Roger Federer claimed his 20th Grand Slam title with a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over Marin Cilic in the Australian Open final on Sunday.

The 36-year-old made a superb start to the match, racing into a 4-0 lead, and needed just 24 minutes to win the first set 6-2.

At that stage, it looked like the Swiss legend would go on to record an easy straight-sets win, but Cilic fought back well in the second set, winning the tiebreak 7-5.

Federer regained control of the match by taking the third set 6-3, only for Cilic to win the fourth by the same margin.

Cilic had two break points on Federer’s serve in the first game of the fifth set, but the world No 2 saved both, and then broke the Croatian’s serve in the next game.

Federer would break Cilic’s serve again to take a 5-1 lead and then hold his own to claim his sixth Australian Open title, equalling the record of Roy Emerson and Novak Djokovic.

‘I’m so happy,’ Federer said before receiving the trophy. ‘Winning is an absolute dream come true. The fairytale continues for us, for me. After the great year I had last year, it’s incredible.’

Cilic said: ‘Big congratulations to Roger and his team. It’s amazing what you do year after year. All the best for 2018. It was an amazing journey for me to come to the final. Today was a tough match. I had a slight chance at the start of the fifth set. But Roger played an unbelievable fifth set.’