Ferrer questions ATP Finals schedule

Spain’s fourth seed Ferrer went out of the Finals at the group stage despite winning two of his three matches, including a victory over Juan Martin Del Potro, who qualified for the semi-finals at his expense by virtue of a better games-won record.

But Del Potro’s match against the already-qualified Roger Federer – which the Argentine won in three sets – came before Ferrer’s clash with Tipsarevic.

And had a straight-sets Ferrer win come first, the world number four believes Del Potro would have been put under greater pressure to win his match.

“I think we maybe could have played first,” he said afterwards. “I talked with the ATP yesterday and expressed my opinion, which was that our match should have come first.”

Ferrer said that the knowledge he was already out impacted on his poor first set against Serbia's Tipsarevic, who has been ill recently and lost all three of his matches.

“It was not easy, because I knew I would not qualify even if I won," he admitted. “But I begun very bad, with a bad feel to my shots.

“But in the second set, I played better, felt better with my shots, and I won. This was important because I have more points, and it's good for next year.”

Ferrer's season is not over though - he travels to Prague with Spain for the David Cup final against Czech Republic later this month.