Andy Murray hailed Roger Federer as "the best player ever to play the game" after his disappointing grand slam loss.Federer, who had lost his number one world ranking to Rafael Nadal and lost both his Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in 2008, ended the grand slam year on a high with a 6-2 7-5 6-2 victory in one hour and 51 minutes over the British number one to equal Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras as five-time US Open winners and move to within one grand slam title of Sampras' record of 14.
Murray, 21, had had history in sights after defeating world number one Rafael Nadal in the previous night's semi-final, aiming to become the first British male since Fred Perry at the US national championships in 1936 to win a grand slam.
It was not to be, though, as Federer, seeded second behind Nadal, completed his 34th consecutive victory at Flushing Meadows to arrest a run of three grand slam defeats this year - in the Australian Open semi-final to Djokovic and to Nadal in the French and Wimbledon finals - and prove to his critics he was far from being a spent force in the game.
Job done, and witnessed by a 23,763 capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium as Federer also gained revenge for a second consecutive defeat to Murray in Dubai in March.
"I had a great tournament but I came up against, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game today," the young Scot said on court afterwards.
"I had got the better of him the last two times we played and he definitely set the record straight so congratulations to him."
As Federer picked up his US$1.5million winner's cheque, he said: "It feels great.
"This is definitely a special moment in my career.
"I've had a couple of tough grand slams this year so to take this one home is incredible. It means the world to me."
Matching Sampras and his 14 titles is now Federer's primary objective.
"One thing's for sure, I'm definitely not going to stop at 13. That would be terrible," he joked.
"There are a great bunch of guys behind me and now in front of me as well," he added, referring to his current rivals.
"Well done to Andy, he's done great these last couple of weeks and I'm sure we're going to see much more of him in the future as well."
Murray picked up a cheque for one million dollars, $750,000 for his runner-up finish and a $250,000 bonus for coming second in the summer's US Open Series, which had brought him a Masters Series title in Cincinnati and a semi-final finish in Toronto.
Asked what he had learned from the experience of his first grand slam final, Murray replied: "That I've got a lot of improving to do if I want to win one of these tournaments.
"I love playing in front of these crowds. I played three times on Arthur Ashe, and it's been the best time of my life."
Federer had stormed to a four-set victory over third seed Djokovic in the semis on Saturday and had enjoyed a day's extra rest while Murray was battling Nadal on Sunday.
He looked supremely confident, his forehand immaculate and his mobility excellent as he broke Murray to go 4-2 up in the first set and broke again to wrap up the set in 27 minutes.
Murray had dug deep in the third round to come from two sets to love down to beat Austria's Jurgen Melzer but no player had lost the first set in a US Open final and gone on to win since Edberg in 1991.
Federer took his sixth game in a row to break Murray and take a 2-0 lead in the second set, only to see the British player break back to love.
Murray held his serve comfortably to draw level at 2-2 and he won the next three points on Federer's serve to earn another triple break point off another loose volley at the net from the second seed.
Federer saved the first but Murray should have wrapped the game up in a similar rally on the next point when a Federer forehand mid-point looked long but play continued to the defending champion's benefit.
Murray looked witheringly at the line judge but having not challenged in mid-point he could do nothing to reverse the situation and Federer went on to hold serve as a television replay showed the ball had indeed been long.
With Murray serving to send the set into a tiebreak at 6-5 down, Federer re-emerged from his mid-set lull to convert the first of three set points, punishing a drop shot at the net with a winner down the line.
Having matched Federer throughout the set, Murray found himself 2-0 down and with a mountain to climb as the 12-time grand slam winner celebrated with a huge roar.
Murray's exertions in the previous rounds finally appeared to catch up with him as Federer broke his serve in the second and fourth games of the third set to move 4-0 up.
Murray finally got on the scoreboard at 4-1 to great cheers from the crowd and they got even louder as he broke back in the next game.
There was still some fight in Murray but his body was not so willing and having saved one championship point he was merely delaying the inevitable.
At the second match point, there would be no denying Federer as he fired in overheads at the net that Murray could only return for so long, eventually sending a tired forehand to the net and handing the defending champion his fifth straight US Open title.
The feat also made Federer the first player to win five consecutive titles in two grand slam events, having achieved it also at Wimbledon.
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