In a match that began just before midnight on Thursday, was suspended in the early hours of Friday after a long rain delay, and then began in the afternoon under a sweltering Beijing blue sky, three breaks of service were more than enough to breeze the Swiss team through 6-2, 6-4. Paes-Bhupathi did not obtain even one break point.

There was not even a chance to turn the tide in their favour, said Paes later, just a lone half-chance. “The way they (Federer and Wawrinka) came out last night,” he said after the match, “it seemed they had spoken to someone who knows how to play us. Federer was playing so well.”

But when it’s Paes and Bhupathi, can questions of chemistry be hushed? Not today. Bhupathi reacted to suggestions that the old “chemistry” could not be seen: “It’s too bad, because we felt it.” Paes was more laconical and said he would not be drawn into discussions on atmospherics: “You saw what you saw, mate.”

The bottomline, said Bhupathi, was that they were up against the best player in the world and a guy with him holding out well. (Federer’s 1,659-day reign as world number ends on Monday, but Olympics result do not count in ATP rankings.)

Paes-Bhupathi spoke, almost dispassionately, about their chances of resuming the quest for a medal possibly four years from now, and certainly two years later at the Commonwealth and Asian Games. Consume that statement with as much salt as you like.

Today, the old procedures were there, their complex system of gestures, for instance, to shift into set play. In the second game of the second set, for instance: 40-15, Paes puts his hand behind his back, Bhupathi serves, they immediately switch half-courts and the game is theirs. It was, however, not always so smooth. Far too often they were suddenly stranded, with Federer forcing a no man’s land through the middle of their court.

This match may not have been Paes-Bhupathi’s to win. But it was an instance when a once great doubles pair did not care to show that they’d like to go down as a doubles pair to cherish. Paes and Bhupathi were hustled into partnering each other at the Beijing Olympics. But having been forced together, they could have made a grand gesture of their choice to recall the dream run of 1999-2000. Because doubles acquire identity with long-time partnership.

Earlier, if Federer is unaccustomed to explaining himself to journalists at half past one in the morning, he did not show it. Once Paes-Bhupathi had left the venue in the heavy drizzle, Federer tried to account for his loss, earlier on Thursday evening, to James Blake in the men’s singles quarter-final, 4-6, 6-7.

It was one of those moments when the truly great sportspersons show in defeat what has made them so extraordinary in victory. “It wasn’t my best night out there,” he said in dignified incomprehension. “But it was not bad. It is a tough one.”

With the man who shall displace him as world number one, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, too having been stopped mid-match by the midnight rain, Federer took stock of his disrupted Olympic aspiration. “It was one of my goals of the season to do well here,” he said, conveying disappointment by smiling more than usual. “The quarter-finals will not do it for me. James played well. I’m happy for him, he’s a good guy. I hope he goes all the way now.” Blake lost to Fernando Gonzalez later on Friday.

And then the brutal post-Wimbledon question, is there a problem with your game? Maybe the problem, he responded, is that he did not get enough practice. But look, he said: “It has always been difficult to beat these guys.” He must know that it is the fact that this revelation is made that defines this moment in his career. Because he finished: “Now I can’t hide under the radar any more.”