Roger Federer of Switzerland kisses his own reflection on the men's championship trophy after an easy 7-6, 7-6, 6-4, victory over Serbia's Novak Djokovic on Sunday at the U.S. Open in New York.

New York ? Roger Federer sure gave Novak Djokovic chances, all sorts of chances, to pull off a major surprise in the U.S. Open final Sunday.

Federer knows how to win these things, while Djokovic is still learning, and that might have made the difference. Hardly at the top of his game, Federer came through, beating Djokovic 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4 for his fourth consecutive U.S. Open championship and 12th Grand Slam title overall.

Federer is the first man since Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the American Grand Slam four years running, and he moved within two of Pete Sampras’ career record of 14 major titles.

“Once again, he showed he’s the best,” the No. 3-seeded Djokovic said. “He deserved to win. He was the better player.”

The 20-year-old Djokovic was in his first Slam final, yet he led 6-5 in each of the opening two sets. In the first, he held five set points. In the second, he held two.

Federer erased all of those, showing the craft and cool that have allowed him to hold the No. 1 ranking for the past 188 weeks, the longest run by a man or woman.

In Djokovic, Federer was facing the only man to beat him over the past three months, but that was at Montreal, not New York, and in a Grand Slam tuneup, not the real deal.

Federer takes home a Grand Slam-record $2.4 million in prize money: $1.4 million for winning the tournament, plus a $1 million bonus because he finished atop the U.S. Open Series standings based on performances at hard-court tuneup events.