Fed races to 12th Slam

Record four straight US Opens for Swiss ace

By Ben Sullivan   Last updated: 10th September 2007

Federer Roger US Open trophy Sep 07

Federer poses with the US Open trophy

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Roger Federer claimed his fourth straight US Open title and his 12th career Grand Slam with a 7-6 7-6 6-4 victory over Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic in New York.

Victory in his 10th straight Grand Slam final made the Swiss world number one the first man in the Open era to win the US Open four years in a row. He also claimed his fifth straight Wimbledon title in July.

Federer dropped just two sets on his way to the Flushing Meadows final and displayed his usual imperious skills on the big stage.

But he was given plenty of help by the 20-year-old Djokovic, who froze on his first appearance in a Grand Slam final and littered his game with unforced errors.

Waste

Djokovic could have won both the first two sets only to waste his chance.

He broke for the first time in the match to lead 6-5 in the opener and raced to 40-0 and three set points.

But he lost all three and then missed two more chances, the fifth with a double fault.

In the tie-break a double fault gave Federer the crucial mini-break and then Djokovic served another to gift the breaker to Federer.

Despite that setback, Djokovic quickly regained the momentum and broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set, then this time consolidated for 4-1.

But Federer broke back to love in the seventh game before Djokovic missed another two set points at 6-5, this time firing a straightforward forehand long on the second.

Federer then raced through the tiebreak, a scorching backhand pass on his first set point giving him a 7-2 scoreline.

Djokovic also had his chances in the third set, failing to covert a 40-0 lead on Federer's service in the fifth game.

Chances

The Serb then saved two break points in the next game to level at 3-3 and Federer missed a couple of decent chances to force break point in the eighth game.

Djokovic saved a match point with a brave forehand winner at 4-5 but fired a backhand wide on the next point and when the Serb netted a weak drop-shot, Federer was champion yet again.