No, Ferrero did not simply retire.  He had long since decided to retire at Valencia where he and David Ferrer partly own the tournament.  Ferrero was part of the Federer generation, the players that followed Agassi and Sampras and hung around a few years before Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray came up the ranks.  Like Hewitt and Safin and Roddick, Ferrero had his best success while young.

In 2003, he won the French Open and reached the finals of the US Open.  Such victories elevated him to number 1 during a period that saw a lot of turnover at number 1 until Federer back a dominant number 1.

Ferrero, alas, suffered injuries and often missed vast parts of the tour.  In that respect, he was like Tommy Haas, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin, and to a lesser extent, Andy Roddick.

Ferrero lost to Nicolas Almagro, 75 63, in the opening round at Valencia.