Djokovic, who was playing his first individual tournament since his coronation at Wimbledon on July 10, did not concede a single set throughout the week.
The man with 21 Grand Slam titles finished with a service winner in this 127th final of his career on the ATP circuit, in which he was never worried by Cilic.
He took his service from him in the second game of the match and concluded the first set 6-3 on his 4th ace of the game, in 47 minutes.
Cilic resisted a little better in the second set but only got one break point, missed, while Djokovic only needed one break, from the first game of the set, to take definitively wide and beat Cilic for the 19th time in 21 confrontations.
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After missing the Australian Open in January due to his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the former world number 1 lost in the final in Belgrade in April, in his country.
He then won in May on the clay courts of Rome and then in early July on the grass of Wimbledon, winning his 21st Grand Slam trick.
Aged 35, Djokovic then had to give up American tournaments, including the US Open, because he was still not vaccinated against Covid-19.
He had not played an official match between Wimbledon and the Laver Cup, a team event between Europe and the rest of the world, last week in London, and the Tel Aviv tournament marked his official return to an ATP tournament. .
Next week, "Djoko" will be in Kazakhstan for the ATP 500 tournament in Noursultan / Astana, whose high level also offers the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, new world number 1 at 19, or the Russian Daniil Medvedev.
© 2022 AFP