from the ATP newsletter
21 April 2003

“It may have some way to go before rivaling the Tennis Masters Monte Carlo in terms of tradition and prestige, but the annual Players’ Cabaret in Monaco is certainly becoming an event not to be missed. This year was no exception as the players let their hair down and enjoyed an evening full of laughs and entertainment at their own expense. Held at the Sea Club at the Meridien Beach Plaza, Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan hosted the show, where the stars took part in various sketches and comedy acts throughout the night. Max Mirnyi opened proceedings by playing Russian lounge music on his guitar before teaming up with doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, Don Johnson and Josh Eagle for a special rendition of the Village People’s YMCA. Jonas Bjorkman joined Bob and Mike Bryan with their version of Kylie Minogue’s megahit Can’t! Get You Out of My Head, while Bob, playing keyboards, and Mike, on drums, also delighted the crowd with Santana’s Oye Como Va. Juan Carlos Ferrero won a player-coach eating contest, defeating opposition from the teams of Carlos Moya and Michael Llodra, while Pavel Vizner wowed the crowd with his tribute to the Oscar-winning musical Chicago. Jose Acasuso, Fernando Gonzalez, David Nalbandian and Horacio de la Peña created a laugh of their own with their adaptation of The Full Monty.”…

20 April 2003
MONTE CARLO, April 20 (Reuters) – Spain’s Juan-Carlos Ferrero won his second successive Monte Carlo Masters title on Sunday and set himself three goals for the rest of his career.
“I want to be number one in the world,” he said after his 6-2 6-2 victory over Argentine Guillermo Coria in a one-sided final. “I obviously want to win Roland Garros on clay.
“But I’d also like to win the U.S. Open to silence all the people who keep thinking that Spaniards can’t do it.”
While the Valencia-born player, 23, has won two hardcourt titles (Dubai in 2001 and Hong Kong in 2002) and would love to prove that he can play on all surfaces, his priority over the next eight weeks will be on clay.
Ferrero’s main aim at the end of the eight weeks will be to go one step further at this year’s French Open, where he was beaten in the final last year by compatriot Albert Costa.
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20 April 2003
Juan Carlos Ferrero cruised to his third career Tennis Masters Series title Sunday with a straight set victory over 21-year-old Argentine Guillermo Coria at the Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo.
It was Ferrero’s 12th consecutive match victory at the Monte-Carlo Country Club following his run to the title here last year. He is just the third player to win back-to-back titles here in the past three decades, joining the likes of Bjorn Borg (1979-80) and Thomas Muster (1995-96) as repeat champions.
Ferrero now has three Tennis Masters Series shields, having also captured the Tennis Masters Hamburg in 2001.
Ferrero broke Coria in the first game of the match and controlled the baseline rallies throughout the first set. Coria, meanwhile, did not play the kind of flawless, error-free tennis he had demonstrated in straight set wins over Carlos Moya and Juan-Ignacio Chela.
After taking the first set 6-2, Ferrero jumped to a 3-0 lead before Coria broke back. But Ferrero continued to cruise winning in just over one hour 6-2, 6-2.
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from Times Online: Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent in Monte Carlo
19 April 2003
It is the curse of the modern Spaniard that there prevails a horribly narrow-minded view of them and the way they play the game humdrum tennis with a ho-hum reaction. Juan Carlos Ferrero is doing his best to change all that but, short of becoming a serve-and-volleyer overnight, how can it be done? He’s tried dying his hair a fluorescent shade of yellow but that didn’t work.
Believe it or not, Ferrero is to Spain every bit the blond bombshell David Beckham is in Britain. His performance in the 2000 Davis Cup final afforded him princely status. When he ventures out in the big cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, Ferrero has to be careful where he goes, who he goes with and what is poured into his glass. The third best player in the world behind Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi dare not let his guard drop. It is only when he occasionally goes home to Villena he can become again “Chavalito”?his nickname of “little kid”.
The last time the kid let his hair down ?”I really have to do it, even though I am a professional sportsman” ?was the week before the American spring events, since when he hasn’t spent a moment on anything but toiling to perfect his enormously powerful game. And from this championship, the Monte Carlo Masters, where he is defending champion and reached the semi-finals yesterday with a 6-0, 6-2 annihilation of Alberto Martin, his compatriot, he will have just one week off until the end of Wimbledon.
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from Tennis Week by Richard Pagliaro
18 April 2003
As a child, Juan Carlos Ferrero spent countless hours driving himself up the wall. Today, the top-seeded Spaniard drove deep shots that broke down the defenses of compatriot Alberto Martin in creating a crushing 6-0, 6-2 quarterfinal conquest at the Tennis Masters Series Monte Carlo.
The defending champion stormed into the semifinals where he will take on American Vince Spadea. Continuing his remarkable resurgence from professional purgatory, the 28-year-old Spadea advanced to his second Tennis Masters Series semifinal of the season by scoring a 6-1, 6-3 quarterfinal victory over Filippo Volandri to end the Italian qualifier’s inspired tournament run.
The decisive ground attack of Ferrero produced devastating results. The 23-year-old Spaniard learned to play tennis practicing against the wall of his father’s factory and today he hit with the fierce force of a player intent on breaking through bricks and reducing them to rubble with each swing of his racquet.
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from the official TMS Monte Carlo website
17 April 2003

Top seed and defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero survived another three-set thriller against Felix Mantilla to advance to the third round of Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo Wednesday. Ferrero remains unbeaten in six matches with Mantilla following his gritty 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over his countryman.

But the lopsided head-to-head record belies the evenness of their rivalry. All six matches have gone to three sets and three of the six have been decided by third-set tie-breaks, including both meetings last year.

Ferrero said: “It’s always difficult against him. Every time we played, we went to three sets, and every time the score of the third set was 7-6 or 7-5. He’s a very tough player on hard courts, but even more on clay courts. He’s a very complete player. “

“I had trouble winning points on my forehand. This is the area where I have to work. I don’t have much time to work on that before tomorrow, but I’ll try.”