Patrick Mouratoglou, the coach of Serena Williams, says that ATP No. 5 David Ferrer has the most legitimate claim to being the best player outside of the “Big Four” (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal), but needs to step it up mentally against those players.
“He seems to have some kind of complex when he faces the Big Four players - he had nine defeats in 10 matches in 2012,” Mouratoglou wrote on his <em>Eurosport</em> blog. “Yet, he has within himself the capacity to do better. Firstly, on a mental level, I think he just needs to click. Every year, he is never very far off. In 2012, he nearly embarrassed Nadal on clay, most notably in the Barcelona final. But he could not win the points that would have turned the match in his favor. You get the impression that he has a little too much respect for these players. Perhaps this season he might have come to realize this and 2013 will be his season.’