PARIS - It might have been taken as an omen, the way that predicted deluge held off, leaving Court Philippe Chatrier bathed in rich sunlight as the French Open men's final got underway this afternoon, with the brass buttons glistening on jackets of the marching band members, and the court lit up and gone the color of buckskin.

And for a few brief and shining moments there, it appeared that it might happen—really happen. Even the most lugubrious and pessimistic of Roger Federer fans had reason to think that this time it might be different between their high-flying idol, severely kitted-out to look like a human Swiss flag, and the man who has tormented him on this same court so often in the past, Rafael Nadal.

Sure, Nadal owns Federer on clay, and had prevailed all four times they played in this storied old stadium, the grandest cathedral in the kingdom of European tennis. Three of those Roland Garros meetings between Federer and Nadal were finals that helped cement Nadal's status as a historic rival to the greatest of all clay-court players, Bjorn Borg.

Slideshow   Federer vs. Nadal Relive the head-to-head battles between the two best players in men's tennis. NBCSports.com

But this year it might be different, some felt. Didn't Novak Djokovic become the first man to batter through the remarkable clay-court defenses of Nadal—and twice in recent weeks, no less? Didn't Nadal himself sound a little world weary? A bit ... sad? A trifle disillusioned through a good portion of this fortnight, the way a child might feel when he learns that the school year will start a week early this year?

But above all, this hope was staked on the basis of that performance Federer put in on that clammy and damp evening two days ago. He knocked Djokovic back on his can where the Serb sat blinking, his 43-match winning streak lying in shards all about him. That was the Federer of yore, the quiet, even-tempered if sometimes tetchy and consumately deadly man whose forehand had the sting of an asp and whose serve had the kick of a mule. Even those who thought he had never gone could not suppress the thought: Maybe he's back!

Slideshow   Career highlights Take a look back at key moments in Rafael Nadal's tennis career. NBCSports.com

And if he could go where no man, including Nadal, had gone this year—taking down Djokovic—what might prevent him from finally besting his career rival, whose pillars that selfsame Djokovic so recently had shaken to their very foundations? Why not? Why couldn't that happen? A great player makes great statements; Federer is the greatest player, so it's his prerogative to make the greatest of all statements; back-to-back wins over Djokovic and Nadal to take his second French Open title. Hope springs eternal ... but it rarely lasts that long.

Yet in the early part of the match it seemed possible if not exactly likely that Federer was about to finish what he started on Friday, about to paint the rest of his masterpiece. He led, 3-0 and 5-2, and Rafa appeared to be on the run.

Slideshow   Career highlights Take a look back at key moments in Roger Federer's tennis career. NBCSports.com

But at 5-2, Nadal held and Federer managed to get only one first serve into the box out of the six he served in the next game, in which he was broken. "Yeah, I mean, that's how it goes," Federer said after he lost the final, 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1. "Rafa is tough. I definitely thought that I got maybe a touch unlucky there and he got a touch lucky. There was a lot of close calls with the net, like right close to the lines plays and so forth. So it was a tough moment. I think that was one of my bigger chances of the match. And then going to maybe a potential rain delay, just having won a set in the bag is obviously a good thing to have."

Hmmmm. That's one way to look at it.

But another way would be to dwell upon the way Nadal charged back to take that set, and immediately broke Federer in the second. The shift of moment was startling, and it pointed toward a few immutable laws that many of us forgot as we tried to grasp those golden moments and find reason to hope in all the hubub about Djokovic, the resurgence of Federer, and the plight of the allegedly emotionally bruised Nadal.