Rafael Nadal is grateful that he finished the 2015 ATP season on a good note and stated that it is significant that he is just “happy competing” again as the new ATP season begins next year.

In an interview with Marianne Bevis of The Sports Review, Nadal reflected on his good performance of the 2015 season.

“I think I did start to play better after Montreal, Cincinnati, US Open—not confident enough to win the matches I wanted to win, but it’s true after that in Shanghai, Beijing, Basel, Paris, and London I started to play great tennis and win matches against the best players at the World Tour Finals,” Nadal said in the article. “And I’m happy for that fact, and that helped me to finish the season with positive energy.”

Nadal continued and stated that he’s excited for the upcoming ATP season emphasising that he’s improved on the mental aspect of the game and happy to have his confidence back.

“As for 2016, it’s important just to be happy competing. This year, for a couple of months, I wasn’t enjoying much the competition because I had problems with the self control of emotions, but now it feels I am better, that it is almost fixed, so I’m just happy for that, and my main goal is try to keep going like this,” Nadal, who is currently playing in the Manila, Philippines leg of the International Premier League (IPTL), added.

The “King of Clay” has struggled in the past two seasons that saw his world rankings drop to No. 10 in previous months.

Nadal rose to World No. 5 after good showing at the China Open (finals, lost to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic), Shanghai Masters (semifinals, lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), Swiss Indoors Basel (finals, lost to Roger Federer), BNP Paribas Masters (quarterfinals, lost to Stan Wawrinka) and the ATP World Tour Finals (semifinals, lost to Djokovic).

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