FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY – Novak Djokovic had a chance. With Roger Federer not on top of his game, a break to in hand and up 40-0, serving for the first set, the 20 year-old couldn’t put it away.

And after coming back on five set points, the world’s No. 1 player did.

“Well, I can say that I’m sorry about turning back, about those set points,” said Djokovic, playing in his first Grand Slam final. “ Right now I would dress up and go to the court and play this 40-Love point. Again, I have to look in a positive way and I have to look generally this has been one of the best tournaments ever for me, one of the most amazing experience. This is basically, you know, one of the biggest cities in the world, and all crowd is making a great atmosphere.”

It’s understandable Djokovic was frustrated, Federer does that to a player. And slamming his racket several times – even breaking one – was a natural reaction to the tenacity of Federer.

In the end, the 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 straight sets win by the No1 seed to win his 12th Grand Slam title was closer than it looked on paper.

“It was kind of more hard for me to control, you know, the rallies from the baseline, because it was really fast,” said Federer, who is two Slam wins away from tying Pete Sampras for the most all-time. “But, yeah, I mean, I had one bad game. That cost me obviously. I don’t know. I mean, he had his chances today - many of them. You could sing a song about it. It’s a tough one for him to swallow, because especially him losing in the end straight sets, it’s tough.”

After coming back and tying the first set, Federer took charge after it was 3-3 in the tiebreaker. Putting away the first set, could have seen the Serbian melt, but then he broke Federer in early in the second to go up 3-1.

Yet, the champion, played like one and rallied to get the second set into a tiebreak and won that 7-2, even though, Djokovic had two set points in the second.

“My next book is going to be called, ‘7 Set Points,’” Djokovic said, who became famous for impersonating other tennis players this tournament. “I’m joking.”

Federer wasn’t in the third and broke Djokovic in the sixth game to eventually lead him to the 6-4 win.

As he won his 12th Grand Slam, Federer broke to his knees like it was his first.

And, maybe it was because the Open has become more important to the Swiss native.

“New York has definitely grown on me the last few years,” he said. “I think especially since that famous final against Agassi here a few years ago I started to really love this tournament. I realize actually what kind of a big-time event this is, you know, with 24,000 people in the stadium, the city. Just the difficulty to win here. I wasn’t aware of it in the very beginning when I came on tour really. For me, the US Open is the second biggest one we have on tour. To have won those two the most times, it’s just incredible for me.”

And it was an incredible two weeks for the 721,087 who attended the grand event, which is a new record for any tennis event around the world.