David Ferrer (40) likes to remember himself as a child, entering the RCTB hand in hand with his parents, contemplating the legends of the time, preparing to play ball boys.
-How beautiful was that! she says now.
(Then Agassi, Lendl, Stich, Krajicek, Carlos Costa, Muster played...; in 1993, Andrei Medvedev won the title against Bruguera).
David Ferrer prefers to remember those days, rather than face the devil, again in the Godó Trophy against Rafael Nadal. He has faced the colossus four times in a final in Pedralbes.
He lost all four times.
"That was frustrating," says Ferrer on this Tuesday.
And he laughs.
Now he is not a ball boy or a player.
Now, David Ferrer is the director of the tournament.
David Ferrer laughs and the audience laughs with him, the sixty invited to the presentation ceremony of the big draw of the tournament.
According to many, this painting is truly BIG.
-I wish they were Zverev or Djokovic. But the dates make it impossible, he says.
And with good reason: the Barcelona tournament (from April 17 to 23) is on the calendar with Munich and Banja Luka. Zverev will be in the first. And Djokovic, in the second, in Bosnia.
-But even with those absences, this poster will be part of the history of any 500 tournament. We have eight Top-15 players and 18 Top-30 players - says Ferrer.
And your message forces us to review the list.
In the RCTB will be Carlos Alcaraz (1), Rafael Nadal (13), Stéfanos Tsitsipás (3), Casper Ruud (4), Daniil Medvedev (5), Jannik Sinner (11), Cameron Norrie (12) and Frances Tiafoe (14). ).
-And also, Olympic medalists like Karen Kachanov (16) and Pablo Carreño (17). And young people who are already present, like Lorenzo Musetti (21), Alejandro Davidovich (25) and Sebastian Korda (26) -says Ferrer. And he adds-: And we are waiting for the possibility of incorporating someone with a wild card. We keep something else.
(A deeper look allows us to distinguish Grigor Dimitrov, Roberto Bautista, Denis Shapovalov, Diego Schwartzman and David Goffin, pedigree tennis players).
And Ferrer rubs his hands, because the economic and diplomatic effort has paid off.
This is Ferrer's fourth year at the helm of the tournament (he had not been able to direct it in 2020, the year of the pandemic), and in this time the progression has been unquestionable, always very well planned, very much in the hands of the historical figure (Rafael Nadal) and the talent that was emerging at the time, today already the best tennis player in the world (Carlos Alcaraz).
-Both are standard. They attest to our level, she says.
And he is asked:
-And how is Nadal? Is his presence guaranteed?
(The man from Manacor has not played since mid-January, missing from the scene due to a muscle injury).
-Today I have been speaking with his representative and he is training on land. He plays five days a week and the idea is for him to start in Monte Carlo (April 9), a week before our tournament.
-And how has the hiring of Medvedev been? It was not planned...
-Your representative contacted me a few days ago. He told me that Daniil intended to come. That says a lot about our tournament. After all, before this weekend (last Sunday, the Russian lost the Indian Wells final to Alcaraz), he was on a roll, winning everything.
