Rafael Nadal ‘at peace’ if Olympic defeat to Djokovic is his Paris singles farewell

• Top seed defeats his old rival 6-1, 6-4 in second round
• Djokovic into third round chasing a first Olympic title

For the best part of two ­decades, Rafael Nadal has dominated the courts of Roland Garros like no tennis player has at any other tournament in the history of the sport. He has won the French Open 14 times, triumphing in 112 of his first 115 matches there. During certain periods, Nadal on Court Philippe-Chatrier has felt like the closest thing to an unbeatable force. A towering steel statue of the Spaniard now sits permanently in the tournament grounds even as he continues to play.

It is possible, though, that he has now played his final singles match on the courts that have defined his career. On Monday afternoon, rather than ­mutually elevating each other as they have so many other times in the past, the 60th meeting between Novak Djokovic and Nadal proved a total mismatch as the Serbian completely dismantled his old rival 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Olympic Games.