HONESTY has always been the policy for Rafael Nadal and he was at it again yesterday as he claimed, on arriving at London's Queen's Club for part-two of his Wimbledon preparations, that reaching the season-ending ATP Tour title is more important to him than anything else this year.
Should two-time champion Nadal find himself in another Wimbledon final next month, he might well change his mind and he knows that good performances there and at the US Open will go a long way to securing his place at the O2.
His Stuttgart title last weekend was his first on grass in five, a welcome return to form and confidence after his quarter-final defeat by Novak Djokovic at the French Open dropped him down to No.10 in the world rankings.
That defeat, said Nadal, who today takes on Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine in the first round of the Aegon Championships, was "not a surprise" because he had simply not played well enough in the build-up.
But ever resilient, he enters the second half of 2015 in a much better frame of mind. "Mentally I feel strong," he said. "I have the motivation to be back to my best. After what happened in Roland Garros [I was able to] win the title the week after. This is very good news for me."
Having won the French Open nine times, Nadal's defeat by Djokovic in Paris could easily have rocked his confidence, but he said yesterday it was a loss he'd half-expected.
"I didn't play well enough before [Roland Garros], he said. "The first three and a half months of the season have been terrible for me, very bad, playing very bad almost every week.
"I was playing with too much nerves. I feel that I am playing better now. And the most important thing is that I am enjoying [being] on the court again."
Having made the fourth round at Wimbledon last year and played only two other events in the second-half of 2014, Nadal's ranking is only likely to rise - if he can remain injury-free until the end of the season.
"My goal is to qualify for the World Tour Finals at the end of the season," he said. "My main goal is finish the season healthy. I am going to have a much better second-half of the season than I did in the first six months.
"I have the motivation to do it and I feel my mentality and my body are ready for it. And then if I'm able to play the full season, I hope to finish in good ranking position and then have the chance to start 2016 stronger."
"That's my main goal. Winning grand slams or not - I won enough in my career, 14 is enough.
"Today I am No.10 in the world. If I am able to be No.10 playing that badly [then] if I am able to play a little bit better I will be higher, for sure."
This is the first year since 2011 that Nadal has played Queen's, a return smoothed by a change to UK law which has reduced the amount of tax a player must cough up from their prize money, appearance fee and earnings from endorsements while in the country.
The tournament almost lost its defending champion last night when Grigor Dimitrov trailed the 2010 winner Sam Querrey 6-4 3-1. But the the Bulgarian won five straight games to level the match at 4-6, 6-3 before it was suspended due to darkness.
Lleyton Hewitt, who is due to retire in January, served for the match against South African Kevin Anderson but missed a match point as he went down 6-7 7-5 6-2, while Britain's James Ward, battling a foot injury, took the first set from No.3 seed Milos Raonic before fading to lose 5-7 6-3 6-2.
There was also disappointment for Jamie Murray as he and John Peers lost 4-6 7-5 10-3 to Max Mirnyi and Feliciano Lopez in the doubles.
Andy Murray begins his campaign today against Yen-Hsun Lu of Korea.
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