French second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga captured his first ATP singles title by avenging his Australian Open final defeat to Novak Djokovic with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 victory over the Serbian top seed in the final of the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Sunday.

Tsonga, who made his return from knee surgery at the US Open after a three month absence, becomes the ninth first-time ATP title winner this season, matching the achievements of Kei Nishikori (Delray Beach), Sergiy Stakhovsky (Zagreb), Sam Querrey (Las Vegas), Marcel Granollers (Houston), Victor Hanescu (Gstaad), Juan Martin del Potro (Stuttgart), Albert Montanes (Amersfoort) and Marin Cilic (New Haven).

"I feel great, it's got to be one of the best moments of my life," the 23-year-old said.

"I just played unbelievable tennis against Novak and it was just my dream so I'm really happy."

Tsonga, who is ranked 20 in the world, trailed Djokovic 3-4 in the first set with the Serbian holding a break advantage.

But Tsonga rallied with two straight games to lead 5-4 and went on to clinch the tie-break 7-4.

A break of serve in the ninth game of the second set handed Tsonga a 5-4 lead and, after saving two break points, he closed out the victory.

"(It came down to) maybe a couple of points," Tsonga said. "The last game was very hard and I was just saying in my head "Go On! Do It!" so it was incredible.

"I was not nervous (about the match), I was just a little bit nervous about Novak because he has played just unbelievably and, for me, it's difficult to play against him because I have a really good serve and I think one of the best parts of his game is the return."

The last time the two had met was in the final of the Australian Open - Tsonga's first ATP final - after Djokovic had defeated Roger Federer and Tsonga had knocked out Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

On that occasion, Djokovic triumphed in four sets to capture his first Grand Slam title.

Since then, Tsonga has reached a career-high ranking of number 11 and also advanced to the semi-finals at Casablanca, where, before his match with Gilles Simon, he sustained the knee injury that kept him sidelined through the summer.

Djokovic, 21, was appearing in his 16th ATP singles final (10-6 record) and was looking to capture his fourth title of the season, and first since May.

"I lost the final against a great player," admitted Djokovic.

"Jo wisely used his opportunities and deserved to win his first title. I played a bit too defensively today in the final. You have to use your opportunities and I didn't.

"It's unfortunate to lose in the final but I lost to a great player so I have no regrets. Congratulations to Jo and his team on his first ATP title. I'm sure we'll see a lot of him in the future."