Once, as a teenager, when Ferrer did not practice hard enough, his coach, Javier Piles, locked him in a completely dark 2m x 2m ball closet for several hours, giving him only a piece of bread and a bit of water.

In 2005, Ferrer advanced to the semifinals in Miami by defeating David Nalbandian, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Dominik Hrbatý, but lost to Rafael Nadal.

He broke into the top 10 ATP rankings for the first time, following a personal-best fourth-round showing at the Australian Open, where he defeated Mario Ančić, but lost to Fabrice Santoro.

At the 2007 Australian Open, he defeated Kristian Pless, Thomas Johansson, and Radek Štěpánek, and lost in the fourth round to Mardy Fish in five sets.

He defeated Croatian Mario Ančić and Argentine Juan Martín del Potro en route to the final, where he won in straight sets over Marc Gicquel.

At the 2010 Valencia Open 500, he defeated Guillermo García-López, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Potito Starace and Robin Söderling for a spot in the final.

He defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Michael Russell, Ričardas Berankis and Milos Raonic for a spot in his second Australian Open quarterfinal.

Ferrer then traveled to Rotterdam to play in the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, where he lost in the first round to Jarkko Nieminen.

He beat Feliciano López, Milos Raonic, Viktor Troicki and Jürgen Melzer to advance to his second Masters 1000 final, where he ultimately fell to Rafael Nadal.

He advanced with easy wins over Jarkko Nieminen, Julien Benneteau, and Sergiy Stakhovsky, before ultimately falling to ninth seed Gaël Monfils in five sets.

The following week, Ferrer reached the final at the 2012 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, after winning over Filip Krajinović, Albert Montañés, Feliciano López, and Milos Raonic.

At the 2012 Muatua Madrid Open, held for the first time on blue clay, Ferrer defeated Radek Štěpánek and Nicolás Almagro on his way to the quarterfinals.

At the 2012 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Ferrer defeated Fernando Verdasco, Gilles Simon, and Richard Gasquet on his way to the semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

At the 2012 French Open, Ferrer lost only 25 games defeating Lukáš Lacko, Benoît Paire, Mikhail Youzhny, and Marcel Granollers on his way to the quarterfinals.

He beat Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, Leonardo Mayer, Igor Sijsling, Benoît Paire, and Philipp Petzschner on his way to his second grass singles title.

Ferrer then reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, defeating Dustin Brown, Kenny de Schepper, Andy Roddick, and Juan Martín del Potro.

Ferrer won his first Masters 1000 title in Paris at the end of the season, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, Michaël Llodra in the semifinals, and Jerzy Janowicz in the final.

[16] Ferrer started his 2013 season by successfully defending his Heineken Open title defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.

He then reached the final of Miami Masters after outlasting Jürgen Melzer and Tommy Haas, but lost to Andy Murray after holding a championship point in the deciding set.

Ferrer reached his fifth final of the year at the Portugal Open facing Wawrinka, but this time falling in straight sets to the Swiss.

He defeated three of his compatriots, Albert Montañés, Feliciano López, and Tommy Robredo, all in straight sets, to reach his sixth Grand Slam semifinal.

Ferrer made his return in the 2014 Sony Open Tennis reaching the fourth round before losing to Kei Nishikori after squandering four match points.

Ferrer was defeated by world no.118 Andrey Kuznetsov in the second round of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships ending his 10 grand slam quarterfinal streak.

As a result, he failed to qualify for the 2014 ATP World Tour Finals, but later replaced Milos Raonic in the group phase when the latter had to withdraw due to an injury.

Ferrer began his 2015 season at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, where he won his 22nd ATP World Tour title by defeating Tomáš Berdych in the final in straight sets.

In February, Ferrer won back-to-back titles at the 2015 Rio Open and 2015 Abierto Mexicano Telcel by defeating Fabio Fognini and Kei Nishikori, respectively.

Ferrer made it through to the semifinals after defeating qualifier Matthew Barton and Lukáš Rosol, but lost to Jack Sock despite winning the first set.

He began the French Open well, defeating Evgeny Donskoy, Juan Mónaco and Feliciano López before again falling to Berdych in straight sets.

He also announced a preliminary list of 6 tournaments in which he wanted to compete during his final season: the Hopman Cup, Auckland, Buenos Aires, Acapulco, Barcelona and Madrid.

[37] Due to his speed, defensive prowess and lack of significant power, many have compared Ferrer's playing style to that of former US Open and Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt.