Next couple of months will tell us a lot about Rafael Nadal

ByMARK HODGKINSON
September 30, 2015, 10:17 AM

— -- For all the angst and anxiety Rafa Nadal has experienced during an uncertain 2015 -- the first season for a decade in which he didn't win at least one Grand Slam -- there is much for the Majorcan to play for before the year is out.

There are a few who suggest the tennis season effectively ends in Queens in mid-September when lights go off in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Of course, that's never the case for any elite player, and it's especially not true of Nadal during a season in which he has "suffered" on court, with his game lacking the usual bounce, energy, confidence and menace.

That forehand, once described by Andre Agassi as the nastiest shot in tennis, which helped Nadal to 14 Grand Slam singles titles, has at times looked like a very different stroke this season. Didn't that forehand use to put great rips and tears in opponents' psyches? And the Rafa of old, who led Italy's Fabio Fognini by two sets to love in the third round of the US Open, couldn't possibly have lost from there.

That's precisely why the next couple of months are freighted with significance for one of the modern greats, for someone who trails only Roger Federer on the leaderboard for most men's Grand Slam singles titles. As Nadal puts it, he is in the process of "fixing" his game and his mind, and for that to continue, he needs to be competing and winning.

Never mind that the rest of the calendar is on hard courts, a surface that has rarely brought out the best in him, and on which he is yet to win a tournament this season. What happens in Beijing or Shanghai could tell us much about whether Nadal will prosper next year in the Grand Slam cities of Melbourne, Paris, London and New York.

One of Nadal's ambitions over the coming weeks, on the baselines of Asia and Europe, will be to ensure he qualifies for the season-ending championships in London, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November. For all his troubles at the majors this year -- which included only his second-ever defeat at Roland Garros, and being ejected from the Wimbledon draw as early as the second round -- it appears as though Nadal is still a front-runner to succeed by the banks of the Seine at his beloved French Open.

So far, Novak Djokovic, Federer, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka have ensured they will be at The O2, with Tomas Berdych next in line, followed by Kei Nishikori and then Nadal. His point total currently sits at 3,715, which provides a decent gap between him and David Ferrer, who is in eighth position at 3,005. Both are well in front of Richard Gasquet, who is ninth with 2,355 points.

Behind Gasquet are Kevin Anderson (2,205), John Isner (2,180) and Milos Raonic (2,080). So, barring a mishap, Nadal should be in London, playing at the only significant tournament he still hasn't won. For what it's worth, a victory there would make him only the second man, after Agassi, to capture all the majors, an Olympic singles gold medal, the Davis Cup and the season-ending tournament.

This shouldn't be viewed simply as a hustle for position and status. Nadal is searching for something more fundamental than ranking points.

"It has been a tough year because I have been playing with too much anxiety for a lot of months, especially at the beginning of the season," Nadal said this week in an interview with Sky Sports. "Now I feel better about that. Not 100 percent fixed, but much better. I'm close to being 100 percent fixed. And I am enjoying being on the tennis court, for the practice and the competition.

Nadal wants to recapture the self-belief and competitive fire that he is going to need in 2016. He wants that forehand to be nasty again. There is still plenty more that he wants to accomplish, which is why he wants to fix himself.