Tired words express depth of Nadal's exhaustion

(Reuters) - Indefatigable might be one adjective Rafa Nadal has yet to discover during his lessons to expand his English vocabulary.

But the world number one has been practicing hard his use of another one -- 'tired'.

The Spaniard used the T word 15 times to describe his sagging fitness and the draining tour schedule during news conferences at the Shanghai Masters.

His body language during much of his 6-1 3-6 6-3 surprising third round loss to 13th seed Austrian Jurgen Melzer on Thursday said it all, too.

Forty-eight hours after once more advocating a radical change to the rigorous season, the weary 24-year-old hit the wall during the autumn Asian swing in wretched fashion and suffered only his ninth defeat of the season.

The stunned gasps of the crowd echoed loud and clear down the Qi Zhong stadium's cavernous white corridors to the ATP suite, where organizers cocked once more an ear to the polite complaints from arguably the sport's greatest player of the modern era.

"Everybody knows my position in the players' council and on the ATP board," said the re-elected Players' Council representative.

"Everybody knows what I said a few days ago and it was nothing new," he added, as reporters easily connected the dots between his timely call for change and his now obvious fatigue.

GRUELLING SEASON

On Tuesday, he gave his longest analysis and consultation on how the grueling season should be cut to allow the top seeds to avoid injury and burnout without sacrificing points.

Such a change would allow young ambitious players to tour until their hearts and bank accounts were content, he said.

His preferred solution to please the players, fans, tour organizers and sponsors, is to allow top ranked players to stop playing after the high-scoring Masters calendar and forgo the low-scoring international tournaments.

The timing of his shock exit and public radicalism this week are poignant.

With the showcase ATP World Tours Finals looming next month, concerns are mounting the field of qualifying eight leading players -- Nadal, Murray and Djokovic among them -- might not glow and promote the sport as they should after their exhaustive calendar obligations.

That said, thoroughbred workhorse Nadal has enjoyed one of the most successful seasons in tennis.