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The "king of clay", who has never lost a match at Roland Garros, was given a stern test by the young Serb in the first two sets, before romping home to a straight sets win in the third.

"My home is in Mallorca but the Centre Court here is a place that means a lot to me," Nadal said afterwards. "Being in a third final is amazing and makes me proud and happy."

In the opening set Djokovic was struggling to cope with Nadal's deep top spin forehands early on and found himself two breaks and 5-2 down after seven gruelling games.

However, he showed tremendous guts to break Nadal twice on his way to levelling the set 5-5, but like a true champion, Nadal then found a break of his own to put an abrupt end to the momentum shift.

At the end of the next game Nadal was doing his trademark punch in the air as a hold to 15 saw him finally take the first set in 66 minutes - a time which meant the set lasted longer than the entire women's semi-final between Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova.

Both players then got their serves working in the second set as they swapped holds, before in the seventh game Nadal finally broke again.

However, once more he had difficult serving out the set as while 5-4 in front he saw Djokovic earn a break point after coming from 40-0 down, but a timely ace by the Spaniard ended that scare, and two quick points followed to give him control of the match.

Losing the second set knocked the stuffing out of Djokovic who looked a beaten man right from the start of the third.

Two weak drop-shots that tamely went into the net saw him broken in the first game of the set, and Nadal quickly followed that up with three more games in a row to go 4-0 up.

Djokovic avoided the bagel with a hold to 4-1 and picked up another service game before the end but Nadal was at his sublime best at this stage and easily served out the match

The number two seed will now look to win his third successive French Open title against his old nemesis' Federer, with the Spaniard hoping for a repeat of last year's final which he won in four sets.

"A match between the world number one and the world number two is always a special occasion," Nadal said, looking forward to Sunday's final.

"He's the best player in the history of the game. I will have to be at my very best. That's the only way you can beat Roger."

Seán Fay