Tournaments Won in 2009: Pilot Pen
Year End Ranking Points: 3300
The Land of Oz and American Hard Stuff
Oddly enough, Fer’s year will best be remembered for the beginning of it, and specifically for a match that he ended up losing in 5 hours and 14 minutes. He started the year in Brisbane where he made a run all the way to the final before losing to The Sex Stepanek in three sets. It wasn’t until the slam where shit started getting rolling for Fergasm, and his off season training really started to pay off. He demolished The Sex in the third round, 4 and two bagels, and then downed Muzz in five and Jo in four. And then of course the semi… 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 4-6. Insanely long. Apparently the first match ever where both players reached triple digits in the winners category. I still remember waking up, throwing on the computer to check to see who had won, at around 8am my time… the thing was still going on, and I saw most of the fifth set. Holy drama. Will definitely be watching that match over the Christmas break, in increments. I’ve seen youtube clips, the shot making is just insanity. As for Miami and Indian Wells, Fer lost to Fed and Muzz in straights respectively.
Pretty safe to say, unlike a lot of his fellow country men, Fer isn’t exactly gasming over clay. He fell in the quarter finals of Barcelona to Gonzo and Rome and Madrid to Rafa… so crap luck of the draw, literally. Though the matches against Rafa weren’t nearly as close as Australia. He lost in the fourth round of the French to the Koala, in straights.
High On Grass
Oddly enough, Fer played two grass warm up tournaments, but didn’t find success until he hit Wimbledon. He lost in the always prestigious “Gerry Weber Open” to Pesky Petz in the first round, and Becker in Ordina in the second round. As for Wimbley itself, he was sent to four tiebreaks against Dr. Ivo, and lost in the fourth set TB 9-11.
Hard For America
Fer found mixed results pre-USO, losing in Montreal in the third round to Dick (in a third set TB) and Garcia-Lopez in the first round of Cincy. From there he captured his only title of the year in New Haven, the week before the USO, without losing a set, and beating Sammy Q in the final. Not a bad USO run either, losing to Nole in the quarterfinals.
Asia and Beyond
As the second seed in Malaysia, Fergasm made a run to the final where he lost to the heating up Koyla. In Beijing he lost to Nole again, in the quarterfinals, and bowed out in the second round of Beijing to the rallying Old Man Ljubs. And of course in the past couple of weeks, he lost in the semis of Valencia to eventual champ Muzz, and the third round Paris to Marin.
No insanely impressive results from Fer, but he’s clearly upped the quality of his game over this year, and has incredibly consistent results. This will be his first ever YEC and obviously his highest rank to end the year.