Roger kept the match on his racquet. He almost always kept the points short, went for it, if he missed, he missed and didn't worry about it. The 5 set match went only 3:37. Even in the sets he lost, his tactics were mostly the same, only his execution was worse. His backhand was the strength of his game. The serve was good and came through in key moments, but his backhand was incredible over most of the match. Rafa fought hard, as only he can, but his banana forehand did not come through enough, mostly due to Federer's flatter backhand shooting through the court, both down the line and cross court. Rafa's serving to the Federer body from the middle of the match on worked very well for him and I believe kept Federer at bay, especially in the 4th set, after Roger won the 3rd so easily. In the 5th set, even though Federer was broken early, threatened in every one of Nadal's service games, and finally broke back to even the score and broke again to go to 5-3 and he managed to close it out with a flourish and a Hawk-Eye review. Take nothing away from Nadal. He played well. He had a solid 35 winners and 28 UE's (+7), while Federer's aggressive played earned him an amazing 73 winners and 57 UE's (+16).
To sum up, Roger's commitment to his tactics to go for his shots and his improved backhand got him over the line to overcome the match up issues he has had with Nadal.
Congratulations to Roger Federer and his fans. Commiserations to Rafael Nadal and his fans.
Interesting that Roger said at the end that he hoped to be back next year, but if not, then it was a good that he won.
He has said he hopes to play a few more years but one gets the feeling if his body starts failing on him, he might hang it up.
I saw some moments in sets 4 and early in set 5 where he was limping a bit from the hip abductor problem, but he gritted his teeth, probably got some pain help during the MTO and played on.
Respectfully,
masterclass