He may have started slowly as nerves got the better of him but Rafael Nadal declared the way he finished off his four-set Australian Open quarter-final win over Tomas Berdych some of his best tennis in more than six months.
In 2010 Nadal captured three of the four Grand Slam titles but after dominating the game for several years along with Roger Federer, who he will play in the semi-finals on Thursday night, the Spaniard endured a disappointing 2011 as Novak Djokovic won three majors and assumed the No.1 mantle.
According to Nadal his game wasn't at the same stellar level in the second half of a year in which he lost six finals to Djokovic, including at Wimbledon and the US Open.
And early in the clash with Czech No.7 seed Berdych, things weren't looking much more positive as Nadal battled a bout of nerves and says he simply wasn't getting enough balls back into play when receiving.
But having said that, the 25-year-old added that his ability to gradually turn the tide on the way to the 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-3 win in four hours and 16 minutes had his confidence soaring by the end of the match.
"I think the level of the third and fourth set for me was very, very high, top level for myself playing on these courts," Nadal said.
"(I'm) very happy about how I finished the match, I think I finished playing at very, very high level."
"The level is very positive, much, much better than the end of the season."
"The character (I showed) on court, the way to win the points, everything was much more positive, so I'm very happy."
Having attributed his nerves in part to his disappointing finish to 2011, Nadal expanded further on his thoughts on his high level later in the match.
"The attitude was positive, because was the right one to overcome the situation," he added.
"I did, and finally I think I finished the match playing at one of my best, (the) fourth set was one of my best levels on this kind of surface, returning inside the court, making a lot of winners from with the first ball, the return, having serve, and winners."
"So that's something that I really miss a little bit, especially second part of the season last year."
"So most important thing too is the character, how I acted on court was completely the right one tonight."
"For moments at the second half of the season last year (it) wasn't (like that), was not the perfect one (but) today was the perfect one."
Berdych meanwhile was left to lament what might have been, admitting that his inability to take the 'final step' and capitalise on his opportunities, including a point for a two-set lead in the second-set tie-breaker, had been his undoing.
"Oh, yeah, I mean, it was really good match but actually it was only good, which means that is not enough with Rafa," Berdych said.
"I think the only difference today why I like didn't end out the second set and probably all night was that if I would be playing better on the night, then I think I could make it today, and I was really close."
"So, yeah, that's was probably the only difference today, that I was missing to just make the (final) step to beat him today."