Juan Carlos Ferrero is a contemporary of Roger Federer.  He won his only Slam in 2002 at the French Open, and his best years were from 2000 to 2003, especially at the French where he reached the semis twice, the finals, then won the French.

In 2003, Ferrero reached the finals of the US Open losing to Andy Roddick.  Since 2004, Ferrero has only reached the quarterfinals twice and the semis once.  He’s lost in the first or second round 11 times since 2004.  Ferrero’s decline has been pretty drastic compared to Hewitt and Safin his other comtemporaries.

At 30, however, Ferrero seems to be playing some of his best tennis in recent memory.  He won Brazil two weeks ago, then Buenos Aires last week, and reached Acapulco this year.

This is the second week in a row that he meets David Ferrer in the finals.  Last week, Ferrero beat Ferrer in three sets.

This week, the younger David Ferrer won the match, taking the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.  Ferrero had just turned 30 a few weeks ago.

In Delray Beach, two semifinals were played yesterday.  Ernests Gulbis may be finally (finally!) reaching his talent.  Gulbis reached his first final by beating Finnish veteran, Jarkko Nieminen, 6-4, 6-4.  Mardy Fish reached the finals of Delray Beach, but due to injury and Ivo Karlovic’s big serve, and surprisingly, his topspin backhand, he took it to Mardy Fish, winning 6-2, 6-3.  People forget that Karlovic has a pretty big backhand, and can put pressure on your game.  Only players like Nadal or Federer or other top 10 players have such superior ground game that Karlovic finds it hard to be competitive in their games.  Fish, on the other hand, found himself making too many errors, while running into an in-form Karlovic.

Karlovic will face Gulbis in the finals of Delray Beach.

Djokovic was on the verge of defending his title in Dubai, apparently, the first time Djokovic would have defended any title.  He was up 7-5, 2-0, when something unusual happened in Dubai.  It rained.  And rained.  When play resumed Sunday, Djokovic went up 3-0, but then Youzhny fought back to tie it 3-all.  Djokovic would eventually lose the second set, 7-5.

In the third set, Djokovic also got to a 3-0 lead, but again gave up 3 games in a row to Youzhny before closing out the third set 6-3.  Djokovic attributed part of the struggle to the difference in court speed from daytime to nighttime saying the daytime conditions were much faster than the evening.  Lately, these swings in Djokovic’s game seem typical, where he plays poorly for stretches at a time, then elevates his game for other stretches.

After Delray Beach concludes, there are no tournaments until Indian Wells on March 10.  Indian Wells is the first Masters 1000 event of the year.  The field is expected to mark the return of Roger Federer, who had been suffering from lung infection, Rafael Nadal, who had injured his knee in Australia, and potentially Juan Martin del Potro, who injured his wrist and was letting it heal.

In the first few days of March, there’s Davis Cup.  The U.S. will have another challenge playing Serbia on clay.  John Isner and Sam Querrey are named to the team.  With Djokovic playing for Serbia, US has to hope to win two singles and the doubles.  While both Querrey and Isner have improved, and Querrey isn’t too bad on clay, Djokovic would be a handful on any surface.  Indeed, Djokovic had opted to play Rotterdam and Dubai on hard courts, rather than make the South/Central American tour on clay.  However, Djokovic is at least equally adept on clay, and the surface may be better for fellow Serbs, Victor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic.