Novak Djokovic won the U.S. Open final, defeating Roger Federer and taking home his third major title of 2015.
Federer was off to a rocky start from the start of the match. Djokovic, for his part, took a hard fall on his right arm in the first set, which left him bleeding, but still took the first set.
Federer tied it up with his old rival when he won the second set. But he couldn't keep up with the world No. 1 in the third and fourth sets, and Djokovic won, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
The crowd, numbering more than 20,000, was vocally — even raucously — pro-Federer. The Swiss superstar has won the U.S. Open five times, and has 17 majors under his belt, but his last Grand Slam championship was in 2012.
His Serbian opponent, for his part, had been runner-up in four previous U.S. Opens, and won that title only once before. With his win today, Djokovic has won a career total of 10 majors.
The men's final match was delayed by rain for more than three hours, a pause so long that it left some worrying that the final would be pushed to Monday — as happened every year from 2008-2012.
But if all goes according to plan, this will be the last U.S. Open that leaves fans eyeing rain clouds with concern: There's a new retractable roof rising over Arthur Ashe stadium. While the partially-finished structure couldn't keep the court dry on Sunday, it should be operational by the 2016 U.S. Open, the U.S. Tennis Association says.
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
