Rafael Nadal and Andreas Beck are both tennis players. They both play with the racket in the left hand. One found a way to win yesterday. It was not Beck.

What is the difference between the journeyman and the genius? There are the intangibles of talent, technique and will. They are difficult to measure. It is therefore impossible to be precise about how a match is won. There can be certainty, however, over exactly when a contest is won.

Rafael Nadal and Andreas Beck are both tennis players. They both play with the racket in the left hand. One found a way to win yesterday.

It was not Beck.

The precise moment of the German's downfall could be traced to just after 3pm as a gentle breeze blew across the Centre Court. Nadal was serving at 2-3 and at 0-30. He was in a spot. He leapt from it with the feline grace that characterises his play.

He won four straight points and then broke Beck. He later served to love to win the set.

Beck, who had the same situation early in the second set, could not find a route to safety. He sensed, perhaps, that the match was already lost. He was right. It finished 6-4, 6-4 7-6 (7-0).

If the exact moment of defeat was clear, the rest was dazzling. Beck contributed much to a match that tilted inexorably to the Spaniard early but continued to have moments of genuine excitement. This was no surprise for regular observers of the Spaniard. Entertainment is Nadal's speciality. He could make dominoes a spectator sport.

Some of this powerful attraction is down to his demeanour. Nadal has a presence. Roger Federer has his cardy, Serena Williams has her overcoat. Rafa has an outfit that suggests he is heading for an afternoon of skateboarding. He has a bandana, wristbands and tape under his knees. He also has a pair of shorts that seem to shrink just when he is about to serve. This necessitates a quick adjustment in backcourt, as it is known in medical terms.

Most of the fascination, however, concerns his physical powers. Nadal has a left arm like Popeye. He uses it to terrible, thumping effect. He is an irresistible mixture of brute strength and subtle cunning. The Spaniard has a forehand that makes the ball leave the racket with such a velocity that one looks for a wisp of smoke. This is highly entertaining when Nadal executes it with feet planted squarely on the turf. It is also decisive. The tie-break in the third set witnessed one such missile.

There is more, however. It is a wonder of the sporting world when the 22-year-old sprints across court and unleashes his forehand at full stretch.

Nadal's serve, too, is part of this armoury of power. He has worked on it and it shows. He did not face a break point yesterday and hit 17 aces.

"I improve because I am young and I must improve," he said with his trademark simplicity later. "My goal is always to be a better player, so for that reason I improved a little bit my serve. I am now a more complete player because I have more options, no?"

But he also shows guile and a tactical nous. Nadal can bludgeon. He can also ambush. His mastery of spin is such that he can take players into areas that leave them vulnerable to the winning shot.

Nadal can shape a backhand slice that creeps over the net with the stealth of a burglar. One such shot in the first set drew gasps from spectators, who had assumed it was destined for a gentle repose in the net. Instead, it glided over on to Beck's patch and skidded to a halt, forcing the German to lunge forward and play a stroke that was punished by the Spaniard.

Beck persevered. He was obdurate in the third set. He forced Nadal to work for victory but the Spaniard needed little encouragement to chase shots down.

"It's not a game he's playing," said the German. "You cannot describe it. I was thinking all the time: What the hell is he doing? He is running all the time.

He catches every ball."

Beck, to his credit, forced the third set into a tie-break.

There was only one winner. Nadal closed it out to love. The match was over after two hours and 21 enthralling minutes. But it had been decided two hours earlier when artful genius triumphed over honest effort.