French Open: Rafa reigns again! Nadal thrashes Casper Ruud to win record 14th Roland Garros title

After the glory came the warning from Rafael Nadal that he faces treatment on his left foot next week that will determine his whole future in tennis.

If you wanted suspense at the French Open on Sunday you were most likely to find it in the speculation that he might make some definitive announcement on his future after he won.

There was probably more tension around that than there was during the final. Norway’s Casper Ruud went the same way as Nadal’s 13 previous opponents in French Open championship matches, going down 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in two hours and 18 minutes.

The victory on Court Philippe Chatrier was the 22nd Gram Slam title of the Spaniard’s career

Nadal beat young Norwegian Casper Ruud (top) 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 on Sunday afternoon in Paris

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Afterwards Nadal had the familiar walk up to the podium to receive the Coupe des Mousquetaires, but the suggestion he would be quitting imminently proved unfounded.

‘I don’t know what can happen in the future. I will keep fighting to try and keep going,’ he told the crowd, some of whom may have been fearing the worst.

However, later he opened up on the uncertainty caused by his foot condition, and how he had needed several jabs to keep going in Paris.

Nadal is not prepared to go through that same regime for the SW19 fortnight, and will be having a radio frequency injection on the affected area.

‘I’m going to be in Wimbledon if my body is ready,’ he said. ‘I can’t give you a clear answer, let’s see how it works. We are going to be trying to burn a little bit the nerve and create the impact that I have now for a long period of time.

‘If that works, I’ll keep going. If that does not work, I’m going to ask to myself if I am ready to do a major surgery that doesn’t guarantee me to be able to be competitive again, and will take a long time to come back from.’

King Felipe VI of Spain (centre) was present in the stands to watch his compatriot triumph

On Paris, he said: ‘I would love to keep coming here, but at the same time we need to find a solution because I can’t keep going the way that I am doing.

‘My doctor here has worked very hard. The most difficult moment was after the second-round match against Corentin Moutet. I got back to the hotel and I could practically not walk. I played with the foot numbed, blocking the nerves to put it to sleep, just to be able to play.

‘It has been an amazing and very emotional two weeks. We have options, we will try a treatment and see if it increases my chance to continue.’

Several celebrities were also in attendance, including Hollywood star Demi Moore (top right)

So there remains the prospect of Nadal returning to Roland Garros, where he has been so successful you half expect him to one day celebrate a Platinum Jubilee here.

Sunday made him the oldest male champion in French Open history, its longest-serving monarch. His domination of this event remains a phenomenon in modern sport and is the biggest contributor to him leading Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer with 22 Grand Slam titles to 20.

Incredibly Nadal is halfway to completing a calendar Grand Slam, despite the bone condition which forced him to miss the second half of last season and travel to Australia having barely played.

His hair may be thinning but nothing is fading about the way he can manipulate the ball around a clay court.

The playing record of Nadal is 112-3 at Roland Garros, a venue where he already has a statue. This year he utterly dominated the event in the sense that the few memorable contests in a generally underwhelming tournament usually involved its central character.

He had done the hard work in reaching the final, in particular by defeating Djokovic in the quarter-final. Probably the best match of the entire fortnight came in the round before when he beat Felix Auger-Aliassime.

To think that at one point in the build-up his teenage compatriot Carlos Alcaraz was the bookies’ favourite, partly a result of Nadal’s downbeat assessment of his left foot.

That was to forget his past history of talking down his prospects, and why it is always difficult to predict any outcome with him. At the end of two weeks he was holding the trophy aloft, having taken no short cuts by beating four top-10 players to win the title.

Ruud was heavily overmatched on his Grand Slam final debut and never looked to have the consistency to handle Nadal, especially when the sun came out and the forecast rain did not materialise.

He did enjoy a mini-surge early in the second set, when the Spaniard played a dreadful game to get broken and go 3-1 behind.

That jolted Nadal into action and his level rose thereafter.

The Norwegian did not win any of the remaining 11 games, a curious outcome given the outwardly bleak update given later by the champion.

Missed any of the action? Catch up on what happened play-by-play with the live blog for the French Open final between Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud from Sportsmail’s Max Mathews.