With his 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over Novak Djokovic Sunday, Roger Federer won his fourth consecutive U.S. Open championship — a men's tennis Open Era record. The championship also ties him with Roy Emerson for second place on the all-time list of men's career Grand Slam titles (12), leaving behind Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver (both with 11), and trailing only Pistol Pete Sampras who has a ridiculous 14.

Federer is in pretty elite company as it is, but only one man stands between him and being the greatest tennis player ever. Okay, maybe two.

You can read countless articles from numerous coaches and analysts as to why Federer is so great. They'll pretty much all say the same thing: he has tremendous focus on the court, he has great footwork, and he has unfailing mechanics.

Having those help. But Federer is great because he knows how to play tennis. And I'm not talking about hitting a forehand or serving, we've already established his amazing mechanics. I'm talking about his understanding of how to win a match.

You play the right points. The dirty little secret in tennis that not many people emphasize is that to win matches all you need to do is hold your serve (more easy than not if you have at the least a solid serve) and you break your opponent's serve just once to take the set. Do that again and you've just won.

Federer knows this better than most. Conserve your energy. Hold your serve, which is always advantageous to the one serving. Play high-percentage tennis, hit cross-court, and minimize unforced errors. Choose the moments during your service returns to go on the offensive and pound the opponent hard.

I'll use gambling in Las Vegas as an example, and Danny Ocean in Ocean's 11 said it best: "Cause the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet and you bet big, then you take the house."

Your opponent is the house, and that moment when you need to take it up a notch to break serve is the betting big part. If you watch Federer play, he's probably the most relaxed player in the whole tournament. Why? Because he's not sweating every point, nor does he have to win every point. He learned long ago that playing every point is somewhat detrimental to the match itself and to your overall play career-wise. It's something the very talented Marat Safin never learned himself.

Look at Rafael Nadal. He's won three consecutive French Open titles (the hardest Slam) for two reasons. One, he's supremely fit. Two, he's tough and he'll play every point to wear you out. That's the way he plays. That's the way to win on clay. But remember that he's still only 21 years old. He's young enough to do that. But I bet that he'll adjust his style as he gets older (unlike the great Michael Chang), adapt to a less-strenuous style to hopefully avoid injury (he's already had some) and simply because he'll learn he doesn't need to.