By winning the Rio Open on Sunday (22 February), David Ferrer became the most successful tennis player in tournaments staged in Latin America. It could be a good sign for the Spaniard, who is now hoping to return to the city for the 2016 Olympic Games where he will try to win a first medal at the third attempt.

“I hope to be here in Rio for the Olympic Games, it’s one of my goals,” said Ferrer, who competed at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games. “I have a lot of motivation to be here, as it could be my last chance to play at an Olympic Games. It’s important to me so I will do my best to be here, but in Spain we have a lot of good tennis players and I have to play very well to get here.”  

Ferrer, 32, beat Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-3 in the final to win his 23rd career title – and his seventh in Latin America. The defeated Italian had earlier caused the upset of the tournament by beating favourite and defending champion Rafael Nadal in Saturday’s semi-final.

Ferrer poses with the Rio 2016 logo (Photo: Rio 2016/Lucas Freitas)

Nadal, the 2008 men’s singles Olympic champion, has already stated his desire to compete at Rio 2016, and Ferrer will also be seeking to secure one of the four places available to Spanish players, based on the world rankings in June 2016.

The Rio Open was Ferrer’s second win of the season, having also won January’s Qatar Open in Doha. “I’m very pleased to have started the year well,” he said. “Winning two of the three tournaments in which I have played is very motivating.”

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games tennis tournament will take place at the Olympic Tennis Centre, which is being constructed in Barra Olympic Park. There will be more than 142,000 tickets available for the tennis tournament – sales are due to start in March 2015 and you can find out more by clicking here.