DOB: 18.02.1974 Nationality: Spanish World Ranking: 4 Australian Open record:  2002 :: n/a 2001 :: second round 2000 :: third round 1999 :: n/a 1998 :: n/a 1997 :: n/a

Evidence of Ferrero's improvement is the fact that he goes into the new season with a world ranking of four.

Titles in Monaco and Hong Kong last year helped the Spaniard establish himself among the game's elite, as did a runners-up spot at the French Open.

Certainly Ferrero is most comfortable on clay and rarely ventures even into mid-court, let alone approaches the net.

But his indoor performances were much improved at the end of last year, culminating with an epic five-set defeat to Lleyton Hewitt at the ATP Masters Cup.