Serbia's Novak Djokovic refused to get carried away despite his superb Masters Cup triumph over Nikolay Davydenko moving the Australian Open champion within touching distance of world No.2 Roger Federer.
The 21-year-old world No.3 was in masterful form as he completely dominated the experienced Russian world No.5 and after a brief second set fightback only delayed the result, Djokovic deservedly won the season-ending showpiece 6-1 7-5.
The win ended a run of three successive final defeats since he won May's Rome Masters and moved him within 10 points of Federer in the world rankings.
But despite Federer losing his record spell as No.1 to Rafael Nadal this year after a superb season from the Spaniard, Djokovic knows he still has a lot of work to do ahead his Australian Open title defence in two months.
"Certainly I believe that I have quality to reach the top spot in the upcoming year or maybe in the next couple or maybe even 10 years. That is my lifetime goal that I've been always trying to achieve," he said.
"But I learned my lesson. If I pay too much attention to the rankings, it doesn't go the right way so I just want to improve my game. I know there is still room for improvement and I just want to get my game to the highest possible level and the results will come."
"It's going to be a long season, there are many tournaments and many players who are candidates for the top spot. I think Rafa really deserves to be number one this year. He's been playing the best tennis by far."
"The interesting thing for the upcoming year is going to be the fact that there is so many players. Now it's not only about the two players any more; it's about five, six, seven players who are playing really well and can win against each other."
Last year on his Masters Cup debut Djokovic recorded lost all three matches without winning a set, but returning as a grand slam champion he only lost to Jo Wilfried-Tsonga in a dead rubber at the end of the round robin stage and certainly saved his best display for the final.
Djokovic stormed through the first set in 32 minutes after claiming two breaks of serve against a helpless Davydenko.
And even after a few understandable nerves crept in as he had two championship points at 5-3 and served for the title at 5-4, Djokovic's bid was never in danger as he wrapped up the win in one hour and 42 minutes.
"It means a lot. I would put it in the same league as a grand slam because the best eight players in the world are participating. Everybody has a lot of motivation to end up the season in the best possible way," he added.
"For me it was special because I've played in a couple of finals in the second half of the season and I hadn't managed to win a title for a long time. That's probably the reason why I couldn't close it out at 5-4 as I was a bit nervous."
"It's not easy. There is a lot of pressure involved. I'm happy that I managed to hold my nerve in the end."
Miami Masters champion Davydenko admitted he struggled to remain positive after being out-played in the first set, which was highlighted