By DPA
Paris : The atmosphere was as sticky and dense as it was on Sunday's final at the French Open, but what surrounded Rafael Nadal in Paris on Monday were not 15,000 fans on centre court but hundreds of tourists wanting to get their picture taken with the champion.
"Rafa, Rafa!," Spaniards and Japanese shouted alike.
On the day after Nadal beat world No.1 Roger Federer by 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to lift the trophy in the French Open for the third year in a row, Nadal stood on the Trocadero, by the Café du Lhome. Behind him stood the magnificent Eiffel Tower.
"You cannot live off the past," Nadal said as he held the trophy, in a typically "Nadalian" comment.
"You need a little peace to assume that you have won and at least to think, to realize. But I have a two-and-a-half-hour train journey to London, and you cannot live off the past. You have to keep going, the season goes on," the young Spaniard told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).
"You have to be very satisfied for what you have achieved, not just Roland Garros. And you have to keep working," Nadal stressed.
He had slept very little. The celebrations Sunday night ended late, shortly before sunrise. And Monday morning he had to get up early to have his right ankle checked.
"A routine visit. Everything is alright – a little bruise, nothing relevant," Nadal's press liaison officer told DPA.
The world No.2 got scores of phone calls and congratulations on his triumph.
On the car that took him to the train station, Nadal made another striking comment.
"I have some quieter hours today. I hope to be able to train a little when I get to London. Half-and-hour… whatever my body stands," he noted.
But Nadal has a special deal with the Queen's club, and his presence there could be brief. The Spaniard needs to pull himself together physically and emotionally after the pressure of the past few weeks.
However, there is one additional factor – his wish to watch Real Madrid win La Liga next Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
"Rafa asked to be at the stadium, and if he wanted to we would take him along in the celebration bus," Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon said Sunday in Paris.
French spectators were very partial to Federer in the final, but Nadal does not hold it against them.
"This is not the place in the world where they cheer for me most, but they have not treated me badly either. Yesterday (Sunday) I perfectly well understood that spectators were more on Federer's side, Roland Garros is the only tournament which he still has not won. But people behaved very well, I have nothing to say about that," Nadal said.
He noted that his latest Paris triumph leaves him well-placed in relation to the Swiss Federer, but also acknowledged that the undisputed world number one remains one step ahead.
"It is true that it is the first time that I am number one on the (ATP Champions') Race, with a little advantage – not a lot. But now all the tournaments that suit Federer are coming on," the player from Mallorca said. "Whatever happens I have already had a great year."