CAMELOT FANTASIES

No worries, general Hercules, I did it.  Your thread is back up there.

It was a struggle following yesterday's big match with Djokovic only 22 hours before.  Federer clearly looked drained, and struggled with his serve throughout the first 1/2 of the match.  Forturnately for him, Berdych, while somewhat fresher, also looked nervous in the key points.  Federer gutted it out and won it, and at the end had more winners than errors. 

Berdych couldn't deal with it at the end.  He was up a set and a break in the second, but Federer broke back, and then broke again to take the second set, and Berdych lost some confidence and was quickly down 4-1 and 5-2 in the decider.

Not a pretty match by any standards, but Federer got it done and won a record 6th Dubai title and the 78th ATP singles title of his career, putting him into 3rd place all time behind Connors(109) and Lendl (94), passing John McEnroe.   Mac has no reason to be too discouraged, he also won some 76 or 77 doubles titles...

Respectfully,
masterclass