Beaten Nadal admits to motivation problem

Rafael Nadal admits he has struggled to find the motivation to drag his weary body through the final weeks of a gruelling campaign.

Nadal crashed out of the ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday night after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga condemned the world number two to his second successive defeat in London.

The Spaniard needed to beat Tsonga to reach the semi-finals after losing to Roger Federer in his previous Group B match, but he couldn’t quite summon up the energy required to subdue the world number six and lost 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 6-3.

“I can talk hours about that,” he said when asked for reasons behind his recent slump.

“It’s because of lots of things; probably I had a little bit less passion for the game and because I was a little bit more tired than usual.

“I was happy how I practised the last three weeks. That’s important because I was in the right condition, but to compete I wasn’t in the right way.

“I didn’t have big expectations for this tournament. But you always dream that the situation can change.

“We can find excuses, we can find more problems but now is not the moment to say that.

“I had good season but I’m not happy about a few things. This end of the year wasn’t easy for me. That’s hard to accept. This year was a tough year for me.”

Nadal conceded that Tsonga deserved his victory because he was unable to put sustained pressure on the Frenchman.

“The first two sets I didn’t play bad, but I didn’t play well, and to win these kind of matches you have to play well,” Nadal added.

“Jo knows where I hit every ball during the point. I didn’t have surprise shots during the match. So that’s very difficult at this level. I was solid, but too slow with the legs.

“I was a little bit slower than usual because my mind wasn’t perfect, so the reaction was late.”

Yesterday’s results: Tipsarevic bt Djokovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Berdych bt Ferrer 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Today’s SFs: Fed-erer vs Ferrer; Tsonga vs Berdych.