Australian Open Tennis Championships 2014 Highlights | Jeremy Chardy and David Ferrer

Ferrer Online video Ranking: 5 / 5

FERRER LOSES OUT TO DJOKOVIC

Fifth seed David Ferrer put up a brave display in his quarterfinal match with world number one Novak Djokovic, but in the end was unable to match the Serbian’s quality and determination. The Australian Open match finished 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 to Djokovic, but it wasn’t without its drama, and Ferrer looked like he fancied an upset at times, with his opponent looking uncomfortable and uncharacteristically lax.

The first set took nearly an hour, and saw the top seed regularly clutching his stomach, as well as looking as though his hip flexor and then his hamstring were giving him some trouble. “After the first two games, I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is going to be a long night’. I was very lucky to get through the second set,” Djokovic said. “You have to hang in there, especially with a player like Ferrer. He is a great competitor, I needed to come up with the winners.”

In the second set, Ferrer seemed even better, and with Djokovic’s unforced error count rising, the Spaniard had a great opportunity to equal the match. Perhaps his nerves got to him though, and he was unable to take advantage of the situation, eventually losing the tie break 7-4 after even gaining a couple of mini-breaks. At this point, with a two set lead, the world number would have probably had to retire completely for Ferrer to win, and the third set was quickly over, as the balance of the match swung Djokovic’s way again. “It was a big mental advantage. Momentum was on my side,” he said.

Ferrer has been steadily improving over the last couple of years, to get to the position he is in now, but questions are bound to be asked over whether he has the innate ability to break through into the top 4. His work rate is unquestionable, and he is good at developing weaknesses, but he still seems to lack the technical superiority that the biggest names in tennis enjoy.