David Ferrer; Spain’s ‘Other’ Tennis Player
In April 2018 in Valencia’s bullring, transformed into a tennis court, Spain eliminated Germany in the Davis Cup and ualified for the semi-finals. The decisive winning match was played by Valencia’s own David Ferrer.
David Ferrer won the Bastad tennis competition for the second time in Sweden in July 2017, the 27th title of his career. The Valencian player from Javea Alicante beat Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-4.
Ferrer won the Mexican Open Tennis Championship in March 2015, beating Japanese player Kei Nishikori 6-3 and 7-5, proving that Spanish tennis is not exclusively the domain of Rafa Nadal.
Since turning professional in the year 2000, Ferrer has slowly, if less spectacularly than Nadal, made a name for himself and in November 2013 eliminated Nadal in the semi finals of the Paris Bercy Masters Tournament, which Ferrer had won the previous year.
Like Nadal, Ferrer plays best on clay courts, where he has won half of his titles: apart from Paris, Ferrer has reached the semifinals of the Australian and US Opens twice each, and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon twice.
Ferrer was born on the 2nd of April 1982 in the town of Xabia (or Javea) on Alicante’s Costa Blanca, where many British, German and other nationalities have made their homes.
Later, at the age of 13 he would move to nearby Gandia, in the province of Valencia.
In 2003 he had his first important triumph when he beat Andre Agassi at the Rome Masters, and in doubles, he reached his first career final in Acapulco with Fernando Vicente.
In July 2007, he captured his second title of the year and fourth of his career, beating Nicolás Almagro in the final of the Swedish Open in Båstad.
Then, Ferrer captured his third title of the year in Tokyo, defeating Richard Gasquet in the final.
On 25 February 2008, Ferrer became world no. 4,
Ferrer won his first grass-court title at Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. He defeated Frenchman Marc Gicquel in the final, becoming the second Spaniard (after Nadal) to win a grass-court tournament after a period of 36 years of absence.
In 2008 he represented Spain at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but was eliminated by Janko Tipsarević in the first round.
In 2012 Ferrer won his first Masters 1000 title in Paris and won more matches that year than any other player, male or female.
Unfortunately Ferrer lost the Paris final in 2013, succumbing to Novak Djokovic.
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