AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 23, 2003

Wayne Ferreira

MODERATOR: Questions for Wayne, please.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, it's a little difficult to find rhythm with him. He takes it so early, hits it so hard. I didn't feel like I played badly under the circumstances. I think he played, you know, extremely well. He hit the ball very hard. The times that I've played him before, I've always felt that it's important for me to go to his forehand, and I tried that. He hit his forehand better today than the times before. I hit my backhand better, and I had more chances to go to it. He just played great. There's not really much I can say. The only thing is maybe if I served a little better, I could have had a better chance. Other than that, I don't really feel there was much more that I could have done.

WAYNE FERREIRA: If Andy can serve aces, he might have a chance. I came out there today, I felt like I had a really good chance. I didn't hit the ball badly. You know, I chased everything, competed hard, basically got beaten pretty easily. He played great. If he plays like that, I mean, you know, you can see his results through the whole tournament. No one's even come close to having a chance. I didn't have a chance today. If he plays like that on Sunday, Andy or Rainer, I don't think either of them can have a chance. I mean, I think if anyone does, Andy will, just because he's got a huge serve and he's got some power, but I still don't think he's got a chance.

WAYNE FERREIRA: For Davis Cup?

WAYNE FERREIRA: A lot of things have to change before I'm going to play Davis Cup for South Africa again.

WAYNE FERREIRA: A lot of things. I can't explain more to you right now. Just the people that are involved, how they run things, what they do. It's in shambles right now. You know, they don't deserve me to play for them right now. I feel disappointed not to be able to play for my country, but I felt like I put in a lot of time and effort over the past seven or eight years, did my bit. We were in the World Group, we had chances, we got to the quarterfinals twice. I just don't feel I get any respect. They just don't deserve to have me to play for them right now.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, my goals have changed quite considerably since I got to the semifinals here. I was quite happy just to pretty much compete hard and do the best that I can. But looking at how I've done this week, how I've played, gee, why can't I think about trying to make the Masters? I've given myself a good base, a good start to the year. I'm feeling really good physically. I'm playing great tennis. I've had chances before, and haven't felt as good as I do now, so why not? It's a hard goal to get to, but it can be done.

WAYNE FERREIRA: My philosophy last year was to play just the necessary tournaments, just the Grand Slams, the nine Masters Series and the five others. That's pretty much how I'm going to look at it here. The points are so big in the Grand Slams and the Masters Series, that's all basically where it counts. If you want to make the Masters or have your ranking up high, those are the ones you have to do well in. I'm just going to set my sights on playing most of those. I'll play a few other ones here and there for practice, obviously to try and help my ranking a bit, but those are my main focus, just those 13 big ones, then finding a couple small ones here and there just to fit in for me 18 that I need.