Andy Murray’s impressive French Open came to a brutal end yesterday with a thrashing by Rafael Nadal, who will bid for an unprecedented ninth French Open title against Novak Djokovic tomorrow.

Reaching the last four had exceeded many people’s expectations for Murray, although he insisted not his own, but he appeared to completely run out of steam.

Nadal was never under the slightest pressure and Murray won just 10 points on his opponent’s serve in a 6-3 6-2 6-1 loss that lasted an hour and 40 minutes.

There was no disguising the size of the task that faced Murray when he walked out onto centre court.

Nadal had lost just one of his 65 matches at Roland Garros and none of the last 33.

And it showed as the Spaniard won with minimum fuss.