Nadal's reign on Roland Garros ends in Djokovic's hands

Birthday boy Rafael Nadal crashed out here on Wednesday in the French Open quarterfinals, losing three straight sets to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

The Spaniard, who turned 29 Wednesday, committed a double fault to surrender 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 26 minutes to the Serb, who's holding three match points.

It's just the second defeat of Nadal in 72 career matches at Roland Garros after ruling the Paris slam for nine of the last 10 years. The other came in the fourth round in 2009 against Robin Soderling.

The 28-year-old Djokovic, on the other hand, will be chasing his first French Open title to complete a career slam after twice losing to Nadal in the finals of the 2012 and 2014 tournament.

"Everything is coming together in my life and I am experiencing probably the pinnacle of my career, of my life," said the top seed who's got married and had a baby in the last 12 months.

"I am a complete person. Very satisfied on and off the court. I think it all influences the results and my performances," he added.

Breaking Nadal in as early as the sixth seed's first two serving games, Djokovic allowed his opponent only four points and raced into a 4-0 lead before the Spaniard broke back to level it on 4-4.

Nadal overcame three set points to make it 5-5 after the 10th game, during which the Spaniard was warned by umpire Cedric Mourier for exceeding the 20-second limit between points.

The 12th game, however, saw Nadal saving two more set points but being broken again by the Serb with a low cross-courter that Nadal returned wide.

Djokovic continued to overwhelmingly control in the following sets, breaking for 5-3 in the second and going even more ruthless in the third, while Nadal just netted more tired drives.

With the number "9" written on the back of his shoes, Nadal's fall-out marked the end of a historical reign.

While injuries and appendicitis kept the "King of Clay" off court during the second half of 2014, the Spaniard arrived in Paris without winning a European claycourt event for the first time in over a decade.

Entering Roland Garros ranked just the seventh in the world, Nadal had to accept a draw pitting him and top seed Djokovic in only the quarterfinals.

Responding to a question about how his career coming to a turning point, Nadal said he's not losing confidence and would try harder to come back.

"I'm gonna come back next year and I'm gonna try to be competitive, to try to be better prepared than this year, and try to arrive with a little bit more good confidence," he said.

"Everybody loses in every place. I lost not many times here, and that day arrived today," added the claycourt specialist. "Like I always accept the defeats, there is only one sure thing -- I want to work harder even than before to come back stronger." Endite