What is it about David Ferrer? You sometimes want to grab the guy at the shoulders and shake him a bit and yell at him “dude be more aggressive and animated”, but it would be just too tough to do because he is such a...
What is it about David Ferrer? You sometimes want to grab the guy at the shoulders and shake him a bit and yell at him “dude be more aggressive and animated”, but it would be just too tough to do because he is such a nice guy. I have never heard anyone say a bad word about David Ferrer and in the cauldron of professional tennis that is quite some achievement.
Because of Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer does not receive the attention that he deserves and yet he continues to be the quiet achiever in tennis.
At the age of 30 he is playing the best tennis of his life and this form began last year which made 2012 the best year of his career. He is on the threshold of being ranked No.4 which would equal his best ever ranking, but he plays that down.
“I am top four because Rafael is injured a long time, is the true,” he says with his heavily accented, gravelly voice.
He was asked if he felt that he was in that group though. Ferrer responded: “No, no. I think the top four, they are better.”
Aaagh! Accept you are top four David. Any other player would jump at such a situation.
He added: “It's my opinion. But I am trying to do my best every match. I am trying to win every match anyway, top four, top 10, or top 100. You know, the results, it was there, no? I'm not making something up.”
Exactly the point, the results are there. He is a tremendous player, won titles one every surface and talk about strong physically, the guy is built like a brick wall and he plays as if he is a brick wall for practice sessions. Not much gets past him. He keeps on returning everything and frustrates many an opponent besides just making them tired.
He doesn’t care if he is not recognized walking down the street because for him that is not something he covets. However for the game of tennis it is disappointing that one of the best players in the world, and one of the nicest guys in the sport, is not readily identified.
He thinks “big deal”; he is here to play tennis and that’s all that matters.
Ferrer is more than happy with his position because on a personal level he is able to do what he wants and not get hounded. He doesn’t want to have the recognition rating of a Nadal, Federer, Djokovic or Murray.
Seriously though, if he was playing in an era that didn’t include the likes of Federer, Djokovic, Nadal or Murray, David Ferrer probably would have won at least one Grand Slam title. Probably even then he would be more than happy going under the radar.
