Nadal vows to improve for 2012

After losing his grip on the No. 1 ranking spot this season, Rafael Nadal has vowed to up his game for next season. The Spaniard spoke out in a recent interview, countering the opinion that the standard of play on the ATP World tour had noticeably improved this season.

"Winning or losing depends on very, very, very small things, and probably these very, very small things I did a little bit better in 2010 than 2011. It is hard to win big matches. I lost a lot of finals this year. This year I lost 7 out of 10."

"I played worse than last year. I was very consistent, probably even more consistent than last year, but I played a little bit worse, I think.”

He remains in positive spirits though. "If you are not improving every year more and more, your chances are less," said Nadal. "Don't forget this is my seventh year on the tour being Top 2. That's happened because, first thing, I was in perfect conditions mentally all these years, but second thing because I always try to improve and play better and better.”

Nadal will next be in action against Guilermo Garcia Lopez on Wednesday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.