US OPEN

September 7, 2022

Wayne Ferreira

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Wayne, welcome. If you could, just give us your thoughts on Frances' tournament so far.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I mean, he's been playing really well through the summer. He's had some tough matches that he hasn't kind of got through with the match point, Kyrgios, 4-Love with Fritz in there.

But he's been playing exceptionally well, hitting the ball well. We have been working a lot in the last couple of months on the mental side, about trying to deal with the big, important situations. He's achieved them exceptionally well.

The ball striking has been good for the last couple of months. That's been something that's been good for us. It's just finishing off matches.

I mean, we have played four matches and we have had three of them in straight sets. I mean, I can't ask for anything better than that at the moment.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You said you have been working really hard on the mental side in the important situations. Can you explain what that work actually looks like? I imagine it's more complicated than you and Frances sitting down and you saying, You need to play better in the important situations.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's been a lot more complicated than that, and a lot of struggles we have gone through with him over the time I have been with him in regards to the investment in matches and commit and investment. And then we have done a really good job on having him do really well in the commitment and the investment side.

Then we have been putting too much expectations on it, like, Okay, now I'm trying but now I need to win, and struggling with the expectations of wanting to do too well all the time instead of just taking it, you know, sort of game by game or match by match.

He's looking at the ranking. He's looking at this and that and everything.

It's something new for him because he's done a great job of being committed and focused on the job and doing the day-to-day things well. But when you start doing that, you expect things to happen and it takes time.

Q. In terms of the important situations, the tiebreaker record is ridiculous here. Do you attribute that to work you have done and what does that work look like?

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I haven't quite figured that one out yet exactly because we have had, like, against Schwartzman serving at 5-3 or serving for the matches, he's still having a little bit of tightness or a little bit of uncertainties.

But every tiebreaker he's played, I mean, about as perfect as you can have it. He plays extremely aggressive, and he serves really, really big. I'm not quite sure if it's because the other person is serving in between and it's not just one service game. I am trying to put a point on that because if he could do that whenever he gets tight or whenever he's serving for the set, these tiebreakers this tournament has been phenomenal.

Q. I wonder if you have a discussion with Frances, now that he took out Rafa, Kyrgios took out Daniil, so a lot of the big guns are not in these semifinals, wonder if that's a discussion you have with him about the opportunity that lies in front of him, or is it something you try not to think about?

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, the difficulty is Rafa has been the best player he's ever beaten. To go from that and play two days later is always very, very difficult. So we tried really hard to get him to enjoy the moment but try to move on.

I mean, I think he did it absolutely perfectly today. Now we still have two more to go. It doesn't get any easier. There is a new generation with Sinner and Alcaraz coming out. These guys are the best in the world at the moment, how they play. Alcaraz in particular. Doesn't get any easier, and it shouldn't get any easier in the next couple matches.

We have to do the same thing now, try and get out of here and enjoy the moment, but get back to work and back to business tomorrow and do the same routine, same practice and hopefully come out and play the same way in the semis.

Q. It's been a while since there has been an American man having this sort of success here. What sort of role does that play, Frances, who seems to really enjoy the moment and the stage and all of that?

WAYNE FERREIRA: We are trying to put in a request if we can play here every single week for the whole year. (Laughter.)

He just loves playing in the U.S. in particular and here at the US Open. But I think U.S. tennis is very strong now. He's been pushed quite nicely by Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz and Nakashima, Korda, Brooksby, all of these guys.

You know, they are all friends yet, you know, they have grown up together and stuff. I think that is helping a lot, that he has his compatriots around him that are happy for him and pushing him. I think that's been very, very key.

Q. If I could follow up on that bigger picture of the significance for men's tennis of having an American...

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I was shocked when I heard the other day that Andy Roddick was the last one since 2004 in the quarterfinals. I couldn't believe that considering how good American tennis has been over the years.

Yeah, it's a huge accomplishment for him to be the one to do it. I don't know, we haven't really spoken about it that much because we will talk about that after the tournament, the significance of what it is he's done. But he's always trying to give back to tennis. He always wants to, you know, do the best he can for the game in general, especially with, you know, underprivileged and all of that.

So for him, he wants to be a role model, and this is certainly the right thing and the right way. I always tell him, If you want to be a role model, you have to win tennis matches. This is the key to him. If he can win this tournament, he can be an inspiration for a lot of kids.

Q. What do you consider the message or the lesson of Frances' story from childhood until now?

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I think it's a great message for anybody really that you can end up achieving greatness from where you are coming. Frances has been lucky in some ways of having great help from people along the way.

But, you know, yeah, it's a great story. Hopefully there will be a movie about it one day. But he has to win the Grand Slam first. You only get movies if you do well.

But his story is very unique, and it's a great story. He's very humbled. He's a very, very nice individual. Very great heart and kind. You've got to love him. He's truly special.

Q. Frances has said about how a couple years ago he started taking the professional side of his game more seriously with the day-to-day fitness, eating. Was that a conversation he brought to you and said, I think this is what I need to start doing or was that you saying, Here's what it's going to take your game to the next level?

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, some players have difficulties being really, really talented and just playing the game without really understanding what it is you need to do.

I think I helped him because I played and I went through the issues of being relatively talented and being lazy, and then finding the right team, people behind me pushing me to do the right thing day to day with the food, practicing and with the fitness and gym work.

That's something he had to really change. He had to really improve the food. Food intake was terrible at the beginning. The effort on the practices and on the court wasn't good enough.

It's taken time for us to get gradually to where we are today. He still has a few things to improve and do better, but it's been a bit of a struggle.

I think it's come more from the team, giving him the advice and the experience that he didn't quite have before.

Q. Frances has been really good in the net, variety in general. Wondered how you have helped him unlock that part of his game and make good decisions in big moments.

WAYNE FERREIRA: He's a very aggressive tennis player. He does much better when he goes after the ball and plays aggressive.

Tactically, who you play with, playing Rafa and playing against Andrey, he had to be aggressive, had to be even more aggressive. He had to really go after first serve. Andrey, today in particular, he had to attack second serves. It's a very key strategy.

So he was a little bit more aggressive than he has been in times, but it was the aggressive that I would like from him to do. Sometimes he has days where he struggles a little bit, but today he really did almost everything that he needed to do tactically well today.

Q. Frances now has great coaching staff, has Jill Smoller as his agent. What do you think having that kind of people backing him has done with his confidence?

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think it's helped him a lot. Success also helps, too. We haven't had the best year, I would have to say, but we have done things off the court exceptionally well.

It's a process, you know. I always tell him it's going to take some time. I kind of imagine he would be at his best by the end of next year, would be a timeline that would be suitable for the growth he needs to do.

The semifinals is maybe a little unexpected, I would have to say. But obviously great to do it. The year hasn't been good on court for various different reasons, but our progress is in the right line. And having the team that he has and Jill and everybody around him, I think will be beneficial. He just has to keep doing the same things and keep moving forward.

Q. What's the difference between a great player and a great career?

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, there is a lot of great players that haven't had a great career by not winning anything. For me it's about winning. I think he needs to win. That comes down to success by winning and victory.

So for him to have a great career, he has to be successful by matches won, tournaments won, and that I think is how you say success is.

Q. This is such an achievement. Can you just go into the specifics a little bit more deeply in terms of what his food input was, how he changed his practice, and on court how he has such confidence now, such maturity.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, it seems simple, but he liked a lot of candy and chocolates and cookies. He'd eat at unusual times. He missed breakfast a lot. Didn't really have a good set of times on how when to eat before matches, what to eat after matches. You need a little guidance on that side, and he's done well on that side of it.

Practicing, it's about investing and putting in the best practice you can. We don't practice long, because I'd rather that he practice properly. So we try to go out there and do the best that we can for the time we are doing it. We always try to work on specifics, things to improve.

It's just being professional. He wasn't, in my opinion, was not really professional enough.

Q. Can you talk about what he did right with the serve today? He was 135, 136, lots of aces. What was going right with that?

WAYNE FERREIRA: So we have worked really hard on the serve. The serve, for me, I always have the philosophy it's the one part, one thing of the game that you have full control over. I don't think he's ever had that in his head that it's worth anything. He's always been one to just slide the ball in.

So we're working very hard on him banging the serve as hard as he can. He has a great serve, can hit it really, really hard.

We were working really, really hard on it, but we are not quite there yet at all. Because 50% serve average is poor. If he could get himself up into the mid-60s where a lot of the guys are, the Kyrgioses, in the 70s, take him to a whole other level.

That part of his game is better but it's still something we are going to spend a lot of time on improving.