“Tennis is tennis in Grand Slams or Masters 1000s or in any event.” said Rafael Nadal on Sunday after a breathless triumph over Alexander Zverev secured him his 8th Rome title.

The subject was the much-discussed dissonance between the glorious results pieced together by Zverev on the ATP tour -  who was competing in already his fifth Masters 1000 final and chasing his fourth title while in the midst of a 14-match winning streak - and his failed slam runs, where he has only one fourth round result to his name.

Nadal continued. “When you are able to win Masters 1000s, when you're able to compete well in all the events like he did already, still he didn't have the great result in Grand Slam yet because didn't happen. It was all a coincidence. It's impossible to don't have a great result in Grand Slam when you have the level that he has.”

But the Spaniard could have easily been talking about someone else, someone who had similarly made Court Centrale her own just a few hours earlier.

Earlier on Sunday, Elina Svitolina capped off a week of dominant, efficient victories - just the solitary set lost to Daria Kasatkina in the third round -  with a statement 6-0 6-4 demolition of no.1 Simona Halep to defend her Rome title and print her name in bold as one of the clear favorites for the Roland Garros title.

In the short hour they were out on court, Svitolina offered a taste of every minuscule quality in her game that has combined to put her forth as the owner of twelve titles, four Premier 5s and the player to watch at every given slam.

In the first set, she showed her ability to simply brush her opponent to the side and run amok, the line between her defense and offense rendered invisible. She retrieved balls and flipping the point at a whim with early, precise shotmaking. She washed her hands of the first set in 19 minutes. By contrast, the second set was won in the head as she exhibited the mental fortitude that has underlined all her successes. She snatched an early break, then kept her lead and her head throughout, cleanly serving out the match with little fanfare.

But the question, that question of whether she can do it at the slam events, where she has never passed the quarterfinals,  has punctuated every recent success of hers and it was waiting for her as soon as she left the court. It’s the question, evidenced by the quiet sigh every time it is brought up, she is always anticipating.

Her answer was typically honest, and an answer that didn’t entirely sync with Nadal’s point of view as she underlined differences she perceived between slams and tour events.

“In a Grand Slam, it's pressure from everywhere,” she responded. “And, you know, you probably also have expectations from yourself. And Grand Slam is, you know, a Grand Slam. So you have to be mentally ready, physically ready. Probably more than – extra more than the normal tournament. But, you know, I try to approach a Grand Slam same as any other tournament, that's why. But still, you know, you have in the back of your mind that it is a Grand Slam. There is something different about it.”

Perhaps tennis really is tennis, but the tennis that any player produces also rests on the mentality of the player providing the perfect conditions for the tennis to flourish. The bitter mental flaws that catalyzed her collapse from a 6-3 5-1 lead against Halep at Roland Garros last year and her deflated play after leading 4-2 in the final set against Madison Keys at the US Open are precisely what have driven her to success.

In regular WTA events, it’s arguable that no player has exhibited more day-to-day mental fortitude than Svitolina. This is underlined by the many of her raw stats: her 12 tour titles have come by virtue of a beyond-belief 12-2 record in finals. She has 6 consecutive victories over #1 players and, over the past 2 years, has compiled a similarly stunning 13-5 record against top 10 players. She is not one to shirk from big matches.

As Svitolina enters Roland Garros once again as a favorite, more eyes will be on her than ever before. Her actions and comments don’t reflect someone who believes that tennis is tennis and that success in slam events  is inevitable, rather than simply desired. Her results will perhaps rest on whether or nor she will be able to convince herself that it is.