It must have felt like deja vu for David Ferrer in Sunday’s final at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Spaniard battled manfully through the week, only to finish second best to one of the Big Four in the final.
You have got to feel sorry for Ferrer. He has been one of the most consistent performers on the tour and has not slipped out of the top 10 in the rankings since 2010, climbing as high as No 3. But, in the seven Masters 1000 finals he has reached during this period, only once did he have the good fortune of not running into Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray.
Ferrer met Jerzy Janowicz for the Paris title in 2012 and brushed him aside in straight sets. In the other six Masters finals, he has lost twice each to Nadal and Murray, and once to Djokovic and Federer. He has even reached a grand slam tournament final (2013 French Open), only to find an invincible Nadal.
Overall, Ferrer, 32, has won 21 titles on the tour, but not one of those finals was against the Big Four.
Like most players of this generation, Ferrer has a lopsided head-to-head record against those four – 0-16 against Federer, 6-22 against Nadal, 5-12 against Djokovic and 5-7 against Murray.
That means one-fifth of all his career defeats (57 of 286) have come against them.
So, like the Tomas Berdychs and Jo-Wilfried Tsongas, Ferrer must be wishing for an end to the Big Four’s domination of men’s tennis.
But, unlike them, he might not have too many years of tennis ahead of him.
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