Juan Carlos Ferrero doesn't have a lot of time to savor his surprising run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, instead going from the All England Club to Umag, Croatia, in search of some valuable ranking points.
The former No. 1 entered Wimbledon as a wild card after his ranking fell to 115th in May, but still won four matches before losing to Andy Murray 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 Wednesday. He beat eighth-seeded Gilles Simon and No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez on the way to the last eight, which has propelled him into the top 40 again.
After a few days at home in Spain, Ferrero will return to his preferred clay surface next week hoping to climb a few more spots in order to earn direct entry to the major tournaments.
"There are lots of points in Umag," Ferrero said. "It's important for me. Of course Wimbledon is great, but Umag is a beautiful place, too."
A better ranking may also see him return to Spain's Davis Cup team. Despite being the only Spaniard to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, the 29-year-old Ferrero received a phone call from Davis Cup captain Albert Costa on Tuesday saying he would not be playing against Germany this month in Marbella in the quarterfinals.
If Ferrero keeps playing the way he did at Wimbledon, he could be back in the team soon.
"I'm happy about the way I played today also," he said. "(I) only want to play like this all the time in the next tournaments, and be a little bit more regular than I was."
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GRANDMA JINX: Andy Murray's grandmother has been banned from the guest box at Wimbledon _ by her own daughter.
Judy Murray is worried that her mom, Shirley Erskine, will jinx Andy, who is trying to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the tournament.
Murray lost his last three matches attended by his grandmother _ each time on his birthday.
"She is clearly a jinx and I'm not taking her again," Judy Murray told the Daily Express.
Murray comfortably beat Spanish wild card Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 Wednesday to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal _ without Erskine at Centre Court.
However, grandma is still hoping to be let in for the next match against Andy Roddick.
"I'm trying to convince the family I'm not a jinx, because I want to be down there cheering Andy on," Erskine said. "If I could do anything to bring Andy good luck, I would."
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MISSING MISS: The traditional use of the prefix Miss or Mrs. before women's names on the Wimbledon scoreboards has been scrapped this year.
Wimbledon organizers decided to put the full name of female players on the scoreboards _ like they do with the men _ in yet another step by the All England Club to modernize the tournament. For the last 132 years, the prefix has always been used for the women.
However, umpires still refer to the players as Miss or Mrs. during matches.
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AP Sports Writer Mattias Karen contributed to this report.
