TMS - MADRID

October 13, 2003

Wayne Ferreira

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Wayne.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I felt very good. You know, last week I played a pretty good match against a guy who served very well, and lost 6-6. So I'm pretty happy that I turned it around this week. I think I got a little lucky. You know, he definitely had his chances, but I played well. You know, I made him play a lot on his serve, got a lot of serves back, which is always important. But besides that, I think I was pretty focused on myself. Overall, I played a good match. I'm pretty happy with it. You know, I won, which is always nice, but even if I hadn't, I still played well, still hit the ball well.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm very sore actually. I've had a lot of problems with my groin. It's still giving me a lot of problems. The problem is that I haven't been able to train as hard as I normally do and like to. So I come in, you know, obviously under-prepared, and I have a problem with my elbow. But I figure, you know, I can fight through these few weeks and then have two months to recover and try and fix it all up and get ready for next year again.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I read the article this morning, yes.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I think it would be terrible for the game, yeah. I don't really know if that's happening or not. I haven't heard much or anything about it at all except what I read this morning. I do have to say that I know, you know, in the article it said something about Yevgeny and his match last week. I know for a fact, 100% fact, that he has a bad foot and is injured. He tried his best and just couldn't win. So, you know, reading that story, I don't agree with it in that particular match. If it's happened before, I'm not a hundred percent sure. But I don't think it's good, no. If it is happening, I think it should be stopped, sure.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Look, my opinion on things is if there are rules that are made, and they're being broken, they need to be enforced, need to stick by them. The people that do break these rules need to be punished. So my opinion is that I think if somebody is taking drugs, he needs to be punished. If somebody is betting on himself, the rule states three-year suspension. If somebody is doing that... The rules are made to be used, and they should be used. Whatever the situation, they should use them, yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's possible, yeah. I mean, I don't know what kind of betting there was. I just know that he had a bad foot. I don't know when he had the bad foot. I know, playing doubles with him for a very long time, he's had this problem before, and it comes and goes. Some days he has it, and some days he doesn't. You know, he tries through these matches, sometimes depending on the pain. I know it came back. He told me it was back. So I don't know about the betting thing. I mean, I know -- I just know he was injured. That's all I can tell you.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I don't know much about gambling. I'm not a gambling man. I don't know if you can bet on anything, what you can bet on in tennis.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think you can virtually bet on anything in any sport, though, I would guess. So should they stop it? I don't know. I'm not into gambling at all. I can't tell you what they should and shouldn't do.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I guess if there's problems with it, yeah, maybe they should. I don't know. I really don't know if this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. I don't know if anybody would bet on themselves to lose. I personally couldn't do it. I don't know if anyone else could do it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: There's inside information on any sport that you do. I mean, I'm sure they do the same thing with football and baseball and basketball and everything in the world, soccer. I mean, okay, it's a little different because it's an individual sport. But everybody knows stuff that they shouldn't know. I mean, you can't stop everything. I mean, if betting is out there, that's how they do it, I mean, you can't really ask me that. Like I said, I don't bet. I don't even gamble. I don't go to the casino. You can't ask me anything about gambling.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I can imagine. I can surely imagine. My only thing that I've seen when I go to Wimbledon every year, they bet -- you can get odds on who is going to win Wimbledon. That's the extent I thought the betting was. I thought the extent was you could pick somebody at the beginning of the week to win the tournament, you got odds on him. I didn't really know there was individual betting on individual matches. I didn't really know much, anything about that.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think it's good for me. I'm playing well. He's ranked No. 1 in the world. He's in Spain. It's fun for me. It's nice to play these kind of matches. It would be nice to play well and enjoy myself and have fun. I don't have any pressure on this match. It's all enjoyment factor for me. I'm trying to battle through the rest of the year. I've had such a good year up until now, had some good and some bad things, so I'm just happy to be playing well and enjoying myself.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, of course. Anytime you beat anybody ranked in the Top 10, it's a great motivation. The guy is No. 1 in the world because he's done the best out of everybody. If I can beat him, I've beat the No. 1 player in the world at this stage. So it's a great feeling. It's nice to know that I can compete and possibly beat somebody at that level.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I get enjoyment when I compete well. You know, I love the game of tennis. I love chasing balls and putting in a good effort and playing well. Obviously, when I'm injured and I'm unprepared, I don't enjoy it as much. You know, I just get enjoyment out of being a good competitor, being able to beat the best players in the world still at this stage. It's a great feeling to compete at this level. How much longer? I think end of next year will probably be it for me. You know, I do have the goal of trying to do the Grand Slams. There's a possibility of trying to go back to the Olympics one more time. And then I think it's time for me to, you know, put my time and effort into my family after that. So I think I'll give it one more year.

WAYNE FERREIRA: There's always that possibility, yeah. I mean, I'd like to help. Tennis has been my life since I was a kid. It's pretty much all that I know. You know, I'm good at it. I figure if I'm good at it, I can give back to it. It would be a shame for me not to provide the information that I've learned over the years to at least somebody else.