Written before Sunday's final
Do you remember that scene in The Matrix in which Neo is getting trained in martial arts (if that's what you call having skills downloaded directly into his brain), and Morpheus is testing him by sparring against him, and Mouse runs to where everyone else is hanging out and exclaims, "Morpheus is fighting Neo!" and everyone immediately rushes to the monitors to watch? Watching this match felt a lot like that, like you wanted to rush into another room and exclaim, "Kyrgios is playing Federer!"
They both do things with the ball that no one should be able to do, totally Matrix-like things. Federer wraps imagination together with grace so perfectly that his play almost always seems effortless. Kyrgios couples imagination with raw power, playfulness, and a lot of flash to lead to a game full of stunning surprises, like the Federer drop half-volley he answered by rushing up and hitting a forward-facing tweener for a winner.
They fought, and fought, and fought. Federer saved two set points to win the first set. Kyrgios saved two match points to win the second set. Federer fought back from a mini-break in the third-set tiebreaker. Ultimately, someone had to win, because the rules demand it, but on this night the difference between them was but a hair's breadth.
Nadal will have to bring a very different strategy to the final from what he brought to his match against Federer at Indian Wells, or else the real final will have been played Friday night, not Sunday afternoon.