Now girls that is a hard act to follow!

As one who purchases tickets to every Australian Open, and now a couple of US Opens and this year Roland Garros, experience suggests that quarters, semis and finals can be slightly less inspiring than the potential that they demand.

However, we were pretty certain that Friday 3 June 2011 was not going to fall into that category. The final analysis will show that the top 4 men's players in the world gave us far more than even we could possibly have expected, the spectacular day ending as night was falling on Paris on breathtaking, pulsating tennis that the Women's Final will find difficult to follow.

First it was king of the clay - and while he is the French Open champ he remains king - Rafa Nadal to have a hit of tennis on his birthday with young mate Andy Murray who he'd invited over to one of the local courts he'd booked for a few hours. Being a good sport, Scotsman Murray granted Nadal first use of a break of serve in the match which had attracted quite a few onlookers from around the neighbourhood.

Andy seemed to be striking the tennis balls rather harshly, as if there was something personal against them, yet the Spaniard concentrated on retrieving almost all of them and sending them back to Scotland with interest, and the interest was great for us in the crowd. Murray could not make inroads into the match largely due to the arsenal which the Spaniard had brought with him, including one of the highest calibre legally available forehands, this latest model with the super top spin option included.

At 1-5, Andy needed to hold serve to at least keep Nadal honest and hold serve for the set which appeared headed his way. Not only did Andy keep his end of the bargain, but finally converted a break point in Rafa's next game. Despite having more chances as Nadal served a second time for the set, Murray could not succeed, and the big point winner took the opening set 6-4. Murray had made his statement, though - he was now playing well enough to win.

The second set was a smorgasbord of delightful tennis fare for which we went back for seconds and thirds - we could not have enough of the splendid rallies, highlighted by the power serving and deft touch of Murray and the running capacity of Nadal who reached all but a few of the Scot's ground strokes then adding some Spanish flavor of his own before returning over the other side in a usually more difficult form with which to deal.

Twice Nadal broke, only for Murray to break straight back, but at 5-5 the champ struck, and unfortunately Murray at 5-6 could not prevent Rafa serving to take a two set lead in a match that while close was feeling a million miles out of reach for Andy.

Any chance of an heroic comeback was dashed immediately in the third set when an apparent mental lapse led to a break of serve - yet again it required Andy to come from behind to win a set. More elite tennis from both players as the clock ticked over 3 hours - shots that surely are not meant to be made by mere mortals were being struck as if in practice by Rafa and Andy, but as much as the break points kept coming for Murray, so the conversion necessary to continue the match did not.

Rafa Nadal served his way into a sixth French Open final with a straight sets but anything but straightforward victory over gallant Andy Murray 6-4 7-5 6-4.