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 on Sunday. Victory in his 10th straight Grand Slam final made the Swiss world number one the first man ever to win the US Open four years in a row. He also claimed his fifth straight Wimbledon title in July. In the women's game, Justine Henin triumphed in her second US Open and seventh Grand Slam title with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova on Saturday. Henin thus successfully regained the title she first won in 2003. Swiss ace Federer trailed by a break in each set but Djokovic faltered at key moments in his first Grand Slam final and littered his game with unforced errors. 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. The 20-year-old Djokovic also had his chances in the third set, failing to covert a 40-0 lead on Federer's service in the fifth game. Actually, Federer did not have to do that much to stay in front and an increasingly tired looking Djokovic finally succumbed soon after. An implausible angled backhand winner took Federer to deuce at 5-4 and, after Djokovic saved one match point with a forehand winner; after a backhand into the net, Federer was champion yet again. Top seed Henin was in superb form throughout the tournament, cruising through the two weeks without dropping a set and dominating a one-sided final. The Belgian went into the final match with a 14-2 record against Kuznetsova, and beat Serena and Venus Williams in her last two matches. Kuznetsova, the champion at Flushing Meadows in 2004, never recovered from losing her first two service games to immediately fall 3-0 behind. The Russian fourth seed's chance to get back in the match came in the fourth game, but she wasted a break point to miss the opportunity. That allowed Henin to hold serve and, two games later, close out the opening set 6-1. A few Henin double faults gave Kuznetsova moments of hope in the second set but when the top seed came back from 40-0 down to break in game four, it was as good as over. The only wobble for Henin came when she served for the title, with two more double faults seeing her face three break points. But Kuznetsova could not find the necessary consistency at key moments and, after a Henin ace, two errors let the world number one off the hook. Britain's Peter Norfolk won the inaugural US Open quad singles title. He beat world number one David Wagner of the US 7-6, 6-2 at Flushing Meadows. Norfolk had beaten Wagner in the second of three round- robin matches on Friday, reaching the final unbeaten. Norfolk's win is all the more remarkable as he has spent four months out with a shoulder injury.
