U. S. Open: Djokovic clinches title at Flushing Meadows

(AGI) New York, Sept 14 - Sunday's victory at the U.S. Openpushed Novak Djokovic's record of Grand Slams titles to 10,with three in 2015 alone. The Serbian-born tennis champion isthe unmatched champion on any tennis court in the world. Itmarked the second time in his career that he has won the U.S.Open final, this time after it was delayed a couple of hoursbecause of the rain. Not even an extremely fit Roger Federer,now 34, succeeded in stopping the 28-year old Serbian. Thefinal score of 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4 in three hours and 20 minutesconverted the victory into the 10th Slam in Djokovic's careerand the third in 2015, after the Australian Open and Wimbledon.He performed the same feat in 2011, a target also reached byRafael Nadal in 2010, Roger Federer in 2004, 2006 and 2007,Mats Wilander in 1988, Jimmy Connors in 1974 and Rod Laver in1969. He came very close to winning the Grand Slam when he wasbrutally defeated at Roland Garros by Stan Wawrinka, the Swissplayer who grew up dimmed by the light of Federer, and to whomhe gave a hard match when they played at the U.S. Open. Buttoday is a day for celebrations. Under the scrutiny ofHollywood stars like Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, RobertRedford, and Sean Connery and sports champions like DavidBeckham and Blake Griffin, Djokovic played a sublime tennismatch, with 35 winning shots and saving 19 of the 23 breakpoints. This was the main difference between the Serb and theSwiss players: the 19 break points rescued by Djokovic turnedout to be decisive in winning the match in which the world'snumber one player could not rely on the power of his service,scoring only 2 aces against Federer's 12. Djokovic made itclear from the very start that he had fine-tuned a strategy tocounter Federer, who made the final due to 28 sets won in arow. The Swiss player only gathered sufficient strength tomatch Djokovic's last surge of pride in the second part of thematch but it was too late. The Belgrade-born star player won anequal number (21-21) of direct matches played. Thanks to hiscareer's 10th Slam, he matches Bill Tilden, who ranks seventhin Top 10 Tennis Players Of All Time. "I won three out of four.It's more than I could ask for, definitely. Sitting down herewith this trophy and reflecting on what I have achieved, it'squite incredible," Djokovic explained. "He's going to try todisrupt my rhythm, and he's going to put a lot of variety inhis game," he reported thinking. "But I was ready for it. Wepushed each other to the limit, as we always do," he explained.Like Federer and Rod Laver before him, now also Djokovic canboast having played in the final of all four of the season'sfour Slams.. .