He suffered a crushing second-round defeat by Dustin Brown at Wimbledon and followed that with a third-round exit at the U.S. Open to Fabio Fognini, but since arriving in China the 29-year-old has looked more like his old self.
Although he was hammered by world number one Novak Djokovic in the Beijing final last week he still enjoyed a good run, and this week he has posted back-to-back wins over Ivo Karlovic and Milos Raonic -- two of the biggest servers in the game.
His 6-3 7-6(3) defeat of Raonic was his first win against a top-10 opponent in six attempts.
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"Today, I felt that I was not playing with as much nerves when I am on court," Nadal told the ATP website (www.atpworldtour.com). "I was able to enjoy the match."
"Winning a match 7‑6 in the third yesterday and winning a match again today in the tiebreak of a second set, two tiebreaks without losing a point with my serve, it's impossible if you don't have control of your emotions.
"That's something that, a couple of months ago, would have been impossible for me."
Nadal will meet Stanislas Wawrinka on Friday, hoping to avoid a third consecutive defeat by the Swiss after 12 successive wins against him.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman,; Editing by Neville Dalton)
