David Ferrer - French Open Men's Tennis Players

David Ferrer is another young Spaniard who is a cut above the rest on clay and although he is yet to bag a Masters Series title or the biggest prize of all, a grand slam, he has belted up the ATP ranking table since he turned pro in 2002.

At the end of his maiden year on the pro circuit, he was ranked 59^th but the man from Valencia, aptly named 'Ferru' or 'iron' in Catalan, has shown he is a player to be reckoned with and has consistently been in the top ten of the ATP ranking table since 2007.

Ferrer is a tenacious fighter and like most accomplished professionals, he has an absolute aversion to losing but he does have the full range of skills, particularly on clay and in his relatively short career he has already downed some of the biggest names in men's tennis.

Ferrer triumphs over Agassi

A watershed moment for the determined Ferrer was his 2003 pasting of the former world number one, Andre Agassi, in the first round of the Rome Masters. He went on to claim the scalps of some of the more formidable combatants of the modern era including David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Mario Ancic, Marcos Baghdatis, Richard Gasquet and the man who has recently toppled the King, Rafael Nadal.

At the end of 2007 Ferrer was rewarded for his accomplishments and seeded 6^th for the year end Tennis Masters Cup and he certainly lived up to all expectations. He destroyed the 4^th seed, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets and then nailed Nadal, seeded 2^nd to the wall, and that was in the round robin stage of the illustrious event!

Ferrer was the only player to boast a perfect round robin campaign and he went on with confidence to crush former world number one, Andy Roddick in the semi finals before falling prey to one of the greatest tennis players of all times, Roger Federer.

Will he disappear into Obscurity?

As of February 2008 Ferrer has been ranked number 4 on the ATP rankings but he may very well become another casualty of history as he will always have to face off against one of the most potent clay court practitioners of all time, Rafael Nadal and it is unlikely he will ever be able to tame the King of Clay on his preferred surface, especially considering the incumbent number one is four years younger than him!