World No 3 Federer, who lost to Djokovic in last year's Wimbledon and US Open finals, was also impressed by Djokovic's obliteration of 14-time Grand Slam champion Nadal in Doha.

"I played very much ideal tennis", Djokovic said.

One and quarter of an hour later, Djokovic was sitting pretty with the title under his belt.

Playing his 16th straight final, just short of Ivan Lendl's run of 18 (1981-82) and Federer's 17 (2005-06), Djokovic was all about geometric excellence, lines and angles.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will break their 23-23 head-to-head record on Saturday when they meet for the 47th time in the Qatar Open final. But Nadal made the break by love in the fifth game to take a 3-2 advantage and held onto his serves to make it to his second final in Doha.

Turning his shoulders into his shots, Djokovic spread the court effectively breaking serve as Nadal could not land his first serve.

Afterwards he said he had a slight concern over an arm injury which has required attention from a physiotherapist, but added that he did not think "it is a major concern".

Nadal, meanwhile, who endured a miserable 2015, showed he could be returning to his best with his most impressive performance of the week, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Marchenko. One more time, the tennis fans will see one of the greatest rivalries and that too in the Qatar Open 2016 final to be played in Doha today.

Djokovic continued to apply pressure on Nadal, suffocating the Spaniard from the baseline with a ruthless display of aggression. Djokovic closed out the opening set to love after 31 minutes, firing 16 winners and four aces.

Rafael Nadal has labelled Novak Djokovic the best player he has ever seen.

Yet an improved end to a year ago, which saw him reach the finals in Beijing and Basel and beat Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals, has continued into the start of 2016.

He may be consoled by one of the biggest pay days of his career, $57,380 (52,715 euros).

'To some extent it's surprising for sure, ' the 34-year-old told reporters after losing the Brisbane International final to Milos Raonic on Sunday.

Having already captured five Australian Open titles (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015), Djokovic is the massive favourite to reign supreme once again at Melbourne Park.

With the first set gone, Nadal had been pushed to the wall, psychologically at least, for his grunts were getting louder and louder with each passing second.

Gracious in defeat, Rafa spoke after the match, labelling the world No. 1 as "perfection".