from Tennis-x.com by Richard Vach
20 August 2004

Juan Carlos Ferrero is hot.

That’s what I hear, anyway. From the wife, from the multitude of fan websites, from the chattering smiley-face-posting teens on the discussion boards.

Those eyes. That hair. Women post mini-novels on the Spaniard’s physical attributes, which is interesting since “The Mosquito” or “Chavalito” (little kid) or as he’s termed in the U.S. by many male tennis fans, “That Skinny-Ass Kid from Spain,” are not the most physically endearing of nicknames.

Perhaps it’s that particularly wiry frame that has contributed to the Spaniard’s fall from grace in 2004. Succumbing to a host of injuries (and illnesses) this year, the six-foot 160-pounds-soaking-wet Ferrero is now only a few hundred points from tumbling out of the Top 10, this only eight months after he was challenging for the year-end No. 1 ranking at the end of 2003.
If you checked the multitude of international tennis headlines on the Internet over the last two weeks during the Masters Series events in Canada and Cincinnati you would have received a snapshot of the former No. 1′s year, and his even-further decline on the tennis radar.

A first-round retirement at the Masters Series-Canada barely garnered a headline last month, buried amidst the jubilation of the even-lower-seeded Andre Agassi outlasting Tommy Haas in the featured night match. Ferrero’s second-round loss the following week at the MS-Cincinnati was an even smaller footnote.

Outside of Spain, sometimes you get the feeling that if tomorrow Ferrero pulled a Ricky Williams, the average tennis fan outside of Europe would say “Juan Carlos whoseit?”

Which begs two questions: Why isn’t Juan Carlos Ferrero more popular? And why the hell is he getting injured every other week in 2004?

The answer to the latter question has everything to do with the Spaniard’s draining run at the end of 2003, which in a three-month period included a runner-up effort at the US Open, the Davis Cup semifinal, a runner-up at Bangkok, a title at the Masters Series-Madrid, a 3rd round effort at the Masters Series-Paris, then the Masters Cup, then the David Cup final.

The exhaustion point hit at the MS-Paris. That third round loss was the beginning of a six-loss streak to end the year. Not exactly the condition you want to be in when entering a tournament consisting solely of the Top 8 players in the world, or going into the Davis Cup final with two best-of-five singles matches ahead of you.

Ferrero was dead tired at the end of his 2003 campaign, and physically he never had the chance to recover.

In January the Spaniard lamented his condition after playing through injury in a losing effort in the semifinals at the Australian Open.

“I didn’t have so much time to prepare in December, starting here in Australian Open,” Ferrero said. “Just have 15 days to prepare physically. And, you know, also tennis, after take a rest 15 days, I was in holidays. So, of course, I didn’t have so much time to prepare. And maybe it’s part of the problem that I have now.”

The Spaniard then skipped representing Spain in the first round of Davis Cup play, with his injuries at that time including his leg and abs.

After some rest it looked like a recovery was eminent for The Mosquito when in February he reached the finals indoors in Rotterdam (l. to Lleyton Hewitt), but nagging injuries turned to plain bad luck when the following month he contracted chicken pox. The illness forced him to miss a number of events during the U.S. spring swing (MS-Indian Wells) and during his favorite time of the year, the beginning of the claycourt season, roughly a month and a half total on the couch.

Upon his return to the tour Ferrero helped Spain through the Davis Cup quarterfinals against The Netherlands and reached the semifinals in his homecountry event at Valencia. In his next event, at the Masters Series-Monte Carlo, Ferrero suffered a 2-6, 3-6 blowout at the hands of countryman Alex Corretja, then cited a new wrist injury in pulling from the Masters Series events at Hamburg and Rome, an entire month of inactivity leading to the French Open.

At Roland Garros it looked like Ferrero might play his way back into form after a four-set win over Tommy Haas, but in the second round he was blown out by the unheralded Russian Igor Andreev in straight sets.

The Spaniard skipped the grasscourt warm-ups, essentially giving himself another three weeks off before showing up at Wimbledon to pay homage to the British press, losing in the third round to Robby Ginepri.

After more than a week’s rest, Ferrero’s appearance on clay at Gstaad should have been a triumphant return, but was instead a rather disparaging look at how far the former No. 1′s game had fallen, both physically and mentally. The Spaniard was dismissed in the first round in straight sets by Austrian retriever Stefan Koubek.

“I’m not playing my best tennis,” said Ferrero in the understatement of the year, at that point 6-4 on clay in 2004. “I cannot find my game, I’m sadly lacking confidence.”

The Spaniard hoped his luck would change by jetting to the U.S. to begin his summer hardcourt swing at the Masters Series-Canada. But midway through the first set of his first round match, he was hit by leg and back pain, resulting in another pull-out, another missed opportunity, another failure to put some much-needed ranking points up on the board.

“I started to feel a lot of pain in my legs, you know, and I couldn’t arrive (at) the ball so good,” Ferrero said after withdrawing in his match with Fabrice Santoro. “I don’t know how it’s going to be. I hope that it’s going to be like three or four days after doing treadmill all days and I hope to be ready for Cincinnati but I don’t know.”

“I don’t know” is a familiar refrain these days for the Spaniard, who struggles to understand how he could be plagued by so many injuries, especially after an early pro and junior career that was for the most part injury-free.

“What happened to me, I don’t know,” Ferrero said. “Of course it’s a bad year for me but, you know, I expect I will come play some good tournaments until the end of the year, you know, and try to get confidence again, you know, and try to play good tennis that I was doing at the start of the year.”

From near-year-end-No. 1 in 2003 to possibly missing this year’s Masters Cup is an injustice for the former claycourt specialist who has adapted to becoming an all-surface threat at the age of 24.

As to the other question, why Ferrero has failed to catch the fancy of the tennis masses outside of Spain/Europe proper, let’s go to that Clown Prince of the Post-match Conference, that Sultan of the Sound Bite, Russia’s Marat Safin.

“I think that you have your own players and you like very much your players, the American ones,” Safin told American journalists earlier this year after asked about Ferrero staying under the radar. “Nobody really cares about the Spanish players, especially here. Nobody cares about it.

“Exactly also for the players from other countries. At least there is a lot of people, they know only (Andre) Agassi, (Andy) Roddick and (James) Blake. I think it’s normal. Also, (Ferrero) is not also popular in Russia. Nobody knows him. Nobody cares about him. The people from Europe, yes, they know him, because he’s traveling and he’s playing in Europe.”

Safin also elaborated on the promotion, or lack of promotion, of the top non-American players such as Ferrero.

“Tennis is so — they don’t promote it very well,” Safin said. “They don’t get enough hours to show on TV because it’s not entertaining anymore. That’s the main reason. That’s the main reason that the people like us, like Ferrero, Federer and Safin and Roddick — okay, Roddick, because he is American, but normally, nobody really knows the players and not really interested to watch these kind of matches.

“Spanish players, they are quiet, famous enough in Europe. Maybe because their tennis is not really unbelievably attractive, could be one of the reasons…They want to see like maybe a John McEnroe, they want to see Boris Becker, or they want to see big names, more interesting game. They want to see little bit serve and volley and some nice shots. You cannot see that from the Spanish players.”

Ferrero thought that situation would change last year after gaining the US Open final.

“This time I think the people is gonna know me very good,” said Ferrero after steamrolling some of the top opposition to gain the final. “I win Agassi; he’s very popular here. I’m in the final beating Hewitt, Agassi and Todd Martin — you know, one of the guys that are playing so good in hardcourt, and especially in hardcourt. So I think right now it’s my time.”

Guess again.

After getting Babolated in the final by Roddick, the Spaniard failed to grab the attention of American fans, who were too enamored with A-Rod winning his first slam and closing on the No. 1 ranking. It was Roddick who was put on the promotional merry-go-round by the ATP, and Ferrero who was shuttled back to Spain.

Almost one year later, J.C. finds himself void of the confidence and physical prowess that almost led him to the coveted year-end No. 1 ranking. Instead, he enters the Athens Olympics this weekend as a target for lower-ranked players who realize they could get the injury-win if they just hang around long enough. Then it’s on to the US Open where an early-round loss could result in an exit from the Top 10, and surely sink his hopes of qualifying for the Masters Cup.

Fame on the international level, for whatever reason, failed Ferrero last year when he won the French Open and finished runner-up in New York. This year, mired in injury and failing to accomplish anything at the majors, the fame-o-meter is threatening to relegate the talented Mosquito to the nether regions of three-named Spaniards and Argentines that globe-hop the fractious world of professional tennis.

Somebody tell the skinny chavalito it’s time to eat a sandwich and take a break.