This week, we have a couple of lower-tier events in Casablanca and Houston, kind of like a breather of a week before the Masters Series events begin, starting in Monte Carlo on Sunday.Most notably on the players' list in Casablanca, is former world number 1 and French Open champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero making his comeback from injury in Buenos Aires. Before that he had an injury-riddled year or so as well, being relatively light on match practice and subsequently his ranking has dropped outside of the top 100. He hasn't won a title since 2003 and his form looks good to break that drought so far, although I'd give Igor Andreev a good chance of winning the title as well.
It was quarter-finals day yesterday, where Ferrero faced Victor Hanescu in the third match of the day. It was a nice contrast of styles, a contrast of spins to admire and different methods of controlling baseline rallies. Hanescu with his more upright, cleanly struck groundstrokes as opposed to the more topspin oriented game of Ferrero's.
I like the way Ferrero whips across his forehand in a vicious manner, how he rotates his whole body across to generate excellent racquet head speed. On a claycourt, he can get that extra bit of reward off his forehand which moves further out of court after its bounce, making that combination of an off-forehand followed by a down-the-line forehand incredibly lethal.
It was a gradually improving performance from Ferrero, one that initially seemed controlled yet effective. It was a display of good claycourt tennis, with Ferrero effectively spreading the court and making Hanescu move all over the court, but doing so without taking any unnecessary risks.
The initial stages of the match were more a result of Hanescu appearing a bit sluggish, not yet finding the range of his groundstrokes. The way Hanescu moves to the ball, it's like he makes horizontal strides to the ball rather than the light, quick steps from Ferrero whose feet never seem to stop moving. Hanescu shanked a few shots off the forehand in the first game, and couldn't seem to get into the rhythm to exchange long rallies. Being a flatter hitter of the ball, Hanescu relies more on needing to find the timing to be able to hit accurate, sweetly struck groundstrokes otherwise they just don't have the penetration (or accuracy) needed to hurt Ferrero.
I was surprised at how quickly it took for Ferrero to find his confidence, and three games into the match he started striking his forehand with full confidence, stepping up the pace and unleashing more winners on that side. It was an impressive display of variety of spin, placement and pace.
I had my headphones on with the volume turned up moderately loud and I got the full experience of hearing all of the sound effects coming from Ferrero, all of the energy that he puts in to get the best out of his game. And from what I heard, it does sound like he plays a fast-paced, energetic game in terms of his movements, one that not only requires energy, but good confidence as well. That's only in reference to Ferrero playing at the top of his game though, because he can still play a good, consistent and smart match without that.
But on another note, the other impression I got listening to the match was that I thought Ferrero looked like he was really enjoying himself, maybe more so than usual given his injury layoff. Whenever a shot didn't hit its targets, he reacted off it like he was riding the emotion of whatever was happening in the match, a sign that he was fully focused. I loved the replay they showed of him moving to one of the dropshots, of him sliding forward and cutting underneath the ball just before it hits the ground. There were some sublime drop volleys as well, how difficult it must be to maintain control on those drop volleys on the full stretch with your feet inevitably sliding further apart on the stretch.
Hanescu picked up his game midway in the first set onwards, which made for some entertaining exchanges but Ferrero always seemed like the better player the whole way through. The one more capable of turning rallies around, coming up with something special towards the end.
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