Paris: They came, they saw but never conquered and now Novak Djokovic is staring into the same Paris abyss that swallowed up the Grand Slam ambitions of Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker.

The world number one lost his third final in four years at Roland Garros on Sunday when his hopes of becoming just the eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam were swept away by Stan Wawrinka’s tide of killer one-handed backhands.