Thursday 31 December 2015 13:30, UK
Rafael Nadal is confident he will continue to be competitive at the top of men's tennis in 2016.
The Spaniard endured a difficult 2015 in which he admits he lost confidence after recording his worst set of results in more than a decade.
Nadal's defeat to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the French Open was just his second loss at the tournament and marked the first time since 2004 that he had failed to win at least one of the first two Grand Slam events of the season, dropping to world No 10 in the process - his lowest ranking since April 2005.
But he made a strong push at the end of the season to finish the year as world No 5 and the 29-year-old says a busy off-season in Mallorca means he is in good shape ahead of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, which begins on Friday before his official season-opener in Doha.
"The off-season has been great. In Mallorca we had unbelievable weather and we were able to practise as much as we wanted," he said.
"I had the chance to enjoy it. I'm happy for everything. I feel that I worked well enough, I finished the 2015 season with good feelings and I just keep practising with these positive feelings. I'm excited to start another new season. I feel myself well and I hope to be ready for what's coming.
"I don't know if I'll start well from the beginning but I feel ready. Then the results you never know what's going on. But I feel that I'm doing the right things, I'm playing well and I hope to start with good feelings.
"I'm going to be passionate. I'm confident that I'm going to be very competitive.
"It seems like I'm number 50 or something like this. I didn't have the best season possible last year. But without having the best season possible, to be able to finish number five is actually not bad news.
"I'm happy the way I finished the season. I don't expect an amazing comeback, I expect an improvement of my level of tennis and my level of competition and if I made that happen I hope to be competing for the good things."
