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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MELBOURNE \u2013&amp;nbsp;It\u2019s early 2016 but for Rafael Nadal, it feels as though 2015 is happening all over again. The Spaniard\u2019s 7\u20136, 4\u20136, 3\u20136, 7\u20136, 6\u20132 loss to Fernando Verdasco in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday was the second first-round defeat of his career, the first coming at the hands of Steve Darcis at Wimbledon in 2013. After losing in the first week at the previous three majors, Nadal once again finds himself searching for answers.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe match is a tough [loss] for me obviously\u2026especially because is not like last year that I arrived here playing bad and feeling myself not ready for it,\u201D he said after the loss to Verdasco. \u201CThis year was a completely different story. I have been playing and practicing great and working so much.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nadal earned a two sets to one lead over Verdasco but was unable to close, even up 2\u20130 in the fifth set. Verdasco played superb tennis in the final set, winning the last six games of the match and finishing with 90 winners and 91 unforced errors, and his performance revealed one flaw of Nadal\u2019s game that has let him down over the past year: the forehand.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIn terms of being competitive, I was competitive. In terms of creating damage to the opponent with my forehand, I didn't. So I was hitting forehands, and he was able to keep hitting winners,\u201D Nadal said. \u201CCannot happen when I am hitting my forehand. The opponent, if he wants to hit a winner is because he take too much risk. In my opinion was not the case of today. I was hitting winners. I was hitting forehands. He was able to keep going for big shots in a not very bad position.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThat was the biggest issue for me today. I don't know 100% the reason, to be honest. I was doing that good on the practices and the previous tournaments.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Patrick Mouratoglou has some ideas about the reason behind Nadal\u2019s declining form. The Frenchman and current coach of Serena Williams has followed Nadal\u2019s career over the last decade and knows first hand about the mindset of a champion. According to Mouratoglou, Nadal\u2019s forehand issues are nothing new. The Spaniard\u2019s biggest obstacle lies somewhere else.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CRafael Nadal has always been a very anxious player who needs to win matches to be reassured. As long as he doesn\u2019t win enough matches in a row, he doesn\u2019t have the needed confidence for his shots to do their usual damage,\u201D Mouratoglou said in an interview on Wednesday in Melbourne. \u201CThis forehand issue? We\u2019ve seen it 50 times already. But we weren\u2019t worried\u2026. I feel like I\u2019ve been talking for 10 years about how short he plays when he\u2019s tight. And he was still beating top players this way because the guys were so scared and wouldn\u2019t step up inside the court, and above all because of his extraordinary footwork.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mouratoglou believes Nadal has lost his ability to cover the court because of his footwork skills, and as a result, his confidence during matches has been affected.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201C[A few years ago] when he wasn\u2019t playing his best tennis, he would keep the ball in play aiming to the middle of the court and run. He\u2019d put so much intensity and be impossible to hit through,\u201D he said. \u201CToday he can\u2019t do that anymore because his footwork is so far from what it was before. He\u2019s much slower. And he knows it.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mouratoglou says that\u2019s why Nadal decided to change his game to a more aggressive style, a completely different method than he has used for the past 20 years. And while he has found success with this approach, Mouratoglou says, it is not natural for him to play far inside the court and when he\u2019s not at his best, he stops moving forward.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIn the past he has only been aggressive when he was full of confidence,\u201D Mouratoglou said. \u201CFacing a Verdasco playing that well, he was getting stressed and so he stepped back. But we\u2019ve seen it so many times when he\u2019s not confident.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After speaking openly about his struggles with confidence in 2015, Nadal reassessed his game with his coaches and seemed to find his form again late in the season and in his first tournament of 2016. But now, questions about his confidence still linger.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHow will he get his confidence back, knowing that he can\u2019t count anymore on that court coverage?\u201D Mouratoglou said. \u201CThat\u2019s the only reason why one can wonder if he\u2019s going to ever be back on top. He might be slower now because he can\u2019t train as he used to do anymore, because he\u2019s not getting younger and his body has already done a lot. Also it\u2019s tough to think he\u2019ll ever get his speed back. And the more stressed he is, the slower he\u2019s going to be.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even his coach Toni Nadal is searching for explanations after his loss in Melbourne on Tuesday.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTo lose so early in Australia is one of the biggest disappointments we have had because, in the last four months, we had been playing well,\u201D he said to Spanish radio. \u201CI hope it\u2019s only a blip and we move forward\u2026It\u2019s not easy to change of style after 15 years.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Toni now even seems open to the idea of a team change. \u201CI understand results come first and if you have to make a change, you have to do it,\u201D he said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Mouratoglou isn\u2019t convinced. \u201CIt\u2019s tough to see what the way for him is here, but it\u2019s not even an option for him to stop working with Toni at this moment of his career. But if Toni wants to bring someone into their team, why not.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mouratoglou believes that if Nadal can win another Grand Slam title, it will be at Roland Garros. But he\u2019s still unsure of the road to get there. &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CEven if somehow he finds a way back to full confidence, I\u2019m not sure he\u2019d still beat [Novak] Djokovic. And getting back to this state of mind while you keep losing against Djokovic, it\u2019s not easy,\u201D Mouratoglou said. \u201CIf [Nadal] starts to think that he won\u2019t ever be back then he\u2019s going to stop playing tennis. If at some point he stops believing, he\u2019ll stop. That\u2019s not someone who\u2019s going to hang in there between the fifth and 10th spot in the rankings. But he still believes he can. For how long, I don\u2019t know. But the results will have to arrive quickly.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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