If the first semi-final felt like grand opera, such were the emotions flowing on Court Philippe Chatrier, the second was as bland and rudimentary as a cocktail pianist tinkling away in the corner of a bar.

Rafael Nadal crushed the young challenger, Dominic Thiem, in a touch over two hours. In the process, he reached his tenth French Open final for the loss of just 29 games – and no sets - in the tournament.

This has been the most dominant run of Nadal’s career at Roland Garros, and that is saying something. The only man in grand-slam history to better it is Bjorn Borg, who lost 27 games on the way to the final here in 1978.

Thiem got off to a misleadingly positive start when he broke in the opening game, thanks to a few nervy errors from the otherwise impeccable Nadal. But while he was able to generate more opportunities – eight break points in all – he never managed to capitalise.

This might have been Thiem’s second run to the French Open semi-finals in as many years, but one suspects that his quarter-final victory over Novak Djokovic had taken something out of him mentally. By the time we reached the third set of Nadal’s 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 victory, he was a broken man.