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this is from an after match interview Marat Safin did – from ASAP Sports
25 March 2004
Q. You trained in Valencia with Juan Carlos, right?
MARAT SAFIN: Not exactly.
Q. Not exactly?
MARAT SAFIN: Not exactly. One is from the same place, but different cities. I would live like around 60 miles away from each other.
Q. You know him pretty well?
MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, yeah. We been playing, I mean, we been traveling together in the same tournaments since we are 14.
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this is from an after match interview Andy Roddick did – from ASAP Sports
25 March 2004

Q. For a player that’s won a French Open and finals of the US Open, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Americans haven’t really warmed up to him much. Do you have any idea why that is?

ANDY RODDICK: I don’t. I’m not sure. He’s obviously — he’s obviously a very deserving candidate for respect and for acknowledgment. I’m not too sure, you know. I don’t know.

Q. Style of play? Demeanor on the court?

ANDY RODDICK: I don’t think so, because every time you say “style of play,” “demeanor on the court,” you can find someone who they have embraced who has probably close to the same qualities. So I’m not sure, I don’t know.

22 March 2004
KEY BISCAYNE · The Nasdaq-100 Open lost its fifth top-10 woman plus French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero on a Sunday that saw five more names erased from the tournament draw.
Chanda Rubin, runner-up in 1996 and in the semifinals here a year ago, pulled out of the tournament with a knee injury she has been nursing since February.
Later in the day, Ferrero, No. 2 in the world behind Roger Federer, was officially declared out with the chicken pox he contracted a week and a half ago, before the tournament at Indian Wells.
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11 March 2004

Second-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain has withdrawn from the Pacific Life Open, it was announced today by tournament officials. Ferrero has contracted chickenpox and will not compete here because of the illness.

Ferrero, who is No. 2 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Rankings, will be replaced in the main draw by Jeff Salzenstein as the ‘Lucky Loser’ Salzenstein was the highest-ranked player to lose in the final round of the qualifying draw. By rule, he moves into the draw spot formerly occupied by Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, who is awarded the No. 33 seed and replaces Ferrero’s spot on the bottom line of the draw.

Tournament physician Dr. Ken Anderson examined Ferrero at his local hotel room on Wednesday and diagnosed the illness.

“I found out yesterday that I had the chickenpox,” said Ferrero from his hotel room on Thursday afternoon. “Sometimes things happen and you can’t do anything about it. I am disappointed because I was looking forward to playing here.”

Salzenstein will play wild card Alex Bogomolov Jr in the first round, while Gaudio receives a bye into the second round and will face the winner of Wayne Ferreira vs. Igor Andreev.

Main draw play at the Pacific Life Open begins on Friday and continues through Sunday, March 21.

from Ace Magazine – special thanks to Kiara for typing it up!
March 2004
>> Scans from the magazine
“Inconspicuous” would be the kindest way to describe the small bungalow that Juan Carlos Ferrero lives in at his tennis academy in central Spain. So modest that if the local estate agent were to stick a photo of it up in his shop window it would barely catch the eye of a passer by.
It’s a nondescript, two bedroom, peach coloured building over looking a flat, featureless farmland.
When he’s not on tour this is where the world number 3 spends most of his time. And he doesn’t even live there alone- he shares accommodation with Israel’s Matos Gil, ranked 598 on the ATP computer.
To be fair Ferrero also owns a rather large home in Valencia which far more befits his status as a millionaire several times over. But when he’s training at the academy – The JC Ferrero Equelite Acedemia de Tenis- The French Open champion likes to keep things unpretentious.
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from Ace Magazine
March 2004

Ace asks six of the world’s top players how they used the winter break to get ready for 2004.

Juan Carlos Ferrero
“This past winter I didn’t have so much time to work a lot. I started on December 15, so I only had three weeks’ holiday after the Masters Cup. I worked hard in the gym, to develop my power. After a week of very hard work in the gym, I started to practice my tennis, day-to-day more hours. Finally, I began to practice normally.”