“I'm sorry, but no,” Nadal offered deadpan when queried on whether the downward dog or lotus pose were part of his routine.

“I believe that everyone should do what serves them best. Because every time you talk about new things, at one point people said they were winning because they were eating gluten-free diets.

“You know, every time something new appears and someone wins, it seems to be ‘the’ thing. But the reality is the ones who win are the best, and they win because they are better.

“Now, yoga can be very good for someone. I'm sure it can. For del Potro, it may be yoga that helps him relax and feel better physically. Well, then let him do yoga. For me, sincerely, when I have free time, I do other things – I play golf, I swim.”

On the back of his continued dominance of Frenchman in the slams, who better to ask than Nadal himself on the lack of Les Bleus featured at the business end of the tournament.

“That’s the sport, you know,” he said. “It is very difficult to create big champions, because you need to be born a little bit with that. What really [shows] that you are working very well – the French Federation is working very well – is that there are plenty of French players in good positions in the rankings.”