David Ferrer, an under-appreciated over-achiever
With the coming of the end-of-year events, tennis debates have been rife all over television, online forums and avid fans’ conversations.
While most of these discussions are dependent on the performance and results of the major players on the court – Rafael “Rafa” Nadal, Roger “the Maestro” Federer, Novak “Nole” Djokovic, Robin Soderling and Andrew “Andy” Murray – there is one player who has
been almost entirely overlooked by most of the tennis world throughout this year.
This player is Spanish pro David Ferrer, and his exclusion is surprising because there is a great possibility of his participation in the ATP World Tour Finals, to be held in just a few weeks.
Highly underappreciated, the fact remains that David Ferrer, currently World Number 7, has the potential to be one of the key players at the end of this year. His performance has remained even and consistent throughout 2010.
He recently won his second title of the year at the Valencia event. This is also his ninth career title. While many critics may feel that this victory was relatively easy for Ferrer, since many of the top ten were absent from the tournament, the fact remains
that Ferrer did in fact beat current World Number 4 Robin Soderling in the event’s semi-finals.
In addition to this, the victory was an important one for the Spaniard, who needed all possible opportunities to improve his chances of participating in the London matches.
Even if Valencia is not considered, Ferrer has played remarkably well this year. During the clay court season, for example, he reached the semi-finals of three events, the ATP matches in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid. Along with this, he also made it
to the finals at Rome.
His least satisfactory performance during the clay season was at the French Open in Roland Garros, he was overthrown in an unfortunate coup by Jurgen Melzer in the third round. However, his four good shows at the other clay events along with his more than
satisfactory hard court offerings have place him in the World’s top ten. This is the first time he has entered the upper circle of the ATP since the end of 2008.
However, it’s particularly unfortunate that in 2010 Ferrer will probably be best-remembered for his spectacularly miserable loss to his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco took the fourth round US Open match from Ferrer, as opposed to the latter
blowing away a lead. But it’s still difficult to pass off a two sets to zero as anything other than a failure.
As far as the ATP World Tour Finals are concerned, Ferrer has only qualified for the event once before in 2007. His performance there was remarkable, with an impressive record of 4-1 in the round robin play. He defeated both Djokovic and Nadal to reach the
final against Federer, where he succumbed to the Fed-Express.
Although one of the older players of the sport, he is still playing some of the best tennis of his career despite several difficult stretches over the past few years. And while Ferrer may be one of the underdogs at the end of year events, underestimating
him as a formidable opponent would be a very bad move on the part of any player.
There are some factors which may boost Ferrer’s chances at the finals. Nadal’s performance is dubious due to injuries. He has beaten Murray twice this year already and Djokovic seems to be distracted during this part of the year.
Another very big plus on his side is his never-stop-trying, die-hard attitude. Ferrer has this in common with Nadal, which explains why he is so tremendously overlooked. Outside the top players, though, Ferrer is quite a phenomenon. Hopefully, he will receive
his long-due rewards within this year at the Finals, or perhaps sometime in the next year.
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