The victory gave Nadal, unbeaten now in 22 hard court matches this year, his 10th title in 13 tournaments this year since returning from a seven-month injury lay-off in February.
The Spaniard, also the champion at Flushing Meadows in 2010, fell to the court in flood of tears after securing the title at the first attempt when Djokovic netted a forehand after three hours and 19 minutes.
The win also improved his career total to 13 grand slam wins, moving him one ahead of Australian Roy Emerson into third on the all-time list behind Roger Federer (17) and Pete Sampras (14).
Coming into the final Nadal had only lost one set, to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the fourth round, and had only been broken once, by Richard Gasquet in the last four, and for the first set-and-a-half against Djokovic nothing looked set to change as the Spaniard dominated the baseline rallies.
But the world number one, playing in his fourth consecutive US Open final, suddenly found some breathtaking tennis to take control of the second set and suggest a reoccurence of their five set epic battles in their last two Grand Slam meetings - the French Open semi-final earlier this year and the Australian Open final in 2012.
Nadal, however, had other ideas and battled back from an early break down in the third set before running away with proceedings in the fourth as Djokovic tired.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
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