The match was fantastic; Rafa thought he had pulled it off but his vulnerability in his own service games eventually caught up with him. Neither player was at their scintillating best but the last 2 sets were very high-quality.
There were so many key points you could point to from both Fed and Nadal. They both fended off a ton of BPs. So let's look at this from an overall standpoint.
What I saw from Federer today that I think ultimately made him beat Nadal were:
a) His backhand. That backhand today was crucial. I think Fed might have hit his topspin backhand about 85-90 % of the time today (don't know if there's stats to back that up and it'd be interesting to see a comparative metric of this in his former matches vs. Nadal). Both in the rallies but also off the returns. In the rallies Federer managed to take his backhand early and pulled it wide hitting into Nadal's forehand side. He also managed to neutralize the rallies a lot by going down the line in the same vein Dimitrov managed to do it. Federer ended up hitting a lot of backhand winners and that was gold today. That bigger frame definitely aided Federer to be capable of doing this. Remember this is only the second time they play head to head since Federer switched to a bigger racket I believe. As a side note, Nadal couldn't find that first serve from the deuce court to Fed's backhand today. He missed it countless times today. Also played a crucial factor.
b) His patterns of play. Besides the patterns of play with his backhand that I already alluded to, Federer did so well in constructing the points. When Federer wasn't withstanding the FH cc from Nadal, Federer played a lot of topspin forehands to Nadal's backhand side. Djokovic-esque stuff there. When he was in control of the rally, he kept Nadal on the backhand wing an extra time, before eventually extracting the error from Nadal, pressuring Nadal to slice it up high with Fed finishing it at the net or finally going into the open court (the latter didn't happen that often to be honest; the first two outcomes happened most often).
Federer's inside out was also great and it was even more effective today, as you could see Nadal was moving slowlier to his forehand side today, given he probably was feeling the Dimitrov match in his legs. Nadal didn't make those running forehand shots today. He was too late to be in the right positions to hit them.
c) His serve. Federer's first serve was in the mid sixties every single set (apart from the last actually, where it dropped to 52%; Nadal's first serve in the fifth was 85%! - all the more impressive that he won that fifth set)
We all know how much damage Federer can do when he serves well. He did that to Nadal too. Especially come crunch moments which leads to me to fourth key point.
d) Federer's mentality. He did not choke. Well, on his first match point he did. And maybe a few other times. But as a whole, he was rock solid mentally. Just incredible to watch how clutch Federer was. Obviously, considering that's where he often loses to Nadal - in the mental battle. That point that set up BP at 4-3 in the fifth I believe, was just out of this world. You know, the rally where Federer finished with the forehand down the line? Spectacular. This was the paramount question leading into this battle. Would the match up have the same dynamic as a Fedal slam match? It proved not to be the case. Federer was as clutch as Nadal. Even more so given he won. I think Federer's attitude coming into the open with no expectations really helped him. That and the fact that they havn't met in a Slam in three years (and only played one match since that AO SF). Must be amazing for you Fed fans to watch him come through like that.
I think these were the most important key factors to Federer beating Nadal today and taking that #18th slam.
I want to see it.
