PARIS MASTERS 2012: Ferrer Wins 1st Shield

5'9" David Ferrer of Spain won his first ATP Masters shield by defeating 6'8" Jerzy Janowicz of Poland 6-4 6-3 in Paris. The 21-year-old qualifier made quite a splash at the tournament by defeating World #3 Andy Murray and World #9 Janko Tipsarevich both of whom will be joining Ferrer in the ATP World Tour finals which begin in London on Monday. He became the first qualifier to reach the final of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament since Guillermo Canas did it in 2007 at the Key Biscayne Masters tournament.

Ferrer's win was also historic, becoming the first player outside of the world's top 4 seeds (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Murray) to win a master's shield since Robin Soderling won the 2010 Paris Masters.

It was the hard-working Spaniard's 7th title of 2012 and the 18th of his career. He now has won 72 matches in the year (one more than Djokovic) compared to 14 losses.