CAMELOT FANTASIES

If you go by the points - 98 to Federer and 99 to Nole - then yes, it does seem like a close match or an even match, but in reality Nole was always ahead in the final set. He pushed Federer in at least two of his service games and converted one.  Was also serving for the match at 5-4 but ended up getting tight. Nole also dominated the TB. After Nole won the 2nd set, Federer was always on surviving mode and was trying to catch Nole up whereas Nole was on more control of the match. So I didn't think it was all that even and the deduction based on the points is misleading.

Anyway, 34 winners and 34 errors from Federer so the match wasn't very pretty by any means. It had drama, yes but the supposedly 'high quality' wasn't there from either party. There were glimpses but that's all that were there.   

Nole did have a tougher path to the final and beat some on form players like Cilic, Isner and Federer to win the title, so definitely the best man won. Dolgo would have been much more affective against Federer had he met with him early like he did against Nadal. But by the time he met with Federer in the semi, the long path and the glorious victory was already behind and I don't think he had much left in the tank to offer at that point. Tursunov, early in the tournament, did give a glimpse of Federer true form if anyone was watching.