"It’s been mental exhaustion, but I hope to overcome these past months that have not been positive," Nadal told DPA. "I've missed a little passion for the game, the intensity of my shots, strength in my legs and mental intensity. The most important thing lacking is the mental strength that leads to everything else… The main thing is to play again with the passion and intensity needed. People are very wrong when they say that I am a physical player. There are many people who can run faster than me." 

With the men's game getting increasing intense year after year, Nadal's main priority will simply be to avoid injury. Every burst of success for the Spaniard has always been inevitably followed by a spell on the sidelines and Nadal knows his body will not let him continue for ever.

However with Novak Djokovic pushing the game to new heights of physical intensity, Nadal can hardly slack off when it comes to the training and match courts. He will spend this off season trying to work out a more effective strategy for the Serb who beat him six times in 2011.

However Nadal refuted suggestions that he'd simply gone too much to Djokovic's backhand in the rallies. 

"That’s too simple," he said. "I don’t believe that. At times this year when I played him I have not been at the level [that I was in the past], and that’s the reality. That my forehand is not harmful to his backhand ... well it hurt him in the past, at Indian Wells, at Miami [where Nadal lost tight three-setters]. I see it more a mental issue. Maybe I hit three shots from the baseline and have been able to last to the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh ... With just three maybe I [wasn’t effective enough], but with more maybe I will be. That's what I have to do next year, not just against him, but also against the whole world."