When you are standing 50 feet away from the net, it is all but impossible to penetrate Nadal's seamless defence. You would need a piece of military hardware to hurt him from there.
To give a sense of the margin between the players, Djokovic lost his serve twice in the nine games played today, while Nadal gave away only three points on his own delivery.
There was a brief shower, which threatened to drive the players off the court with the fourth-set score standing at 5-4 to Nadal. But the conditions never became as heavy as they had on Sunday evening, when Nadal's topspin lost its bite and Djokovic was able to reel off eight consecutive games.
Coming out onto the court on a cold, windy, overcast day, Djokovic was understandably vulnerable in his first service game. And when Nadal benefited from a lucky net-cord on break point, he could only look up in despair at his players' box.
That levelled the fourth set at two games all, and gave Nadal a first sniff of his seventh French Open title. The crowd, meanwhile, were supporting his opponent, in the hope that they might be able to enjoy a fifth set showdown.
Djokovic's response was to play more aggressively, throwing in the odd serve-and-volley and trying to dictate points with his forehand. But then, when he served to stay in the match at 5-6, he couldn't stop Nadal bringing up match point with one of those diagonal, inside-out forehands that caused so much damage in this contest.
A spectator called out as Djokovic began his service motion, causing him to stop and back off for a couple of seconds. Then he stepped up and … delivered a double fault. It was a downbeat way for the dream of the "Novak Slam" to end. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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