It took a peaking Novak Djokovic to make Nadal look like he did on Wednesday, but whenever Nadal's demise comes on in full, he will look like this a lot more.
We knew for a while that Rafael Nadal was not in peak form heading into the 2015 French Open. The greatest clay-courter of all time was mortal during all of clay season. He lost to Fabio Fognini in both Rio and Barcelona, and against Novak Djokovic (Monte Carlo), Andy Murray (Madrid), and Stan Wawrinka (Rome) in spring tune-ups, he lost by a combined 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6, 6-2.
Still, he did beat Grigor Dimitrov, Tomas Berdych, and John Isner, all in straight sets, in recent weeks, and with the right draw, it was still conceivable that he could make a run at his 10th French Open title.
Nadal's form was fine through the first week at Roland Garros, but he didn't get the right draw. Stuck with a No. 6 seed, he drew the top-ranked Djokovic in the quarterfinals, and No. 1 player in the world disposed of him in less-than-sentimental manner.
After a nip-and-tuck first set that saw an aggressive Djokovic jump out to a 4-0 lead before Nadal stormed back, the match quickly grew lopsided. Djokovic broke Nadal at 5-5 in the first set and proceeded to win 14 of the final 18 games of the match. He took the second set, 6-3, and any hopes of a last-ditch Nadal comeback were spoiled when Djokovic broke to start the third set. The final: 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. Djokovic will play No. 3 seed Andy Murray in the semifinals while No. 8 Stan Wawrinka and No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battle on the opposite side.
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