What next for Halep and Nadal?

But for each, these titles are merely their latest point along the career highway. How to motor on from here is the next question for each to consider.

Halep and her coach Darren Cahill have spoken a great deal in the last 24 hours of bumpy roads travelled. So the trick must be to bottle whatever she discovered about herself at Roland-Garros 2018, and apply it liberally at will, to engineer smoother voyages ahead.

At the very least, she has changed the conversation. All the old questions about being world No.1 without a Slam title died the moment she won here. Now she is placed to dictate her own dialogue.

Before Roland-Garros, any of six women might have emerged from this tournament with the world No.1 slot; as it is, Halep not only remains at the top of the tree, but has cemented her position to lead by a distance. Moreover, having lost six of her last seven finals going into this one, she can deploy her new authority to reverse that statistic in the upcoming months.

Had she lost against Sloane Stephens, it could only have reinforced her reputation for fragility at the business end of a tournament. So having done the opposite by coming back from a set and a break down, she is perfectly poised to take further strides, leaving that old image for dust.

The opportunity is there: following Roland-Garros 2017, she played nine further events and won none before the end of the year, losing two finals in Cincinnati and Beijing. Comparative to her nearest rivals, she has ranking points to gain.

More significantly, she made just the quarters at Wimbledon and couldn’t get beyond the first round at Flushing Meadows. With the last seven Slams won by as many different women, might Halep be the one to produce a repeat victory?

Chris Evert thinks so, and her perspective is particularly informed – like Halep, she lost her first three Slam finals. True, Evert was only 19 when she won her first, whereas Halep is 26; but from the same age as the Romanian, Evert bagged six Slams more to take her ultimate total to 18.

“This lady fights her heart out,” says Evert of Halep. “She runs down balls like no other, shows emotion like no other and has had so many disappointments in majors. And now this victory wipes out the past and is so much sweeter.”

As for Nadal, his 11 Coupes des Mousquetaires are so stratospheric an achievement that it echoes another local slogan hereabouts. This year marks a century since the death of Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros, the pioneering aviator after whom the Paris complex is named. In commemoration, the grounds have borne a legend this fortnight describing him as “l’homme qui flirtait avec les nuages” – the man who flirts with the clouds. Such is Nadal’s heavenly tennis that he and the spirit of Roland must be on nodding terms up there in the skies.

Moving forward, the questions for the Spaniard are more familiar. Having concluded another draining European clay swing, does he even attempt a grass campaign? His fourth-round Wimbledon exit last year means he may gain points on defending champion Roger Federer, but can he really hope to dethrone him? At the US Open the positions are reversed, with Nadal having all the points to defend.

Four years and three months younger than the Swiss, at the age of 32 Nadal now has 17 Slams to Federer’s 20. Given that there is only so long each can hold back time and cumulative injury, Federer is perhaps likely to retire sooner, leaving Nadal to attempt to close the gap, for as long as younger challengers fall short.

Time will provide all the answers for both Nadal and Halep. In the meantime, each is planning a spot of rest and recuperation.

Even champions need a holiday, after all.