More disappointing news out of David Ferrer’s camp with the Spaniard withdrawing from the upcoming Western and Southern Open because of an elbow injury. This is the fourth straight tournament that Spain’s number one has pulled out of because of injury. He withdrew from Wimbledon, Bastad last month and then withdrew from the Rogers Cup.
With the withdrawal, the Spaniard will be losing 600 points which will further bring down his ranking. As it stands, Ferrer is still the Spanish number one but should compatriot Rafael Nadal defeat Kei Nishikori in the Rogers Cup quarterfinal, he will surpass him as Spain’s number one again and will jump him for number seven in the world.
Nadal not the only one who could surpass him in the rankings
600 points is a massive number of points to be letting go. With that, a few more players could surpass Ferrer. Marin Cilic, the defending US Open champion, is only currently 190 points behind the former top five player. With the Croat only defending third round points at Cincinnati, a solid run for him could put him ahead of Ferrer.
Frenchman Gilles Simon is also able to pass him. The French number one lost in the second round in Cincy last year so he even has less points to defend than Ferrer. Just a couple more match wins under his belt this year in Cincinnati and he’ll be surpassing him. Milos Raonic of Canada, currently the last member of the live top 10, has semifinal points to defend so only a finals showing or a victory would let him pass Ferrer.
What does this withdrawal mean for Ferrer?
Now that Ferrer has pulled out of the second and last hard court Masters of the US Open Series, his US Open is in major doubt. Only one tournament remains after Cincinnati which is the event in Winston-Salem. That tournament is in ATP 250 event. While most players take off for that week, Ferrer could find himself playing to get some hard court mileage on his body.
The Spaniard’s last hard court tournament was at the Miami Open which was the last Masters hard court event. Ferrer has been a model of consistency throughout his career. Before pulling out of Wimbledon due to the aforementioned injury, he had played in every Grand Slam event since the 2003 Australian Open, a span of 50 consecutive majors played, second amongst active players behind Roger Federer at the time. Due to the withdrawal, Joao Sousa is now into the main draw.