Juan Carlos Ferrero ended his singles career with a 7-5 6-3 defeat to Nicolas Almagro in Valencia

Juan Carlos Ferrero brought the curtain down on his singles career with a 7-5 6-3 defeat to fellow Spaniard and close friend Nicolas Almagro in the first round of the Valencia Open.

The 32-year-old former world No 1, who won the French Open in 2003, announced last month he would retire after playing his home event.
However there was to be no fairytale ending as he failed to cope with the speed and power of sixth seed Almagro.
Almagro appeared to be suffering from a right shoulder problem late in the second set but shrugged off the injury and sealed victory on his first match point when the unseeded Ferrero netted a return.
"It's been a long time since I enjoyed myself so much on a tennis court," said a tearful Ferrero who will join up with David Ferrer in the doubles on Wednesday.
"I simply want to thank everyone for all their support, not just this year but throughout all the years I have played here.
"It's always been a very special tournament for me and this year even more so."

Swedish tennis player hit with corruption ban

Swedish tennis player Lucas Renard has been suspended for six months and fined $5,000 for a corruption offense.

Renard had breached an article of the anti-corruption program that states: "No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any Event," the Tennis Integrity unit said in a statement.
The 19-year-old, ranked 882nd in the world, admitted the offense. Four of the six months of his ban will be suspended, providing he commits no future violation of the code.
The Tennis Integrity Unit is an initiative of the Grand Slam Committee, the International Tennis Federation, the ATP World Tour and the WTA as part of the Uniform Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.

2011 ATP Tour season review

After a year dominated by Novak Djokovic, Eurosport analyst Mats Wilander rounds up the 2011 season.
The Serb shot to the top of the tennis tree after a sensational 12 months during which he won three Grand Slams, five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and a total of 10 tournaments.
On the way, he went on an incredible 43-match winning streak and ended with an overall record of 70 wins and just six defeats.
It might just have been the best season ever seen by a single player and Djokovic fully deserved his world number one status by the end of it.
The one remaining Grand Slam went to the undisputed king of clay Rafael Nadal while Roger Federer's topsy-turvy season ended on an upward trajectory with victory at the World Tour finals, just to remind his doubters that there is life in the old dog yet.
Mats look back on an eventful year in men's tennis with this series of videos.

ATP World Tour Finals - Ferrer upsets struggling Murray

Andy Murray paid the price for a flat performance as he was beaten 6-4 7-5 by David Ferrer in his opening match at the ATP World Tour finals - his first loss to the Spanish grinder on a hard court.

British number one Murray could not get out of second gear throughout the match and lost a fierce baseline encounter in straight sets despite being a break up in both sets of a contest watched by 17,000 fans at the O2 in London.
"I am very happy. I played very consistently throughout the match," said Ferrer. "Andy seemed to have problems with his back, but I played my game and won the match.
"This is only the first match, and I will have to be focused on the next matches in the tournament."
Murray could have few complaints about the nature of his defeat such was his inconsistency.
He needed a medical time-out at the end of the first set for treatment after struggling with what seemed to be a hip or back problem, but was later confirmed as a groin injury.
Murray's travails should not detract from an impressive victory for Ferrer, who had lost all five of his previous encounters with the Scot on the same surface. Murray leads 5-4 in their career head-to-heads.
In the final analysis, Murray made 44 unforced errors compared to 35 from Ferrer with the Scotsman nailing 21 winners to 19 from Ferrer as the Spaniard - who lost the final of this tournament to Roger Federer in Shanghai four years ago - saluted a shocked crowd in London after emerging victorious from two hours of unremitting play.
Murray - seeded third this week - will need to come up with wins in his final two Group A games against world number one Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych to have a chance of reaching the last four. He is likely to need to win them in straight sets to be sure of progress.
Ferrer made a series of errors in being broken for the first time in the third game only to break back immediately with Murray - toiling for any degree of certainty on his serve - guilty of making three errors on the forehand side as his opponent restored parity at 2-2.
Murray managed to produce a stunning running backhand winner in levelling at 3-3. The match continued on serve until Ferrer produced a fine game to snare the opening set by breaking Murray for a second time in the match.
Murray broke in the opening game of the second set and held for a 2-0 lead only for Ferrer to win three straight games for a 3-2 advantage.
Murray broke for a second time to lead 4-3 after Ferrer threw in a couple of uncharacteristic errors, but could not cement the break as a first double fault of the set helped the Spanish player - who saw a break point elude him to lead 4-2 - draw level at 4-4.
Ferrer finally saw out the match with Murray trying to force the tie-break trailing 5-6.
Ferrer brought up match point at 30-30 by coming to the net to convert a winning volley that bounded beyond Murray, before racing towards the net moments later to thrash the ball beyond the Scot seconds after he had somehow got the ball back over the net with a desperate lunge on the forehand side.