David Ferrer is far from satisfied with his Rome performance following his shock loss to Lucas Pouille at the Rome Masters.
The 34-year-old suffered a 6-4, 6-1, loss to the French lucky loser in the third round of the Rome Masters. In an error-stricken performance, Ferrer produced 23 unforced errors compared to only seven winners. Another problematic area for the Spaniard was his serve. The world No.9 only managed to win 47% of his first service points and 35% of his second.
“I felt bad, it was a disastrous match,” Ferrer was quoted by Tennis Topic as saying.
“It was one of the worst games of my career. From there, I can’t say much more”
The loss means that Ferrer will fall outside on the top-10 first the first time since October 2010 after 291 weeks.
Ferrer’s loss to Pouille isn’t as much of a surprise as the statistics might suggest. In the third round of this year’s Miami Open, the 34-year-old also lost to Pouille it as much closer three-set encounter. The 22-year-old Frenchman is currently at a ranking high of 52nd in the world and recently reached his maiden ATP final at the Bucharest Open.
This season has been a roller coaster experience for the former French Open runner-up. Since reaching the semifinals of the Buenos Aires Open in February, Ferrer has only defeated one top-50 players (No.47 Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the Rio Open). Last month he withdrew from the Monte Carlo Masters due to a calf injury.
The series of below-par results has reignited talk about when Ferrer will decide to retire from the sport. In a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, the 34-year-old said that he plans to continue his career on the tour.
“How long will I play? I do not know, I guess until I am willing. Right now I still have it, I feel so well,” he said.
”Luckily I never got injured and so I had a great continuity. It allowed me to have motivation and to be at a high level.’
The next tournament for Ferrer will be next week’s Geneva Open, where he has been granted a wildcard. He is yet to win a title on the tour this season. It is the first time that Ferrer has failed to win at least one title within the first five months of the season since 2009.
Ferrer is projected to drop to 12th when the rankings are published on Monday. He could fall further down the rankings if David Goffin reaches the final in Rome.
