When last we heard from Rafael Nadal, the 14-time Grand Slam champ was heroically and mystifyingly was trying to finish the 2014 season while playing with appendicitis before ultimately shutting down.
Nadal proclaimed himself fit as he gets ready for the 2015 season with a couple of tuneup matches prior to the Australian Open that begins Jan. 19, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
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"I am fine, I am working very hard, the last couple of weeks I really increased a lot my practice, this operation on the appendix was good, no problems at all," Nadal said in a teleconference, according to the Morning Herald. "I'm happy to say today that I am able to practice a lot of hours every day, and with the right intensity, so that's the most important thing. And after five, six months, the main thing is to work hard and try to be ready for the beginning of the season.
Nadal suffered through an injury-plagued 2014 that culminated with his withdrawal from the U.S. Open with a right wrist injury and the ATP World Tour Finals because he determined that he wasn't competitive enough playing with appendicitis.
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He announced just prior to the start of the season-ending event that he would have an appendectomy instead.
Nadal fell to No. 3 in the world behind Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
The Morning Herald added that Nadal will compete at Abu Dhabi and the Qatar Open before flying to Melbourne to compete for the year's first slam that eluded him last year - because of injury.
He hurt his back during the second set of his finals loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the 2014 Australian Open final and lost in four sets.
"Last year was one of the hardest moments in a tennis court for me in my career, so I really suffered a lot during that match," said Nadal, who has just one Australian Open victory, in 2009.
"I have been playing there for a lot of years and I spend very emotional moments, so that was a very emotional one. For me, it was hard, but that's part of tennis, that's part of our life, that's part of my career, too, that I was unlucky a few times in the Australian Open in my career, and the only thing I think every time is try to come back, try to be strong again and try to enjoy one of my favorite tournaments [when] I'm coming back."
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