Tournament Tales
from ATP Insider
8th May 2003
TOURNAMENT TALES
->> – IN ROME: Spanish stars JUAN CARLOS FERRERO and CARLOS MOYA took in some of the sights in Rome during the Telecom Italia Masters. Ferrero was given a tour of some of the city’s most famous landmarks, while Moya took time out on Monday to go shopping at the famous Georgio Armani store.
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The Swiss encounters his first set-loss of the week against Italian wild card Filippo Volandri
from ATP Tennis
7 May 2003
Fourth seed Roger Federer ousted wild card and crowd favorite Filippo Volandri 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, thus winning his 35th match of the 2003 season. The Italian handed Federer his first set-loss since falling to Albert Costa in the Miami quarterfinals in March.
Federer’s semifinal opponent is No. 2 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, who improved his 2003 record on clay to 21-1 by scoring a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Rainer Schuettler.
Ferrero competes in Rome for the fourth time in his career and holds a 13-2 record at the Foro Italico. It was here that the 23-year-old captured his first Tennis Masters Series title in 2001 and has lifted a total of three Tennis Masters Series shields in his career. The other two are Monte Carlo in 2002 and 2003.
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By MaliVai Washington from ESPN.com
5 May 2003
Juan Carlos Ferrero is on fire. No matter what happens in the coming weeks, you have to think he’s the favorite going into the French Open.
Roger Federer looks like this finally might be the year he breaks out to win a Grand Slam event.
There is no question Ferrero is one of the top two or three players on clay and that’s been the case for the past two years. With Gustavo Kuerten still rebounding and trying to find his form after his injury-filled year and a half, there’s no question that Ferrero is the front-runner of those who can contend on clay.
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from Reuters
4 May 2003
VALENCIA, Spain, May 4 (Reuters) – Local hero Juan Carlos Ferrero breezed to a 6-2 6-4 victory over Christophe Rochus to win the inaugural Valencia Open on Sunday.
Ferrero, born just outside Valencia in Onteniente and the top seed at his home-town tournament, broke twice at the start of the match for a 4-0 love lead against the unseeded Belgian.
From then on the result was never in doubt, as Ferrero clinched the first set and moved smoothly into a 4-2 lead in the second to set up an overwhelming victory that completed his record of not having lost a set at the tournament.
It was a second clay-court title of the season for Ferrero, who won the Monte Carlo Masters last month and also reached the semi-finals in Barcelona last week.
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The top seed captures his third title on home soil and moves to second position in the ATP Champions Race 2003
from ATP Tennis
4 May 2003
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero claimed the ninth ATP title of his career with a 6-2, 6-4 victory of Belgium’s Christophe Rochus in the final of the CAM Open Comunidad Valenciana presented by Onofre.
Ferrero, who moves up to second position in the ATP Champions Race 2003, captured his second title of the year (Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo) and is now 29-6 for the season with a 17-1 record on clay.
En route to the final, Ferrero defeated wild card Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Albert Portas, Agustin Calleri and Brazil’s Flavio Saretta without dropping a set.
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from ATP Tennis
Juan Carlos Ferrero continues to bolster his reputation as the most feared player on clay this season, improving his clay record to 15-1. On Friday, the Spaniard defeated Agustin Calleri 6-3, 6-4 at the CAM Open Comunidad Valencianato to advance to his fourth ATP semifinal of the year. Ferrero began his season on clay at the Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo, where he captured the title. A week later, he stormed through the semifinals in Barcelona. And this week, he’s now two matches away from claiming his eighth career title in his home country. Ferrero now meets Flavio Saretta of Brazil, who upset No. 4 seed Gaston Gaudio 3-6, 7-6(3) 6-3.
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