“If I had to lose it to someone, he’s the one.” So said Rafael Nadal, doffing his cap to Roger Federer yesterday, as the curtain finally came down on a sporting run that had been developing Mousetrap tendencies.

After 81 consecutive victories on clay – think of the mileage and the stresses involved in such a phenomenal sequence and it offers a full measure of the Spaniard’s abilities (Serena Williams described him last week as an “animal”) – Nadal was confronted for a little more than an hour yesterday with Federer resplendent, resurgent, reborn minus shackles and, most importantly, minus fear. With a few dextrous swishes of his racket, the entire tennis picture was transformed.

Federer won the Hamburg Masters Series event for the fourth time in six years, beating Nadal 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. The score in the final set is not a misprint, rather a glorious exclamation point for the brilliance of the Swiss, who became the first man to win a set to love against Nadal on clay since the Monte Carlo final of April 2005, when Guillermo Coria, of Argentina, was playing with a conviction that has subsequently been broken by a painstaking recovery from shoulder problems.

Nothing hindered Federer at the Rothenbaum, not after he squeezed through the third game of the second set, in which he was twice a break point down. Nadal would have surged on to claim his third consecutive Masters Series tournament on clay, a feat that no one had previously managed. But the world No 1 played four sublime points, ruling the rallies, dictating the rhythm and, wonder of wonders, driving a hole into the Nadal petrol tank from which the spirit noticeably seeped.

Accepting Nadal’s dejection at the subjugation of his record, the result has clearly added spice to the French Open, which starts next Sunday with most people assuming that a fortnight farther down the road, Federer and Nadal will meet again with an awful lot more on the line than was the case in Hamburg yesterday.

Federer had lost their five previous clay-court matches, four of which had been in finals. A complex was starting to develop, not least because Federer tolerated his most recent defeat, in the Monte Carlo final, with more equilibrium than the dominant force in his sport ought. Had, say, John McEnroe lost to Jimmy Con-nors – or the other way around – and was forced to share the same podium, they would not have looked each other in the eye, much less discussed the beauty of the landscape.

But perhaps the Swiss was playing us all for fools, and only appearedto be playing the role of graceful loser. Then came the horrible defeat by Filippo Volandri, of Italy, in Rome the week before last, the decision to dispense with Tony Roche, his coach, that had been coming to a head and the inevitable microscopic analysis of Federer’s state of mind.

His progress to the final had not been plain sailing, indeed he had often looked decidedly grumpy, but it is remarkable how 60 minutes of the best of Federer can make life seem so bright and beautiful again.

Initially he was not doing anything other than averagely but when he burst to life, serving intelligently, driving up the court rather than hanging out behind the baseline, volleying astoundingly well, sliding into his strokes as if on ice skates, Nadal could not stay with him. Of the final 14 games, Nadal won two and in one of those, he needed to save a break point. To suggest that the French Open champion had played too much recently – Nadal won in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, had been involved in a half-clay, half-grass jaunt with Federer in Majorca and then triumphed in Rome before jetting off to Germany – would be to take the sheen off a Swiss victory that was richly earned.

It also added significant power to the elbow of the world No 1, who has stood foursquare in Hamburg’s corner against the proposed reduction of the tournament’s Masters Series status in 2009. Neither Federer nor Nadal is going away as far as their disquiet at the present manoeuvrings is concerned.

There were a lot of very happy German faces around Federer yesterday. They have a champion who is on their side.

French test

Federer’s record at the French Open

1999 Lost to Pat Rafter (Australia), first round

2000 Lost to Alex Corretja (Spain), fourth round

2001 Lost to Corretja, quarter-final

2002 Lost to Hicham Arazi (Morocco), first round

2003 Lost to Luis Horna (Peru), first round

2004 Lost to Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil), third round

2005 Lost to Rafael Nadal (Spain), semi-final

2006 Lost to Nadal, final