The day Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal left earth

At one point in Pixar's Soul, the protagonist Joe Gardner, who is stuck in limbo between earth and heaven, stumbles upon "the zone" - a place filled with the souls of people who are having out-of-body experiences. Joe is told that such people lose themselves in the intensity of their art, and enter a trance-like state that cannot be contained on earth.

Did Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal get transported to a similarly different dimension during their Roland Garros semifinal on Friday? The quality of their tennis certainly didn't seem earthly or even human; it was something beyond what normal court coverage and racket-work are supposed to produce.

Djokovic's take-down of Nadal at the Spaniard's stomping ground will forever have a special and detailed place in the annals of tennis history. The Serb has done the seemingly impossible not just once but twice, and his exploits deserve a chapter of their own. But what the history books might not be able to capture is how Djokovic did it.

There was something surreal about the show that he and Nadal put on, which cannot be adequately conveyed with words or even video replays. And that is why all those who watched the match yesterday will always carry a secret treasure with them; they experienced the battle live, in its full glory, and nothing can ever match that.

It's almost comical to think now that the match started in utterly routine fashion - with Rafael Nadal taking his hapless opponent to the woodshed. The 35-year-old raced away to a 5-0 lead in the first set, and at that point all that the Novak Djokovic fans wanted was for their man to somehow avoid a repeat of the 2020 final.

If only they knew what he wanted.

Over the last couple of years Novak Djokovic has made no secret of his ambition to win a second Roland Garros title, but many of us have been brushing that off as false bravado. Djokovic saying he wanted to beat Nadal, and fans predicting him to actually do that (like I did last year) were both seemingly headed in just one direction: making a fool out of themselves.

The 2020 final in particular had left me shook. I had decided immediately after that match that I would never bet against Rafael Nadal in Paris again.

So when the Spaniard went 5-0 up, it seemed like just another brick in the massive edifice that Nadal has created for himself at Roland Garros. Such has been the 35-year-old's dominance that even when Djokovic found his game to take the second set, it seemed like he was merely delaying the inevitable.

Then the third set happened.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal produce a set of tennis that transcends the sport

Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros 2021

The first two sets had taken well over two hours, but we know now that they were only a warmup act. The two GOATs were just teasing us with glimpses of what they were truly capable - which might have also been true of their own approach to winning the match.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal seemed to have been feeling each other out in those first two hours, trying to gauge just how far the other was willing to go. And when they realized that they were both prepared to go as far as it took, all hell broke loose.

Novak Djokovic launched an unbridled attack that looked capable of destroying the very foundations of Court Philippe Chatrier. And Rafael Nadal dug in his heels as though he was determined to keep the ground standing even if an earthquake hit Paris.

The Serb vaporized one forehand after another, and threw himself into his backhand like he never had before. But he had to hit about five winners to win just one point, because Nadal got practically every single ball back in play.

By the middle of the set the Spaniard also rediscovered his down-the-line forehand from earlier in the match, which meant Djokovic was now forced to defend almost as much as he was attacking. But he refused to back off, and the result was that almost every point started looking like a whole match - replete with crushing forehands, mad sprints, crazily angled backhands, impossible gets, unbelievable lobs and ear-splitting roars.

Both men bludgeoned the ball and scrambled from one end of the court to another as though their life depended on it. I rarely swear, but at numerous points of the third set I could only say "WTF" on my tennis discussion groups. There were literally no words - only gasps and obscenities - that could be considered appropriate responses to some of the rallies.

It was tennis of such dizzying quality that it made you want to tell the whole world about it. It made you want to scream "Drop everything you're doing and watch Novak Djokovic vs Rafael Nadal NOW!" to your non-tennis friends. Except that you didn't have to, because everyone was already tuned in.

The last time I felt a match transcending the sport like this was the 2017 Australian Open final, and before that the 2008 Wimbledon final. Both of those matches were contested by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and at least part of the excitement in each case was down to the historical significance of the rivalry and the legacy-defining spoils that were at stake.

But the excitement around Friday's Roland Garros match was about the tennis alone. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal produced such an exhilarating display that it struck a chord even with people who didn't understand a thing about the sport. It made everyone feel things that they didn't know two men hitting a ball with a racket could make them feel; it touched their very soul.

Can there be any greater advertisement of what Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal bring to the sport? This was Big 3 greatness at its absolute, unfathomable peak.

Novak Djokovic - the man who can do ANYTHING when he sets his mind to it

Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros 2021

After Novak Djokovic managed to eke out that epic third set in a tiebreaker, everyone needed a moment - or an hour? - to get their heart rate back to normal. But everyone also wondered at that point whether the Serb would be able to keep up his relentless level; it just didn't seem humanly possible to do what he was doing for another hour or so.

When Rafael Nadal broke at the start of the fourth set, those doubts were seemingly confirmed. But we hadn't reckoned with just how monstrous an opponent Novak Djokovic can be when he really wants something.

The World No. 1 resumed his all-out attack soon, and got the break back in almost no time. He hit a series of inch-perfect groundstrokes in that frenetic period, and with each almighty blow you could see Rafael Nadal getting visibly deflated.

The Spaniard was worn down at Court Philippe Chatrier, which is something that most of us thought simply couldn't happen. It hadn't happened in 15 years, so how could it now?

The stats might show that Rafael Nadal made 55 unforced errors in the match, and the replays will tell you he missed a sitter forehand volley at 3-4 in the third-set tiebreaker. But overall, this performance wasn't very different than what Nadal usually produces in Paris, and what usually gets the job done.

Rafael Nadal has crafted an otherworldly legacy at Roland Garros, and on almost every single point on Friday you could see what has gone into that. The man did literally everything in his power to keep standing, to keep fighting, to keep holding on.

It's just that the man on the other side of the net was too strong, too dialed-in, too possessed, for anything to change the result. Novak Djokovic was not going to be denied on this day, come hell, high water or Rafael Nadal.

Just this once, Nadal met his match. An otherwordly run and otherworldly player were taken down by an otherworldly performance, and nobody would want it any other way.

It seems almost vulgar that this wasn't the final of the tournament, and that Novak Djokovic still has to play one more match to lift the trophy. But irrespective of the result on Sunday, is there any doubt that both Djokovic and Nadal are already among this fortnight's winners?

The two men left earth during their war. No offense to Stefanos Tsitsipas, but absolutely nothing can top that.