We’ve heard some crazy stories about insane tennis parents and wacko coaches, but this one blows them all away.

Our friend Dani DeVine over at TennisTalk.com posted something about 4th-ranked David Ferrer (who beat Rafael Nadal at the US Open and made last year’s Masters Cup finals) that made us spit out our water. In ‘99, if David wasn’t giving top effort, his coach, Javier Piles, would lock Ferrer in a 6′6″x6′6″ room (or 2×2 meters) normally used to store tennis balls, turn out the lights, and fed Ferrer bread crumbs and water through bars on the door.

Piles named it “The Punishment Room”. We kid you not.

“I would tell him that his working schedule was from 9 to 12 and that if he didn’t want to work he would remain there punished,” Piles told ATPtennis.com, the official website for the ATP Tour. “After a few minutes we would hear David asking other trainers from the club for some help to get out but we wouldn’t pay any attention.”

So the other trainers were complicit, eh? Fantastic. Nothing we like to hear more than locking a kid up,  treating him like a prisoner, and making sure no one helped him out.

What’s more? Piles is still Ferrer’s coach, and, perhaps more ridiculous, how that ATP post (and the ATP Tour in general) glosses over what the Piles did, calling it “motivation” instead of what it really is: Wrong and idiotic.

And tennis wonders why it has an image problem.

More on Ferrer’s “punishment” and his success on the tour after the jump.

Ferrer isn’t a household name because he hasn’t won (or been to the final of) a grand slam tournament, but  has risen to number four because of his great grounds strokes and hard work. His upset of Andy Roddick in Cincinnati last year propelled him to the tourney’s quarterfinals, his surprise win over Nadal at the Open got him to the semifinals, and wins at the Masters Cup finals helped him to the finals, where he lost to Roger Federer.

In fact, the post points out how different Ferrer’s story is: At 17, Ferrer quit tennis to get a normal job, working construction in Spain. After a week earning 30 Euros, he quickly switched back to the game. The article states, when he returned, he didn’t need the “room” again. Yet the article glorifies the “motivation” Piles used, showcases it, never once questions it.

Sadly, Ferrer seems to buy Piles’ idea that the room saved his career.

“It was a very complicated stage in my life because, being barely 17, you don’t really know what you want,” Ferrer told ATPTennis.com. “Javier did what he should, like when a teacher punishes a student in school because of his bad behavior. Deep down he just wants his best. Once in there I didn’t think much, I just wanted him to open the door so I could try to go train with more strength.”

Anyone that’s watched Ferrer knows he’s got more ability than just about any player this side of Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and its obvious to us he changed himself and his game, not some ridiculous torture chamber. We fear, though, many other coaches use tactics as bad or worse (see some of the women’s tennis players the last twenty years. Mary Pierce comes to mind more often than anyone).

Hopefully other coaches and parents will see what happened here and make sure it’s never duplicated. Unfortunately, as shown by the ignorance of the ATP Tour, we fear it will be completely ignored.