Nadal bows before a higher power

For Rafael Nadal 2011 is turning into a very long year. In tournament after tournament he has trudged all the way to the final only to find himself at the foot of the mountain that is Novak Djokovic; a magic mountain where all the points of the Mallorcan's compass lead to confusion. The Serbian has truly been touched by stardust since winning the Australian Open in January - only his second Grand Slam title at the time, but since Monday night's demolition of Nadal at Flushing Meadows, he now has a US Open among his four major trophies.

Only Roger Federer's favor - defeating Djokovic in the semifinal at Roland Garros before the Swiss-Spaniard French Open final showdown followed its customary course ? allowed Nadal to gild a year that has seen him fall to number two behind the man from Belgrade, the Serbian's dominance underscored by the statistic that reads: six finals against Nadal, six victories.

There were times on Monday when the gap between the two was almost insultingly great, Djokovic treating the Nadal serve as if it were a pretext for target practice, stepping into the court to hit winning returns down the sidelines or deep returns consistently on to the base line below the Spaniard's feet. In all, Djokovic broke Nadal's serve 11 times in a bruising 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 victory.

As ever, great credit must go to Nadal for keeping his discipline and his will to win against an opponent in such impossibly good form. The Mallorcan's behavior is so exemplary that he barely took a couple of swipes at the net cord after a rare missed smash or two as he saw the title he won against Djokovic in 2010 taken from him. Indeed, it was Nadal who came out firing after admitting that he had failed to "work out the Djokovic problem" in their previous five encounters this year, including the final at Wimbledon where the Serbian produced a similarly near-perfect performance to rip away another of the Spaniard's Grand Slam titles - as well as his number-one ranking. An intense Nadal broke for a 2-0 lead before the real problem of the night emerged for the champion: holding serve.

While relatively few of the challenger's service games were straightforward, closing out his own became a torture for Nadal, whose average first serve was slower than in his semifinal against Andy Murray, but still up over the 100mph mark.

Having lost the first set 2-6, Nadal again scurried his way into a 2-0 lead at the start of the second. Then came an astonishing 22-point game in which the Mallorcan was serving for a 3-0 advantage. Nadal had clearly made the decision to step up toward the baseline and was beginning to mix up his shots with mastery, finding a low sliced backhand into the corners that broke the pounding rhythm of Djokovic's missiles from center court. Finally, the game went the Serbian's way, as did the next three, but Nadal broke again for 4-4 after the first signs of weariness began to creep into the world number one's performance.

The second set was lost as Djokovic hit another of his 55 winners, this time from an absurdly wide angle before celebrating in his uninhibited, expansive fashion, which is so different to the more inward-looking arm-pumping favored by the Mallorcan. Nadal could have been excused for wilting, but such is the physical and mental strength of the Spaniard that he seemed to increase his work rate yet more, searching for a new range in his play to throw the Serbian machine off kilter. A marathon 84-minute third set, finally won 7-3 on tiebreak by Nadal, did offer hope that Djokovic's legs were weakening, even if his arms were still swinging lethal blows. The Serbian's serve began to falter, and he stood leaden after failing to connect perfectly with a number of shots, eventually calling for a medical timeout in the fourth set.

But, if anything, Djokovic's weakened state seemed to convince him that the time had come to search for a few more raking drives. Nadal's resistance, like his reign, was over. "I am back to being the player who fights for every ball. It's a big step forward and I take away that satisfaction," he said after the match. Maybe 2012 will offer a fairer fight.