Whenever you hear the name Rafael Nadal, two words would pop up in your head; "injury" and/or "fighter". Yes, these two words are probably the most ideal synonyms that can be used for him. He is one of the most determined players that the world has seen to date.

On October 12th, the Spaniard played against Novak Djokovic in the finals of the China Open and lost in straight sets. Despite the opening set score, the battle between the two players would've said otherwise. Nadal played almost as well as he used to when he was in his prime. In the 2nd set, he survived an ankle injury scare which he termed as a "scary moment" for him. Yet, he finished the match, playing on till the very end.

Though he lost the finals, he showed a lot of improvement in the tournament, reaching a final after a little over two months. His game has definitely improved, becoming much better than it was at the start of the season this year. Nadal himself stated that this was more of a mental injury than a physical one and it is one of the challenges for him. Even after surviving an injury scare, he has decided to play the Shanghai Masters as he feels positive about his game, maintaining that he is moving in the right direction for returning to the form which helped him clinch many tournaments.

This week has been pretty positive for Nadal, so far, with him winning his second round match against Ivo Karlovic, a player who is a big server. The Spaniard has had many injuries throughout his career, some of them being extremely serious. But, none of these have stopped him from being motivated to play on and push himself. Hence, him deciding to play at Shanghai, even after what happened to his ankle, is no surprise. 

Also, he withdrew from the doubles of the Shanghai Masters as his partner Fernando Verdasco has an injury, due to which the duo will not be able to compete this year. All in all, Nadal seems to be getting back to his winning ways and even after all that he has gone through in 2015, he just refuses to give up. Let's see what the future holds for this man with a "never say die" attitude and for all his eager supporters.

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About the author
Janhavi Jain
Sports freak.