Rafael Nadal knows what he must do to revive his form: Impose fear of his forehand in opponents.
The challenge for Nadal is facing his own fear factor: He admits he's still scared about the state of his left wrist.
Watch: Troicki Trips Up Nadal in Shanghai
Nadal, who was sidelined for 73 days earlier this season due to a tendon injury in his left wrist, said he must return to hitting his topspin forehand with the force "to create pain to the opponent."
"I need to recover the forehand. I know I need to hit forehands," Nadal told the media in Shanghai following his straight-sets loss to Viktor Troicki. "Every time that I hit the forehand, I need to create pain to the opponent, something that is not happening today. Maybe because I had an injury on the wrist and I am scared. Maybe because I still have some limitation in there.
"But at the end of the day, nobody cares about that and I don’t care about that. The real thing that I care is I need to create pain with my forehand to opponent. No, is something that is not happening very often now, and is something that needs to happen for the next year."
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The fifth-ranked Spaniard dropped to 39-14 on the season with eight of his 14 losses coming against players ranked outside of the Top 20. Nadal said he needs to move quicker to the ball to set up his favored forehand and regain complete confidence in the shot.
"So I need to know what’s the best way to try to make that happen," Nadal said. "If that happens, then for sure I need to recover a little bit the electricity on the legs. Need to move faster to hit more forehands. But I need to be more confident with the forehand to make that happen. Everything is a cycle. I need to do the things together."