Rafael Nadal with the Coupe de Mousquetaires near the Eiffel Tower on Monday. Nadal defeated Roger Federer on Sunday to make it a hattrick of French Open titles. (AP)

The familiar sound of La Mancha Real resounded around Court Philippe Chatrier to herald once again what everyone, even Roger Federer, probably already knew: Rafael Nadal is a champion with no current peer when it comes to playing on clay.

And with his 26th birthday just a few months away, Federer must now wonder whether he will ever get his hands on that elusive Coupe de Mousquetaires, the one trophy that continues to prevent him from being hailed the greatest player of all time.

While Nadal is again understandably ecstatic after becoming the first player since Bjorn Borg to win the clay court Grand Slam three times in succession, Federer will not be happy with his performance in the four-set final.

Any player who is presented with 17 break point opportunities and only capitalises on one of them, needs to take a serious look at his tactics.

Nadal played the only way he knows, whipping the most extreme spin on the ball and waging a war of attrition by bludgeoning his opponent into making errors.

Quite simply, Nadal proved that he is even a better player than when he retained the title 12 months ago.

Now his serve is a more potent weapon, he can more than hold his own at the net and he just seems to get stronger and stronger.

Towards the end of the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 encounter that lasted three hours and 10 minutes there was a distinct look of fatigue on Federer’s face.

After registering what turned out to be the decisive break of serve early in the fourth set he seemed to revel in Federer’s frustration and repeatedly ruthless passing shots underlined just how well Nadal was going about his duty.

However it was the beginning of the third set that was most crucial.

At one set all, the match was finely balanced but the Spaniard snatched back the momentum with an early break of serve and from that moment another defeat for Federer was inevitable.

He served poorly at the beginning, was tentative when he should have been belligerent and seemed unsure of what his game plan should be.

Basically, he appeared to be what he is at the moment, a player without a coach who needed some expert guidance before potentially the biggest match of his year.