Surely, David Ferrer had to wonder if this day would ever come.  At 30 years of age, Ferrer has been toiling on the tour for some time.  Ferrer’s career started its upward trend back in 2010 when he won two titles but reached three additional finals.  Ferrer has been an incredibly solid top 5 player the last few years.  He beats big guys like Juan Martin del Potro.  He beats small guys like Janko Tipsarevic.  It’s just been hard for him to topple the top 4 players.  He’s had less than a stellar record against Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Murray.

Ferrer has never reached a Slam final.  He’s only reached four Slam semis (two US Opens, one French, one Australian Open).  And in all that time, he’s never won a Masters 1000 title.  He’s reached three finals, losing two to Nadal, and one to Andy Murray.

Indeed, the last two years, the top players have held a stranglehold on the Masters 1000 titles.  With Djokovic’s spectacular 2011, five of the titles went to the Serb, the remaining going to Nadal, Federer, and Murray.  This year, up until Paris, only 3 players had won Masters 1000: Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.  Indeed, Andy Murray, who has often excelled winning Masters 1000 titles won none this year, sacrificing results in those titles for better results in Slams.

Despite that rather pedestrian, 64 63, win, Janowicz actually had chances.  He had a break point that he couldn’t capitalize on in the first set.  He broke early in the second set, but after being game point up, at 2-1, he overhit a backhand like Safin, hit a double-fault, then hit a forehand long, and gave up the break he had.  He still had chances in the next game to break Ferrer having several break opportunities, but compared to his semifinal matches, he made quite a few more errors.  With a flatter hitting style, his forehand was going errant, slightly long, slightly wide, slightly into the net.

Ferrer’s style may have caused the Pole to struggle some.  Unlike Simon, Ferrer likes to push players to the edge of the court, especially with his inside out forehand.  And the dogged Spaniard found ways to get balls back in play that seemed like winners, and ultimately, the Cinderella ride for Janowicz ended.  Still, if he can clean up his game, his mastery of a variety of shots may lead to spectacular highs.

Janowicz had recently worked on things many young players do.  He started training harder.  He said he decided to go after every ball instead of giving up (hard to believe how fundamental this is, but it can test your stamina to go after every ball).  He switched racquets to Babolat, and says that has really helped him a lot.  Janowicz claimed he was a bit of a bad boy, yelling a lot, and it draws some comparisons to Marat Safin.

In the ceremony afterwards, the announcer said Janowicz would have a seed since he should be up around 30 in rankings after this.  He lacked the money to go to Australia this year, but next year, he’ll be seeded.  Janowicz said that was still dreaming and it would take a few days for him digest what he had accomplished.

David Ferrer, upon winning, fell to the ground in tears.  It seems small to the average fan, but this was a goal that had eluded Ferrer for so long, and it shows that Ferrer is as accomplished on hard courts as he is on clay.  Indeed, he’s reached three semis on hard court Slams (admittedly, two of the four Slams are hard courts). Ferrer had won the most titles and matches of anyone who had never won a Masters 1000 title.  Even Ivan Ljubicic and Robin Soderling had won a Masters 1000 title before Ferrer.

Ferrer will now head to London where he’ll participate as one of the top 8.  Everyone else is there, including Tsonga and Berdych who lost a few days ago.  Fortunately, for Ferrer, he’ll not have to play until Tuesday.

Congrats to David Ferrer on his first Masters 1000 title!