The 21st century
Spain · born Xàbia, 1982 · right-handed · twice champion at 's-Hertogenbosch and twice a Wimbledon quarter-finalist
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2
's-Hertogenbosch singles titles, 2008 and 2012, his only grass titles
2
Wimbledon quarter-finals, 2012 and 2013
27
ATP singles titles
No. 3
Career-high ranking, 8 July 2013, after his Wimbledon quarter-final
3
Davis Cup titles with Spain, 2008, 2009 and 2011
David Ferrer was born in Xàbia, on the coast of Alicante, in 1982, the son of an accountant and a primary school teacher. He moved to Gandia at 13 and to Barcelona at 15 to train with the Catalan Tennis Federation, and was coached from his teens by Javier Piles. He turned professional in 2000 and won his first ATP title in Bucharest in 2002, on clay, the surface on which he was first thought a specialist.
He became one of the most consistent players of his era: seven seasons in the top 10, 292 straight weeks there from 2010 to 2016, seven appearances at the year-end finals and a career-high No. 3 in July 2013. He won 27 singles titles, the biggest the Paris Masters in 2012, the year he led the tour with seven titles and 76 wins, and he reached the 2013 French Open final without dropping a set, at his 42nd major. He helped Spain win the Davis Cup in 2008, 2009 and 2011 and finished fourth in the doubles at the London 2012 Olympics, played on the Wimbledon grass, with Feliciano López.
He retired at the Madrid Open in May 2019, losing in the second round to Alexander Zverev. He later became director of the Barcelona Open and, from 2023, captain of Spain's Davis Cup team; in October 2026 he announced that the Final 8 in Bologna that November would be his last tie in charge.
| 's-Hertogenbosch finals | 2008: beat Marc Gicquel 6-4, 6-2 as top seed, his first grass title, after wins over Mario Ančić and Juan Martín del Potro. 2012: beat Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4, his fourth title of that season |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon quarter-finals | 2012: reached the last eight at his tenth attempt, beating Andy Roddick and Juan Martín del Potro, then lost to Andy Murray in four sets. 2013: lost to del Potro in straight sets |
| London 2012 Olympics | Fourth in the men's doubles with Feliciano López at Wimbledon, losing the bronze medal match to Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet 6-7, 2-6 |
| A Spanish drought | His 2008 title followed Rafael Nadal's win at Queen's the week before; the two ended a long wait for Spanish men's titles on grass |
| 's-Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Men's singles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | |
| 2012 | Men's singles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I think this proves that we Spaniards can play well on grass."
The person behind the player.
Teenage years
His coach Javier Piles told of the time Ferrer, then a teenager, would not work: he locked him in the dark two-by-two-metre room at the club where the tennis balls were kept and passed bread and a bottle of water through the bars of a small window. Ferrer called to other coaches to let him out; Piles ignored him.
Source: ANI report quoting The Sun, 2010Teenage years
Fed up with tennis, he quit as a teenager and worked briefly as a bricklayer before going back to the game. He went on to play nearly 19 years on the tour and win 734 matches.
Source: Tennis.com's-Hertogenbosch, June 2008
Ferrer beat Marc Gicquel 6-4, 6-2 for his first grass-court title. Gicquel, in only the third final of a nine-year career, said: "He was too good for me, I tried my best."
Source: TennisheadOff court
A keen reader, he keeps every book he reads. He married Marta Tornel in 2015; their son, Leo, was born in 2018.
Source: ATP TourMadrid, May 2019
On his farewell tour he would lay his bandana on the service T after his last match at an event. His career ended in Madrid in May 2019, when he led Alexander Zverev 4-1 in the first set and lost 6-4, 6-1.
Source: Tennis.comOctober 2026
He announced on social media that he would leave the Spanish Davis Cup captaincy after the November 2026 Final 8 in Bologna. "Los motivos de esta decisión son únicamente personales," he wrote: the reasons are purely personal. His best result as captain was the 2025 final, lost to Italy.
Source: ATP TourFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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