US OPEN

September 1, 2004

Wayne Ferreira

THE MODERATOR: First question for Wayne, who is playing his 56th consecutive Grand Slam event, all-time record.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I think he's, you know, got his game back again. He went through a little bit of a bad patch there for a while. He was serving a lot of doubles, probably lost a bit of confidence. But he seems like today he's got it all back. He moved exceptionally well, brought a lot of balls back. But the serve, you know, he served very, very well, which is something he's been struggling with for a while. He played a great match. He was definitely on some good form.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, like I said, the serve. He's definitely getting in a lot more first serves, a little bit more penetrating. He's not serving as many doubles. He feels more confident on his moving. He's getting balls back - not just getting them back, but he's getting them back well. I think it's more of a confidence problem that he had that he's got back now.

WAYNE FERREIRA: For me, it's kind of a tough thing. I wanted to, you know, be aggressive. I hoped to serve a lot better, which I didn't. And in the rallies, just try and overpower him. You know, I was hitting the ball pretty decently. I wasn't too unhappy with the way I hit the ball. He just got a lot of balls back. And I was a little bit -- maybe a little bit too aggressive and tried to go for a little too much. You know, I haven't really been playing much for a while now, and I don't feel I'm in the best of shape. So I was probably feeling like, you know, I should get the points over with a little bit quicker.

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, obviously winning tournaments is very important. For a while there, about a couple of years, I didn't win any tournaments, and didn't feel I was competing, you know, all the way through weeks. I was playing one or two good matches. That week was great because I played very well each match, had some very good wins and played a great final. So it made me feel that I had that ability in me. You know, since then it's been a bit of a struggle because I think after the end of last year I decided this would be my last year, and I've known for a while. I haven't really been practicing too much or putting in too much tennis in this year. So, you know, it's kind of been a tough one. It's been disappointing. I've lost a lot of matches this year that I haven't really been that happy about, or people that normally if I felt I was at a good level, I would beat. So it's been kind of tough this year to play.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I have Davis Cup at the end of that month. We play back home. That will be it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Greece.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's a little up in the air right now. I haven't really kind of figured out exactly what I have to do or want to do from here on. I have a few options, but nothing really set in stone yet. I'm still not sure.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I'm sure I'll stay in tennis to some degree. I mean, it's difficult to spend your whole life in it and suddenly just leave it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'd like to help in South Africa with the Juniors. I think they've been very unfortunate these last six or seven years, you know, with the financial problems we've had, not being able to, you know, have the same opportunities that I had when I was younger to travel and to play tournaments. We have some good players - just don't have the right setup for them at this particular stage. And it's very difficult to make good players and champions when they don't really have the best resources at hand.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Both. I mean, you know, we have a couple of academies that have now started that are actually very good. The kids are getting opportunities to play in South Africa, but don't have any opportunities to leave the country and leave to travel. Unless their parents have some money to send them, they can't leave. You only can be as good as you can in the country. There's the rest of the world out there that they don't know about.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, you know, our Federation has been struggling for a long time. They don't have any money at the moment. They've been trying really hard to get some. It's been very difficult for them.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Kevin has been fantastic to tennis. He came back about a year and a half and got involved in tennis. He's been doing so much. He's been trying so hard. I feel quite bad for him because it's been very difficult for him. But he has been putting in a great effort to try and help tennis. Hopefully, you know, I can help him and the two of us can try to get something going. You know, he's definitely taken over a little bit down there and trying. He's trying his very best. But, you know, it's a tough battle. It's been so terrible for so long now that it's very difficult to bring it back up again.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I think today was really the first match that my son ever watched me play. I think that that was a great feeling.

WAYNE FERREIRA: My wife was here, too. She hasn't watched me play for a couple years, too. So it's been fun. I brought them all here to watch my last match. My son actually sat through the whole match today, which is kind of unusual (laughter).

WAYNE FERREIRA: My son is five. Marcus is my oldest, then I have a four-month-old who is hanging out in the lounge.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, Marcus.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Not really. But he will tell me that he did know that I lost today. He'll let me know about that (smiling).

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, I don't. I remember my first Wimbledon. That was my first real sort of start in the game. And that one I remember. I had a great match there. You know, it was the start of it all. Then I've lost, in between that and now, I've had good ones and I've lost some. I don't remember a lot of them. But there's been a lot of great memories that I've had, you know, it's been so many years it's tough to remember everything.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think the competition. You know, I love competing. I still feel that I am as good as anybody else in the field, and I still can play as well as anybody else. It's tough to leave it knowing that I am still at that level. But then again, you know, I feel I've got to leave sometime. And maybe I'm prolonging it a little bit. I think it's about time for me to go and leave when I feel that I'm still at the top of the game. I think it's a better way to go for me.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I played know Noah first round.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I did, actually. I beat him on the graveyard, first round.

WAYNE FERREIRA: There are some possibilities, yes. There are some kids. There's one 18, 17, coming here for the Juniors. He has some ability. But there are a couple 14-year-olds who I've heard are very, very good. Those are the kids that have to have the opportunities from now.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I feel good in the fact that I've been healthy through all of them. You know, I've had some good runs at it. You know, my career has been long. I think maybe I would have changed it up a bit and played a little bit less and been more ready for the Grand Slams. I did come in here for a few of them tired and not prepared well enough for them. But, you know, I've competed well. I've always been in good shape and given my best here. I think, you know, I've had some really good chances to win the whole thing, and it hasn't worked out. But I came in here thinking -- every time I came in here thinking I could win the tournament.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I've had a bad shoulder for about 10 months now. I haven't been able to practice as much. I wake up some mornings and different things hurt. I look at it now and I feel like I could carry on, but I also feel like maybe it's more important for me to be able to walk when I'm 50. I've got to look at that, too. I'd like to live long and still be able to play some tennis for the rest of my life and be able to do the things that I want to do.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I do want to spend more time with them, sure. I missed a lot of my son's first five years by playing tennis. You know, it worked out okay. He's not too bad at this stage. But I'd like to be around for the other one, you know, spend some time. But I don't want to not do anything either. I've been somebody who's been a perfectionist at what he's done, done well as what he's done. I want to move on to something else and hopefully be good at something else besides just tennis.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm not sure at the moment. There's possibilities of moving, but I don't know yet.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I don't really know yet. I'm not sure.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I don't know much about the situation back home. My parents and most of my family are still there. I speak to them a lot about it. But, you know, when I've been going back in the last 10 or 12 years, it's been for a holiday. Everything has been different. Every time I've gone there, I've gone to the beach, I've gone on vacation and stuff. I haven't really spent much time and lived the everyday life. So I don't really know much about what's going on there.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I always matched up against some players better than others, and Pete was one of them. I like the way he played. You know, I like the serve-and-volleyers a little bit more than the sort of baseliners. I did well against them. Yeah, I mean, you know, when I started off playing against him, he beat me the first four times. He told somebody that I was good but I didn't have anything great. I guess it inspired me to beat him a few times (smiling).

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's a possibility. I do think if I did, it would be geared around helping South Africans. There's some good stuff, academies starting in South Africa, that look pretty good at the moment. They're trying to get the finances to get them out of the country. Once they leave the country, there's nowhere for them to go. There's a possibility of trying to maybe organize something for them to have somewhere to go after they leave.

WAYNE FERREIRA: That I have no idea about.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Go beg them.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think it did a bit of good at that particular time. I think it's still necessary. I think it might come back to some form or another. I do think there needs to be some changes. You know, I thought that back in 2003, and I still believe that now.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I don't know if we have enough time right now. It's a long thing.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I just think that the players need to be -- you know, they need to have more control over their side of the game. I feel all the decisions that are made are made on their behalf but not -- they don't have any say in what gets made, in any of the decisions on any aspect. You know, the ATP is supposed to be a players' tour, for the players. I just believe the players need to be more involved and they need to have more say and make more of the decisions.

WAYNE FERREIRA: None that I know of. I've been looking for them and I can't find any (smiling).

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think there's a lot of players out there who know the issues and know -- and have the same ideas that I do and believe that things should change. It's just a matter of them putting themselves out there for it. I think that's just a personality thing. I think there's a lot that could do good and could change it but just are scared to or just don't want to put the time into doing it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yes. I'm playing Davis Cup at the end of this month.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Pretoria.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah. I remember beating Daniel Vacek 14 times (smiling).

WAYNE FERREIRA: I keep telling him every time I see him. I just think when I leave here, I've played pretty much everybody. You know, there's a lot like Andy who I played twice. But the players that I have played a lot, I've beaten everybody except Agassi and Chang. I believe I've accomplished a lot. I've beaten a lot of players. I played Borg, I played Connors, I played Lendl, Edberg, Becker. I've gone through, you know, up to Federer, Agassi. I've played everybody. You know, I can say that I've played, I guess, two generations of tennis players. It's a great accomplishment. I've been around a long time. I've had some good memories. I have a lot of things to tell people, a lot of good stories that will keep a lot of dinner conversations going for a long time.

WAYNE FERREIRA: We spoke a little bit about it. He did say he hated to play me. There were some times when I had to play him, he'd walk by me and shake his head and go, "Oh, no, not again." It wasn't so much of a conversation piece where we talked about it a lot, but it was kind of a little thing between us that we had.

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, the college guys are young. I think I try and show them the professionalism of tennis. At 18, they believe they're the best and can conquer anything. So I try and show them that they can't at this stage, and that there's a lot of improvements that they need to make. One thing I try and do every time I play them, I try and beat them as badly as I can. When we do running and training, I try and beat them as badly as I can to make them realize that there's a lot more that they have to do. And I think it goes across quite nicely because it makes them realize that there's a lot more that they have to do and they have to improve drastically. Because college level is a big difference from pros.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, let me see. I remember coming back from two sets to love down, 7-6, 7-6, against Krajicek at the Australian Open, beating him in five. I remember my final against Lleyton in Stuttgart, beating him in five. Geeze, I have a lot, man. A lot of good ones.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I beat Borg in Monte-Carlo in his comeback. It was a little bit different (smiling). But, hey, a win's a win, huh?

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think Agassi for me.

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, I never once ever played him and walked off the court and felt like I played decent. I always felt like I played terrible. The only chance I had I remember I served for the match against him at the Olympics in the quarterfinals. That was the only I think set I ever won against him and the only time I ever came close. The rest, you know, I felt I would be playing great tennis, I'd walk on the court. I'd walk off and I'd be like, "Geeze, I really suck." It was the weirdest feeling. I could never play well against him.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Maybe both. I don't know. Every time I used to tell my wife I was playing against Andre, she said, "Oh, you're going to be home tomorrow." I just couldn't do it. I don't know what he had about him that made it so tough.

WAYNE FERREIRA: That was the weird thing about me, too, is that I never, ever once played him when he was going through a bad patch either. I always seemed to play him quarterfinals, semifinals, when he was doing well. Every time I lost to him, I believe he won every tournament that I lost to him in. I waited that patch that he did really badly and he was playing in challengers. I almost wanted to go play a challenger just to get a chance to play him. I never did. Never got him. It was a tough one.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I beat him indoors in Sydney.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I actually beat him twice. I beat hit outdoors I think in Hong Kong once. I can't remember. I remember beating him twice.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think as a competitor who gave a lot, who tried really hard. I used to get upset and tear my racquet. But I don't believe I ever gave in. I wanted to win every single match.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Maybe like when he's 60, I'm 60, I'll have a chance.