Rafael Nadal stated that he’s satisfied with his recent performances, particularly the ATP tournaments in China where he reached the deep rounds of the tournament. The former no. 1 also added that his confidence has grown after the string of nice finishes even though he failed to win titles in both tournaments.

“I am really satisfied [with] the way that I finished that two tournaments, and I think [it] was a very good warm-up for the beginning of next year. That’s the way. I was playing much inside the court than during the whole year with more control of everything. Playing like this, keep working like this, the only thing that can happen is [to] be better and better. I [am] going to continue that way,” Nadal said via tennis-x.com.

Nadal, who has struggled with injuries in the past two seasons, is currently ranked at no. 7 in the tennis men’s singles rankings. He was rated as high as no. 3 earlier in 2015 but has not found his consistency all throughout the year. From around June to July he dropped all the way down to no. 10 before recovering a bit in the last few weeks.

Nadal reached the final of the 2015 China Open in Beijing, China losing to world no. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 2-6 2-6 in the championship round. A week later, Nadal lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the semifinal of the 2015 Shanghai Rolex Masters, 4-6 6-0 5-7 in Shanghai, China.

The pair of deep runs helped Nadal climb the fifth spot in the ATP Race to London rankings and has clinched a chance to battle the top players, Djokovic, Roger Federer, Wawrinka and Andy Murray, among others, in the year-end tournament.

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