MADRID – Former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero will retire from professional tennis in October after a 14-year career in which he won 16 tour titles, he said Wednesday. Ferrero, 32, said he would retire after the Valencia Open 500 tournament in his home city in eastern Spain from October 20 to 28, organizers said in a statement. “The Valencia Open 500 will be my last tournament, on the best stage possible,” it quoted Ferrero as saying at the launch of the Valencia event. Ferrero, nicknamed “The Mosquito”, won the French Open in 2003 and reached the final of the US Open the same year. He won 15 other major tour titles and reached the finals of a further 17. He has not played for two months due to injury. “This season, injuries have prevented me from playing continually and it has been a complicated year because I noticed on the court that I did not have the same ambition after 14 years at the top level,” he said. Ferrero in 2003 became the second Spanish player after Carlos Moya to occupy the world number one spot, before the rise of Rafael Nadal. “What I will miss the most is competing. That will be a hard gap to fill,” Ferrero said. Ferrero played in the first Spanish team to win the Davis Cup, beating Australia in Barcelona in 2000, and in Spain's victory over the United States in Seville in 2004. Urszula enters quarters In Tashkent, Urszula Radwanska swept aside Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals of the Tashkent Open Wednesday. Radwanska, the younger sister of third-ranked Agnieszka, used a strong serve to beat the 394th-ranked Diatchenko 6-2, 6-2. She was joined in the last eight by fifth-seeded Alexandra Cadantu of Romania, who beat Sabina Sharipova of Uzbekistan 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Sixth-seeded Bojana Jovanovski converted her fourth match point to beat Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-3, 6-7 (8), 6-3, while seventh-seed Alexandra Panova of Russia beat Misaki Doi of Japan, 6-4, 6-4. Eighth-seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan ousted Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-1, 6-3. Croatian 16-year-old qualifier Donna Vekic, who knocked out fourth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova Tuesday, downed Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain, 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first WTA quarterfinals. The only upset of the day was from Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, who beat third-seeded Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 6-1 in just under two hours. Begu broke Cornet to win the first set and twice broke the poor-serving Frenchwoman in the second to reach her third quarterfinal of the year. — Agencies
