Federer sweeps 5th successive US Open title

The Swiss Roger Federer wins his fifth consecutive US Open title defeating sixth seeded British Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. This was his 13th Grand Slam crown which came after a difficult phase of his career when he had lost the No 1 spot with no major title in this year.

For the 27-year-old Roger, it was his 38th Grand Slam appearance and 17th final. He is now only one fewer to another greatest tennis star Pete Sampras who has 14 Slam titles in his credit. He is also the first man after Bill Tilden (1920) to claim this title five times in a row.

Federer is also the first man to win five successive titles in two different Grand Slam finals: US Open and Wimbledon. He had a semifinal loss at the Australian Open this year following his French Open and Wimbledon final defeats to arch-rival Rafael Nadal.

As far as US Open is concerned he defeated Australian Lleyton Hewitt in 2004, Americans Andre Agassi in 2005, Andy Roddick in 2006 and Serbian Novak Djokovic in 2007.

This season was certainly tough for him with no such event coming on his way. In this year’s US Open he too had some great games to come to the final defeating Gilles Muller (7-6, 6-4, 7-6) in quarterfinal and the Serbian Novak Djokovic (6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2) in the semifinal.

In this match, he completely dominated Murray from the very beginning winning the first set by 6-2. Though in the second set the 21-year Murray set a challenge to 5-5 but Roger was at his best in service game and eventually enfolded it by 7-5. There was not much challenge in the third set to keep hold of the title.

"This is a very special moment in my career," said Roger after his victory. "I had a couple of tough Slams this year, including that epic at Wimbledon. To take this one home is incredible. It means the world to me."