EasyJet Flight 5509 from Gatwick to Palma, Majorca, last Sunday was held for a couple of last-minute passengers (£82.99 one way) and one of them turned a few heads. Rafael Nadal is not your private-jet kind of person, a man of the people he. “The plane wasn’t full, there was places behind,” he said. “No problem.”

One cannot imagine Roger Federer slumming it like that, which is no slight on the world No 1, more an indication of the casual manner in which the 22-year-old Spaniard takes life and its giddy fortunes in his stride. For the first player to win the French Open, the world’s premier clay-court championship which he won for the fourth time, and a grass-court title — the Artois Championships at Queen’s Club, West London — within eight days, getting home as quickly as possible was the paramount objective.

Having got to bed at 1 in the morning, Nadal was on the driving range the next day at 8.45, teed off and recorded his best round of the year, a four-over-par 76. “The next day, five birdies, but two double-bogeys and three triple-bogeys, so an 81,” he said. “Some better holes, but not so good.” On Wednesday, he fished, contentedly, with his father. On Thursday, he flew back to London.

So that is relaxation done for another year, time for business once more. His hair has been cut short — Federer might hope for a Samson effect — but as he stretches his tree-trunk legs from an uncomfortable chair, it is impossible not to be reminded of the perennially bashful smile that plays on the face of the ultimate soft-ball warrior. Those bright eyes were filled with tears when he left the All England Club grounds last year, having lost the best final for years, to Federer in five sets.

Was it his toughest loss? “It was very tough, so hard, to lose one very important final in a tournament like this but at the same time I was happy about how I played,” he said. “In the final set I had 15-40 twice on Roger’s serve and I didn’t lose my serve since the first game of the match. Afterwards, I cried a lot, for half an hour [he lets out a sigh]. I cried because — how can I say this in English? — there was a lot of tension, I had chances to win it, the title of my dreams, and finally I lost. I cried not for lose, but because it was such an emotional final for me. That had not happened before.”

Consider what it had taken for Nadal to get to the last day with his sanity intact. A five-day match against Robin Söderling, of Sweden, in the second round was a case in point, on the first day of which he had squandered a match point. “I had a serve, a typical forehand and missed this much [thumb and forefinger a centimetre apart]. That was the last point, at six-all, and we were back in the locker-room. Rain. We come back next day, he hits a good return, I lost the set and everything changed.

“I had chances to win the fourth set and then it rained again for 20 minutes. So I had the match in control 100 per cent and every time after that we stopped, every time I was worse. Finally, I found a solution.”

The Söderling mission completed, Nadal returned the next day to face Mikhail Youzhny, the Russian, on No 2 court, and he was two sets down. In the next three, he lost five games. “Youzhny plays fast and on that court, with no space, it suits the fast-court player. It was not easy for me,” Nadal said. Tomas Berdych, the Czech, fell in straight sets and Novak Djokovic retired with bloodied feet in the third set of their semi-final to preface the date with Federer and heartbreak.

The pair of them have been entwined like that for the past four years, since Federer made the grass his fiefdom and Nadal has been beatified on clay. Each has prevented the other from immortal wins. Would it not be possible for Nadal to carry a shred of enmity towards the Swiss — it was, after all, what kept McEnroe, Connors and Lendl from the sanatorium. “It’s only a game, that’s true, no?” Nadal said. “They are different characters, I think. I am a quiet person, I don’t have an obsession or anything.

“I love to win, I don’t like to lose and I expect, if I play normal, I will win. But I lose the final of Wimbledon last year and the next day I’m on the golf course and then the beach. Tennis is one sport where you have to learn what it is like to lose. It is going to happen to you next week, for sure.

“I prefer the calm. True, I am — what do you say? — hyperactive. After Queen’s, I go home and sleep, but I have to wake up at 8am because if I wake up later I am nervous because I have wasted one morning and I only have three days at home. I don’t like to watch TV, though this time, I did see the US Open golf — actually, all four days.

“Tiger Woods was unbelievable but sorry for the other guy [Rocco Mediate]. Tiger has a difficult putt for the play-off and the next day Mediate is in the lead and he has two par-fives and for a professional, they have a great chance to make two birdies, but he makes two pars and Tiger, two birdies. That is more difficult for him than the Wimbledon final last year for me.”