Ferrer Finally Wins Masters Title

With the top 4 out of the picture early in the tournament, David Ferrer seized the opportunity to win his first career Masters tournament, defeating qualifier Jerzy Janowicz 6-4 6-3 in the final.  Ferrer overcame Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters and Michael Llodra in the semis to reach that final, after the draw was decimated by poor showings from seeded players.  It is often overlooked that Ferrer is a very good hard court player as 6 of his now 18 titles have come on that surface.  His stock has risen steadily over the past couple years and he rarely loses to players ranked below him as evidenced by only 6 of his 14 losses this year came against players not named Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, or Murray.  His only problem is that he cannot beat those four men as shown by his 1-8 record against them.  He is certainly the "best of the rest" and I am happy to see him finally host a Masters trophy at the age of 30.  It is his tour leading 7th title of 2012 and he still could win a Davis Cup for Spain if they can win at the Czech Republic in 2 weeks.

The fairy tale tournament continued for Jerzy Janowicz as he knocked off Janko Tipsarevic and Gilles Simon to reach his first ATP final (and semi).  He will be the year end no. 26 which should assure him a seed for Australia (collective sigh of relief for the field) and a chance to really add to his ranking throughout most of next season.  We will soon find out if this was a flash in the pan tournament or if he can sustain this success.  My feeling is that it is the latter.

Also of note, Michael Llodra beat Sam Querrey in the quarters to make the Paris semis for the 2nd time in 3 years and he jumps 69 spots in the rankings to no. 52 and will get himself into tournament main draws for a good majority of the year.  Gilles Simon also had a nice tournament, reaching the semis but was hit off the court by Janowicz.

Caroline Woznacki, who in her heyday during '10 and '11 could possibly be compared to Ferrer, beating players ranked below her but failing to come up with the goods against those who were ranking above/"better" than her, was bidding to make it 3 titles in a row but came up short in the tournament of champions (second-tier year end championships) in Sofia, Bulgaria against Nadia Petrova.  So instead it is Petrova was ends the year on a high note after winning in Tokyo a few weeks ago.  Petrova swept Wozniacki out of the final 6-2 6-1.  Wozniacki will end the year no. 10 in the world and Petrova will be no. 12.  Both should be able to use these last few weeks to springboard into 2013.  For Petrova it is 3rd title of the season and 13th overall.

One more note on the similarities between Ferrer and Wozniacki.  Ferrer might be the one talked about as a "slamless no. 1" if Federer and Nadal missed huge chucks of the season with injury and Djokovic and Murray were their inconsistent selves they were around 2010.

The final group standings in Sofia were:
Serdika: Wozniacki (3-0), Vinci (2-1), Hsieh (1-2), Hantuchova (0-3)
Sredets: Petrova (3-0), Pironkova (1-2), Zheng (0-3), Kirilenko (1-1) then w/d and Arvidsson (1-0)

Wozniacki def. Pironkova and Petrova def. Vinci in the SF.