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Ferrero Looks to Regain Top Form
He's no longer No 1 in the world but he is part of a Davis Cup winning team. Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero is aiming for his 12 th career singles title by playing at the Heineken Open in Auckland and believes he can return to the giddy heights of the top of world tennis, including beating, the almost unbeatable Roger Federer.
Ferrero made the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open four years ago and says its nice to return to New Zealand , albeit in the unfamiliar position of 31 in the world rankings.
“It's good to come back here, last time I was here I made the quarters and I played really good and after the last year I want to start very strong,” said the 2003 Roland Garros champion.
In 2004, the wiry Spaniard was hampered by injuries and he finished outside the top 30 (31) for the first time in five years. He missed all of March because of chicken pox, injured his right wrist and ribs in May and found it difficult to get back to his peak. However, Ferrero said he is feeling healthy and feels he is ready to get back to the scintillating form he showed in 2003 when he became world No 1 after reaching the US Open final. “This year I expect to come back and play some very good tennis in all the important tournaments.”
When he was last in Auckland , he played an unseeded Swiss player by the name of Roger Federer in the first round. Ferrero won in straight sets but doesn't remember too much of what happened that day. “It was a normal game, Roger was going up and I was playing very well also going up like him and … it's good to remember”.
Since that time, Federer has gone on to become the dominant force in men's tennis. But Ferrero, who has a 3-4 career record against the current world No 1, feels there is no reason he can't challenge the smooth Swiss. “Why not, I beat him at Madrid [in 2003] and I think if I am 100% I can do it,” said Ferrero.
Ferrero's young countrymen, Rafael Nadal, will be back in Auckland in 2005, and Ferrero said it won't be long before Nadal is scaling the heights of the top 20. “He's got a lot of potential, he's very strong and he's coming up very very fast. After Davis Cup I think he's going to take a lot of confidence, [he will gain] a lot of experience from those two matches and I think he's going to be in the top 20 but he has to work a lot because the tour is very hard.”
After the Heineken Open he will travel to the Australian Open in Melbourne where he was a semifinalist in 2004, losing to Federer. |
