PARIS: There was no trophy, and no title, on offer for Novak Djokovic at Court Philippe Chatrier.Perhaps there should have been, considering what he accomplished.

Thoroughly outplaying the best there’s ever been on red clay, Djokovic ended Rafael Nadal’s 39-match French Open winning streak on Wednesday by beating the nine-time champion in a surprisingly lop-sided quarter-final 7-5, 6-3, 6-1.

It’s only Nadal’s second defeat in 72 career matches at Roland Garros — and second in 95 best-of-five-set matches anywhere on the surface.

The other came in the fourth round in Paris in 2009 against Robin Soderling.

Before that, Nadal won four championships in a row. And since? Nadal collected a record five consecutive French Open titles.

“I lost in 2009, and [it] was not the end,” Nadal said. “I lost in 2015, and [it] is not the end.”

The top-ranked Djokovic lost all six previous matches they’d played in Paris, including the 2012 and 2014 finals.

But Djokovic’s defence allowed Nadal only three winners off his heavy topspin lefty forehand, perhaps the most feared shot in all of tennis.

With his coach, Boris Becker, jumping out of his seat to applaud, Djokovic conjured up 45 winners to only 16 for Nadal, whose 29th birthday sure was a downer.

By the end, Djokovic not only had broken down Nadal’s game but also his usually unbending will.

Appropriately for a match that did not live up to the hype, it closed with a whimper on a double-fault by Nadal.

PARIS: Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium returns the ball to Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland.—Reuters

“I have much respect for Rafa. He is obviously not playing at the level we expect from him this season,” Djokovic said.

This was only a quarter-final because Nadal’s ranking slipped so far he was seeded sixth, all of his unprecedented French Open success notwithstanding.

Significant as this victory was, Djokovic has more work to do in pursuit of a first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.

“Well, he has to win two more matches, but this match only increase the confidence,” Nadal said. “He’s probably in the best moment of his career. He has a good chance to win here.”

In Friday’s semifinals, the 28-year-old Serb will meet the third-seeded Briton Andy Murray, who eliminated 2013 runner-up David Ferrer 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

The other semifinal sees Stan Warinka face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

In the women’s semi-finals on Thursday, Serena Williams plays Timea Bacsinszky, and Ana Ivanovic meets Lucie Safarova. Serena advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sara Errani, and Bacsinszky beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-4, 7-5.

World number one Serena hammered 39 winners in a one-sided encounter against the diminutive 17th seed Errani, a French Open runner-up in 2012.

“I knew I had to start better today than the other days because she’s a tough opponent who’s got history here,” Williams told a courtside interviewer in French.

Bacsinszky is through to her first Grand Slam semi-final after repelling a battling performance by Van Uytvanck on Court Suzanne Lenglen in a match that lasted an hour and three quarters.

“It is absolutely extraordinary, just incredible. I’m very proud of my run,” said Bacsinszky after becoming the first Swiss woman to reach the semis in Paris since Martina Hingis in 2001 and the first at any Grand Slam since Patty Schnyder at the Australian Open in 2004.

“It was a very difficult match. She was in the quarters because she had played very well so I had to battle like crazy, back to the wall.”

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2015

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