World No.2 Rafael Nadal is unsure if his new aggressive approach will be ready to challenge Novak Djokovic in Sunday's Australian Open final.
Nadal was beaten by the world No.1 in the past two Grand Slam finals - at Wimbledon and US Open - and lost another four finals to the Serb during the season.
The Spaniard knew he had to make changes to his game in the off-season and has worked on becoming more aggressive during points.
The early results seem to be working with Nadal progressing to the final at Melbourne Park with victories over sixth seed Tomas Berdych and third seed Roger Federer the highlights.
But the 10-time Grand Slam champion believes he still has more improvement left him in and knows he has to step it up if he is stop Djokovic from claiming his third consecutive Grand Slam title and second straight Australian Open.
"I am trying to play a little bit more aggressive and hit more winners. You know, the improvements that I want to do is not complete," Nadal said on Saturday.
"No, no, I didn't practice a lot with that, so I need time to play with this aggressive plan during all the match."
"Probably I need few more months and tournaments. But I am happy how I am doing, no? I don't know if going to be enough for him."
"I going to try to play well like I did all the tournament. I need to play a little bit better, in my opinion, to have chances, but I am happy about how I am doing."
"I think I'm in the right way to compete against the top players of the world. I did here winning against the No.6, against the No.3. So it's is fantastic way to start season."
"Now is another big, big test. I don't know if I am enough ready to win the match of tomorrow, but I believe that I can do it and I going to fight for it."
Nadal has an extra day's rest on Djokovic, who is also coming off nearly five hours on court after his epic victory over Andy Murray on Friday night.
Djokovic's coach said it’s an unfair advantage, but Nadal strongly rejected that and pointed to his 2009 Australian Open triumph when he was coming off the longest match ever played at Melbourne Park and a day's less rest than Federer.
"Well, that's what it is. 2009 I played longer than him in the semi-finals," he recalled.
"I played more than five hours at very high intensity, too. I had only one day and Federer had two, no? I was recovered for the final, so I think you can say it's unfair, yes, but not crazy unfair."
"Really unfair is the US Open when you don't have day off between semi-finals and final. That's really unfair."
"If the match of yesterday happened in the US Open and the other semi-final is in straight sets, you are in big trouble for the finals. Having one day off, I believe you are not in big trouble."
The match represents the first time in history that the same two players have contested three consecutive Grand Slam finals and Nadal is just happy to have a shot at his 11th major.
"For me what means is I am in the final of another Grand Slam, fourth in a row. Happy for