It was the 12th career Grand Slam title for Federer, who moved within two of matching the all-time Grand Slam title record set by Pete Sampras, and the 51st career tournament triumph overall for the 26-year-old master shotmaker.
Federer’s US Open win streak is the longest since Bill Tilden won six in a row from 1920 to 1925. “You never do get used to it,” Federer said. “It’s too nice to be true to be back and win a Grand Slam final.”
But the victory was far from easy for Federer as Djokovic was up a break in each of the first two sets and squandered five set points serving in the 12th game of the opening set and two more in the 12th game of the second set.
Djokovic netted a backhand volley to surrender the only break of the final set on Federer’s second match point, ending his struggle after two hours 26 minutes.
“Straight sets is a bit brutal for Novak to be honest. He deserved better than that,” Federer said. “I told him at the net, ‘Keep it up.’ He’s going to have many more battles like that.”
Djokovic, trying to become at 20 the second-youngest US Open men’s champion in the Open Era after Sampras’ 1990 victory, was undone by his own mistakes on critical points in his first Grand Slam final.
The Serbian star, who suffered semifinal losses to Rafael Nadal this year at Wimbledon and the French Open, was only 2-of-9 in break-point chances, missing opportunity after opportunity and ultimately unable to stop Federer.
“Roger showed again he is the best. He deserved to win,” Djokovic said. “It has been an amazing two weeks. It was an amazing experience for me.”
Federer, who has won three Slam titles in a year for the third time in four years, matched Roy Emerson for second on the all-time Slam title list, moving beyond legends Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver.
Federer, who extended his own record by reaching his 10th consecutive Grand Slam final, improved to 12-2 in Slam finals, losing only on the red clay of Roland Garros to Rafael Nadal in 2006 and 2007.
The last time Federer lost a US Open match was a fourth-round defeat in the 2003 US Open at the hands of Argentina’s David Nalbandian. His US Open win streak breaks the 27-match run of Ivan Lendl from 1985 to 1988 as the longest here in the Open Era.
Federer won 2.4 million dollars for the triumph, the biggest prize from a single event in tennis history, after his total boosted by a one million-dollar bonus from his results in US Open tuneup events.
Together with Justine Henin’s victory in Saturday’s women’s final, it marked the first time since 1996 that both US Open singles titles went to top seeds.
Federer, in his record 188th week in a row atop the rankings, improved to 5-1 against Djokovic after losing their prior meeting in last month’s Montreal final.
That’s where the Serbian star beat Federer, second-ranked Rafael Nadal and third-rated Andy Roddick to become the first man since Boris Becker in 1994 at Stockholm to sweep the world’s top trio in the same event.
Taiwan women fall
It was heartache once more for Taiwan’s Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung in their bid to win their homeland’s first Grand Slam title as they lost the Open women’s doubles final, adds AFP.
Russia’s Dinara Safina and France’s Nathalie Dechy, the seventh seeds who were playing together for the first time, took the 400,000-dollar top prize with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over the fifth-seeded Asian duo.