My boy Ferrer is doing great. He's an absolute Warrior.
There's no point to women's tennis. It's an unfair contest when Williams takes to the court. If I said what I really think I'd get flamed on here.Williams - Errani just now wasn't even funny. It's a fucking semi final for God's sake. (Mis)Matches like that just shouldn't happen at this level.
Anybody apart from Ferrer and his mother think that David's got a chance today?
David is probably the most respected player on tour. His training and work ethic are legendary and most people around the tour would have given him an outside shot with the form he's been in. But there is a reason why he hasn't broken through to win a grandslam title and that is that he can't physically dominate and doesn't have any huge weapon. Absolutely amazing at what he does and a great guy but just not enough to beat Nadal on clay. Nadal crushed him in the end and I think he'll be very disappointed with the scoreline and his performance.
If he'd been playing in the late 90's early 2000's at the level he's playing at now he probably would have won multiple French Open's. He's a better player than Juan Carlos Ferrero ever was and he reached world number 1.
Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of time for Ferrer. He's maximised his talents through bloody hard work and is one of the fittest and most consistent players on the tour.
But like you say, he has no big shots. He's also not good at the net. And I think racquet technology has helped him, because you can generate such speed from pretty much anywhere that an attacking player almost has to hit the lines to beat a class baseliner, which Ferrer undoubtedly is.
Ferrero was no mean player and would have been better with today's equipment, which has changed som much in the last 15 years. And with players like Agassi, Kuerten, Moya, Bruguera etc around I don't think Ferrer would have been a shoo-in for multiple titles. He's certainly been unlucky to have Nadal around at the same time though.
Ferrero was playing with (in the latter part of his career) the previous version of the same racquet as Ferrer, both of which I designed, but credit goes to the man himself because he has really pushed his game on to another level in the last year or so. Out of the list of players you've mentioned before I would fancy Ferrer against all of them (on clay at least in Agassi's case). Kuerten won the French 3 times on pure talent but I think if you put Kuerten of his prime v Ferrer now, Ferrer would shade it. Of course they were all excellent players but David wouldn't look out of place playing any of them, where as he does playing Nadal.