration revealed just how much this meant to him. Afterwards, Tsonga admitted that he had been powerless to resist. “He is the best player indoors, maybe the best player ever.”