Four times David Ferrer has made the Barcelona finals and four times he’s met Rafael Nadal.  Nadal is to Ferrer as Federer is to Roddick except occasionally you get glimpses that maybe Ferrer could break through.  In all respects except possibly heart, Ferrer comes up second best against Nadal.  His serve is comparable, but with Nadal’s spin, perhaps Nadal’s serve is more effective.  Nadal hits harder off the ground, when he wants to, and can open up big angles.

But Ferrer plugs away.  He knows he’s steady, that he can move the ball around, and chase a lot of balls down, and that he has just enough power that he can occasionally bother Nadal especially if Nadal isn’t at the top of his game.

Ferrer’s normal straetgy is to play moderately aggressive against Nadal, which is roughly the strategy he plays against everyone.  Ferrer even started off well with an early break in the first set, but relinquished that break almost immediately when he sprayed several errors in a row.  He played solid tennis and had chances to break Nadal to take the first set, but Nadal weathered the storm to hold.  The first set went to a tiebreak, but Ferrer played poorly in the tiebreak to lose 7-1 in the tiebreak.

Things didn’t look much better in the second set when Ferrer got broken to start off the set, but he eventually broke back not once but twice and tried to serve out the set at 5-4.  This didn’t go Ferrer’s way as Nadal broke, then held, and broke again, to take the second set, 7-5.

Final score: 76(1), 75

Ferrer can look at himself as the second best Spaniard to perhaps the best clay court player ever, but he’s oh-so-close to making a breakthrough, but it’s tough against the king of clay.