David Ferrer Ern (born April 2, 1982 in Jávea/Xŕbia, Spain) is a right-handed Spanish professional tennis player who lives in Valencia. He turned professional in 2000. Ferrer is currently ranked 5th in the world, as of March 10, 2008. Ferrer is especially known for his fighting spirit and unwillingness to concede defeat. He is known as a particularly dangerous clay court player, though he has had several respectable results on hard courts as well, especially his back-to-back semifinal appearances at the NASDAQ-100 Open in 2005-2006 and his semifinal appearance at the 2007 U.S. Open. Interestingly, his first two titles came at the expense of the same player in the final, Jose Acasuso. The other three titles came in 2007 against Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro of Spain, and Richard Gasquet of France. David Ferrer broke into the top 10 in the ATP Tour singles rankings for the first time in 2006. His highest ranking to date is World Number 4, which he reached on 25 February 2008. He wears Lotto Sport Italia shoes and clothes and uses a Prince tennis racquet. He is 5'9" tall and nicknamed Ferru (normatively should be written ferro, but the word is pronounced with a final "u" sound), meaning iron in Valencian/Catalan. In fact ferrer means literally smith (or blacksmith) in this romance language. Career Early years David Ferrer moved to Gandia at age 13, followed two years later by a move to Barcelona to attend the Catalan Tennis Federation. He spent nine months at Equelite, Juan Carlos Ferrero’s Academy in Villena before moving back to Jávea while practicing in Denia. He turned professional in 2000, finishing as world number 419, winning in Poland F1 and Spain F3 finishing runner-up in Spain F1. 2001 wasn't a particularly good year for him. He captured his first career Challenger title in Sopot and reached the SF at Manerbio the following week. He also reached the semifinals in Spain F15 and Spain F16. 2002 He played consistently in ATP (10-6) and Challenger (35-13) tournaments, winning his first ATP title in Bucharest (defeated Acasuso) and reaching his first ATP final in just his second ATP event in Umag (defeated David Nalbandian, Coria, lost to Carlos Moya). David Ferrer won Challenger titles in Napoli, Valencia and Sassuolo. All 10 ATP match wins and 34 of 35 Challenger wins came on clay.
The highlight of 2003 was Ferrer's defeat of Andre Agassi in R64 at the Rome Masters. He made his debut at all four Grand Slam tournaments, as well as six ATP Masters Series events. At AMS Roma, he upset the defending champion Agassi in the first round (lost to Ljubicic in second round). David advanced to the 2nd round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He reached his third career final in Sopot (lost to Coria). In doubles, he reached his first career final in Acapulco (with his partner Fernando Vicente). He compiled a 13-16 record on clay courts, 6-10 on hard, 1–1 on grass and had a season-end ATP ranking of #71. 2004 David Ferrer reached the quarterfinals in Buenos Aires, Valencia and at the ATP Masters Series Hamburg (defeated No. 6 David Nalbandian, lost to Coria). He advanced to the semifinals in Stuttgart (l. to Gaston Gaudio). Late in the year he advanced to the quarterfinals in Bucharest and the semis in Palermo (l. to Tomas Berdych) and Lyon (defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero lost to Xavier Malisse). He ended the season with an ATP ranking of #49. 2005 David Ferrer advanced to the semifinals of AMS Miami by defeating Nalbandian, Ferrero and Hrbatý (lost to Rafael Nadal). In his hometown of Valencia, he reached his lone final of the year (lost to Igor Andreev in three sets). He advanced to the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo Masters (lost to Coria) and semifinals at AMS Roma (defeated Gaudio, lost to Nadal). He made his third appearance at Roland Garros and turned in a Grand Slam-best QF, rallying from a 0–4 fifth set deficit against defending champ Gaudio in the 4th RD before losing to eventual champ Nadal. He reached the semifinals at New Haven (lost to Feliciano Lopez). David Ferrer followed up with the US Open-his best result 3rd RD (lost to Hrbatý). He closed the season with QF showings at AMS Madrid (defeated Puerta, lost to Robby Ginepri) and AMS Paris (lost to Andy Roddick). He lost only once in the 1st RD of nine Masters Series events, while compiling a 20-9 record. In doubles David won first two ATP titles in Vińa del Mar and Acapulco (with partner Ventura) and earned a career-high of $951,772. He finished the season with an ATP ranking of #14.
David Ferrer opened the season with a quarterfinal showing in Auckland (lost to Olivier Rochus). He broke into the Top 10 ATP rankings for the first time following a personal-best 4th round effort at the Australian Open (defeated Mario Ancic, lost to Santoro) on January 30. He was in the Top 10 for five weeks during the year. Then, playing in the 1st round Davis Cup tie vs. Belarus, he went 2–3 indoors, losing to Voltchkov in the second rubber (won reverse dead rubber). In March he reached the semifinals in Miami for a second straight year (defeated No. 4 Roddick, lost to Roger Federer). In his second clay court tournament of the season at ATP Masters Series Monte-Carlo, he lost to Federer. He also advanced to the quarterfinals at the Masters Series Hamburg, falling to eventual champion Tommy Robredo. In Dusseldorf he posted wins over two Top 10 players, No. 4 Ljubicic and No. 9 Fernando Gonzalez. He reached the 3rd round at Roland Garros and a career-best 4th round at Wimbledon (defeated Fernando González in 3rd round, lost to Lleyton Hewitt. In July he won a second career ATP title in a five-hour final in Stuttgart (In 2008 it's a Masters Series Tournament). He came back from two sets to one and a 1–5 deficit against Acasuso, saving one match point down 4–5 in the fourth set. In August he reached the quarterfinals at Cincinnati Masters (defeated No. 10 Marcos Baghdatis, lost to González), followed by a 3rd round showing at New Haven (lost to Calleri). At the U.S. Open he reached the 3rd round for the 2nd year in a row (lost to Mikhail Youzhny). David Ferrer closed the season with reaching the quarterfinals in Basel (lost to Federer). For the season he went 3–5 vs. Top 10 opponents and compiled records of 18-8 on clay and 17-13 on hard court. He finished the season ranked #14 and in the Top 15 for the second year in a row. 2007 Ferrer began the year winning Auckland, defeating Tommy Robredo in the final, 6–4, 6–2. At the Australian Open he defeated Kristian Pless, Thomas Johansson, and Radek Stepanek) and lost in the fourth round to Mardy Fish in 5 sets. One month later he reached the quarterfinals at Rotterdam. He had quarterfinal finishes at Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo, and reached the fourth round in Miami, the semifinals in Barcelona, and the quarterfinals in Hamburg. At Roland Garros, Fernando Verdasco stopped him in the third round. He lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round of Wimbledon. In July, he captured his second title of the year and fourth of his career, beating Nicolas Almagro in the final of the Swedish Open in Bĺstad, Sweden. David Ferrer advanced to the quarterfinals at the Masters Series Cincinnati, defeating Andy Roddick in the third round. At the U.S. Open he was seeded #15 and knocked out #24 seed David Nalbandian in the 3rd round and then upset second seed and compatriot Rafael Nadal in the fourth round, 6–7, 6–4, 7–6, 6–2, in a match dominated by powerful rallies. He beat #20 seed Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarters and reached his first Grand Slam semifinal where he was defeated by the No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic. His performance at the Open brought his ATP ranking up to #8. Ferrer captured his third title of the year in Tokyo, defeating Richard Gasquet in the final, 6–1 6–2. At the Paris Masters, he made it to the quarterfinals, losing to David Nalbandian, 6–7, 7–6, 2–6. Ferrer qualified as the #6 seed for the season-ending 2007 Tennis Masters Cup, where he had a great tournament. Ferrer shocked #4 seed Novak Djokovic, 6–4, 6–4, in his first round-robin match, and then defeated #2 seed Rafael Nadal, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3. He sealed his qualification to the knock-out stage by pummeling #8 seed Richard Gasquet, 6–1, 6–1. Ferrer was the only man to have a perfect record in the round-robin stage, and he had the best win/loss set record (6–1). Ferrer came up against #5 seed Andy Roddick in the semifinal, whom he beat 6–1, 6–3. In the final he lost to #1 seed Roger Federer in three straight sets, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2. He ended the season with a career high ATP ranking of #5. 2008 David Ferrer opened the season with a disappointing quarterfinal loss to unseeded Julian Benneteau of France at Auckland where Ferrer was seeded #1. However, he reached the 2nd week of the Australian Open as the #5 seed, having defeated #22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain in 4 sets in the 4th round and after not dropping a set in the first 3 rounds, before falling to Novak Djokovic 6–0,6–3,7–5 in the quarterfinal. On 25 February 2008, Ferrer became world number 4 despite losing in the second round at Rotterdam. On April 20th, he captured his first title of the year, and the six in his career, when he defeated Nicolas Almagro 4–6, 6–2, 7–6(2) in the final. David Ferrer said Valencia title had been the tournament most special that had won of six. In quarter finals he saved three match points against Fernando Verdasco, and in the final he won the definitive set when he lost 5-2 in three set, with two "breaks" for Almagro. David Ferrer arrived at quarter finals in Masters Series of Monte-Carlo, losing against the future tournament champion Rafa Nadal 6-1, 7-5. Ferrer had five set balls on second set but finally Nadal won it. At the next week, in Barcelona, Ferrer arrived at the final defeating along the tournament Nicolás Lapentti, Tommy Robredo and Stanislas Wawrinka, and defeated the last day by Rafa Nadal. Trivia
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