Ubiquitous Ferrer just keeps on keeping on

The David Ferrer road show rolls on.

Like rain-soaked camp grounds, beach cricket and burned sausages on the barbecue, watching Ferrer fight his way through the draw on Stanley St has become a staple part of our summer over the last decade or so.

Today he will feature in the last eight yet again — incredibly the 11th time in 13 visits he has progressed to the quarter-finals in Auckland.

And on the evidence of his two matches so far, the 35-year-old remains a dark horse for the title, though he is on the much harder half of the draw.

Many fans weren’t expecting to see Ferrer again after last year, when he lost in his first match to Dutch journeyman Robin Haase in three tough sets.

It felt like the end of an era in Auckland, especially when Ferrer’s ranking blew out to No 46 in the world midway through the year — his lowest position since 2005.

But a tournament win in Bastad turned around his year.

He regained his mojo and belief, and his appreciation for the game and is, as he has said many times this week, playing without pressure.

“I still have motivation and I think I can improve my game,” Ferrer said yesterday after his win.

“But my goal this year is to try to enjoy every game that I play. And to play centre court today was very nice for me.”

Yesterday felt like a return to his glory days, with some moments of vintage Ferrer as he dismantled Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-2.

He ran down balls from some impossible situations, hit the lines with unerringly accuracy and produced some impressive angles.

“Today, everything was perfect,” said Ferrer, who struggled to subdue wildcard Wu Yibing in the first round. “I played really good . . . serving, returning.

“Today with Joao, we have a similar game and I can play with more time to play on the baseline. So I was more comfortable.”

Sousa didn’t drop a set on the way to the final here last year but struggled on Wednesday.

The world No 59 was broken twice in the first set, with Ferrer particularly ruthless on the Portuguese’s second serve, winning seven of eight points.

Ferrer converted his first set point, forcing yet another error from Sousa to take the set in 29 minutes.

The second set was more of a procession. Ferrer didn’t give up a single break point opportunity, but constantly put the 28-year-old Sousa under pressure and broke him twice, to seal the match in 66 minutes.