Ferrer targets Aussie legend Emerson’s feats in Auckland
Top seed David Ferrer says it would be a ‘‘dream’’ to win the Heineken Open again and equal the feat of Australian great Roy Emerson.
Ferrer has won the Auckland tournament three times, including the past two years.
Success this year would mean only he and Emerson had won the tournament in three successive years and four times overall.
‘‘Of course, if I win here it is going to be a dream for me,’’ said Ferrer, who will play his first match at the open tomorrow against either Benoit Paire or Yen-Hsun Lu. ‘‘I am very happy to come back to Auckland again and it’s nice to see the same people here as other years,’’ he said.
Emerson, who won in Auckland in 1960, and from 1965 to 1967, triumphed in 12 grand slams.
Ferrer has still to make it to a final at one of the big four tournaments. However, Ferrer will achieve something special in a few weeks when he overtakes Rafael Nadal in the world rankings and moves to the No 4 spot.
For any player, the thought of breaking the stranglehold Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nadal have had on the top-four rankings for so long seemed inconceivable.
However, because of Nadal’s long-term injuries and illness, which have sidelined him since Wimbledon last June, and Ferrer’s great 2012, when he won seven titles, the two Spaniards will soon swap places in the rankings. Ferrer said he would not gain satisfaction from moving into the top four because of the circumstances.
‘‘I don’t care, because Rafa has been injured for a long time and I was at No 4 in 2008,’’ Ferrer said.
‘‘So I don’t have special motivation to be at No 4; I have motivation to improve my game and to be in the top 10 all year.’’
Ferrer played in Doha last week, a break from the norm as he usually just plays in Auckland before the Australian Open in Melbourne.
However, he said he wanted to mix things up. ‘‘The last time I played there was in 2005, a long time ago,’’ he said.
‘‘I am 30 years old and I like to sometimes play other tournaments but, of course, if I have the chance to come back to Auckland, I will do it every year because I like this tournament a lot.’’
Another player in Auckland who is already in his twilight years is Germany’s Tommy Haas.
The 34-year-old beat Roger Federer in the final at Halle last year, proving age was no longer the barrier it once was in men’s tennis.
When Haas started playing in the mid-1990s, it was common for tennis players to retire when they hit their early 30s.
However, he said American star Andre Agassi changed people’s perception on how long players could keep going.
‘‘He [Agassi] was one of my idols growing up,’’ Haas said yesterday. ‘‘He gave me motivation to do the same thing while I’m at this age.’’