David Ferrer has joined Andy Murray in taking a wild card into this week's Vienna tournament as he tries to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals for the fifth straight season.
The 32-year-old Ferrer is currently in ninth place in the Race to London with 3,715 points, just 35 points behind No. 8 Milos Raonic, who is playing the Kremlin Cup in Moscow this week. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka have already locked up spots in the eight-player field.
There are three tournaments this week and all are 250 level events: Vienna, Moscow and Stockholm. No. 6 Marin Cilic joins Raonic playing Moscow with No. 7 Tomas Berdych at Stockholm.
Ferrer reached the 2013 World Tour Finals and lost all three matches. He defeated Djokovic and Murray to advance to the semifinals in 2011.
“Of course it is my goal,” said Ferrer, who reached No. 3 in 2013. “I am fighting for the [World Tour Finals in] London. It's important for me. We don't have too many tournaments. We have only three tournaments more to be in London.”
Murray can only get to No. 8 if he wins the title this week and Raonic loses early. Ferrer, who needs to reach the final to add to his point total, could gain ground on Berdych if the Czech exits early. Cilic would at least stay in the Top 8 even if he lost early.