that is good news. maybe he sees the light. he may want to try to make an impression on the clay circuit for the last time in 2017.
also you saw that he has lost 3 out of last 5 matches. it is possible that he realizes that he cant beat anybody with his current game and his current fitness.
I think you are right. lets see if he can produce huge blocks of training on clay as well as show some serious hard yards on the fitness front.
his infatuation with hard courts finished his ground game.
and then he just took it one step further: he decided to let it all go.