IT was, perhaps, a game of thrones.

Rafa Nadal's decade-long reign as the king of clay was abruptly brought to an end by Novak Djokovic on Court Philippe Chatrier yesterday, dispatched in his own back yard with the kind of savagery not witnessed since the MacDonalds invited those nice Campbell boys over to Glencoe for tea.

The final score, which read 7-5, 6-3, 6-1, scarcely did it all justice. The man who had lost just once at this venue, to Sweden's Robin Soderling in the fourth round in 2009, was done for in less than two and a half hours, bound for Mallorca with fully four days of the French Open still to run. And all of this on his 29th birthday. While the Mallorcan went off to blow out the candles and consider his mortality, no wonder most tennis scribes on hand saw fit to deem this the changing of the guard.

This wasn't, of course, a final. The crown, which has been removed from Nadal's head, is not yet Djokovic's to own. It is the prize the Serb desires most, the only bauble he still requires to complete a proud career Grand Slam. But this was a sizeable, symbolic leap towards it, and one which may leave psychological scars for the Spaniard to go with his physical ones.

In what was a remarkable 44th tour meeting between the pair - no match-up has occurred more frequently in the Open era - whatever hopes Nadal had hinged on that 67-minute opening set. First, an inspired Djokovic raced into a 4-0 lead, only for Nadal to peg him back again at 4-4. The Mallorcan gamely survived five break points in the set's ninth and 11th games before eventually succumbing. His mood can't have been helped by the time violation warning he received.

A show of resistance from the Spaniard in the second set was unable to stop this one becoming one-way traffic. An unforced error on that famous forehand gave the Serb a 3-5 second set advantage he never relinquished, and Nadal was happy just to avoid the ignominy of being bagelled in the third.

He put a brave face on things afterwards, and said he had no more doubts now than in the past. "I had my moments but in general Novak was in control most of the time," said Nadal, who will play Stuttgart and Queen's club before Wimbledon. "I doubted myself the 11 years I have been playing here. I won nine and lost twice. So doubts are good in life.

"I am happy with the way I recovered my level the last month, but it was probably not enough yet to play against and win against Novak. I am going to come back next year and try to be competitive."

Djokovic - beaten six times here previously by Nadal - said he would savour the night, then focus on the two rounds which remain. "Of course, playing against Rafa in Roland Garros, it's a special thing," he said. "It's definitely a big win, a match I will remember for a long time. But tomorrow is a new day and I have to move on. It's only quarterfinals, and I want to fight for the title. That's what I came here for."

Such a heavyweight occasion could hardly fail to overshadow the events on the day's undercard, although Serena Williams is also starting to look every bit as strong a contender to complete a seasonal slam as Djokovic. After losing the opening set in her previous three rounds, her 6-1, 6-3 victory against Sara Errani, the No 17 seed from Italy, was noticeably more straightforward, all over and done with in less time than the first set of Djokovic-Nadal. She chases her 20th singles title with this year's Australian Open title in the bag, and a power game which translates perfectly for both Wimbledon and the US Open. "I'm not putting too much pressure on myself," she said. "I'm surprised I'm still in the tournament, so this is really cool for me." Her opponent in today's semi finals will be Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, after the unheralded 25-year-old reaching her first Grand Slam semi-final after overcoming unseeded Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium in straight sets.