adidas International

January 6, 2003

Wayne Ferreira

THE MODERATOR: First question for Wayne, please.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, looking at the draw, the players that are in there, I was quite happy to play against Thomas. I have a pretty good record against him. He's been out a little bit on injury and struggling a bit to come back, so it was a pretty good draw out of the people that are in it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Got a little difficult on the one side against the wind, on the serve side. Wasn't too upset about losing my serve. I knew I'd have a couple of chances to break him back. You know, I played all right. Maybe a little bit of a loose game here and there, but other than that, pretty good, pretty happy.

WAYNE FERREIRA: No, you know, I went down to South Africa in December to visit my family and spend Christmas. I had about a month's worth already of hot weather. Plus, the weather back home wasn't cold either. You know, it's not that bad where I am, too. So it wasn't too much of a factor. It's just playing the matches, and that sort of side is quite tiring.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, it was a disappointing loss for me last year. I felt I should have won the match. I had a lot of chances. I was disappointed. So it would be nice -- I never played him again throughout the whole year and really wanted the opportunity. So if I get it again in the next match, it will be great to hopefully, you know, reverse that and try to win one.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I did exactly the same thing so far as I did last year. I lost first round in Adelaide last year, I lost second round here. Hopefully, I can do better here this year. You know, preparation's been fine. I played a good match today, a lot better than last week's. So I'm a lot happier. Things are starting to come right and starting to get into form again. Yeah, hopefully, just play a few more matches, that always helps.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I don't really have too many goals, just Top 50 is always great, you know, but that's a pretty simple goal. Breaking and staying in the Top 20, I think, is a realistic goal but is a difficult one that would take a lot of time and effort, a lot of effort from my part. Still difficult for me to put in that all the time, so it's a tough one. That would be probably what I look for.

WAYNE FERREIRA: That's the only reason why I play, is because I love the game and I enjoy it. That's about it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Just to be able to compete at the best that I can, the enjoyment factor. If I don't enjoy it or I'm not competing well or I don't feel good and I'm not having fun, I won't play. But I had fun last year. I enjoyed my year. I had a lot of good successes, still beat a lot of the high-ranked guys. Had some bad matches, too, but, you know, I kind of overlooked those. I had mostly success. Then that kind of drives me, you know. It's fun to still compete and beat people and have people still worried to play you and not want to play you. So, I mean, there's still a lot of fun and enjoyment on that side of it. And if that goes away, then I'll stop. That's driving me.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I'm sore every day. I have something that hurts every day. I mean, I had -- took off the last portion of last year for a couple reasons - mental break, but also a physical break. I was just beaten up. Started this year already, I'm sore already, a couple of things. But they're things that I can play through, things that don't bother me too much. It's part of the game. I've gotten used to it. I've been very fortunate over my career never to be really injured. But I've always had niggling pains that I've just played through.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Which is very sad, seeing as we've had two months off already. Very sad. I mean, I have to seriously look at that. I think one of the main reasons I've noticed over the years since I've played is there are a lot more, and it's purely because of the balls, the change of the balls. They're too heavy. They're too hard on the body. You know, obviously the scheduling is the same. I play less now than I did when I first started off, and I'm sure the guys do. I mean, we have two months' vacation. People are playing relatively less, but more injuries. The courts are the same. The weather's the same. So only the ball is different. I think it's because of that.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, he serves really big and doesn't really like the serve to come back. You know, I make a lot of returns, make him play a lot of balls. He's not really consistent from the baseline, so I try and keep it -- keep the ball back and make him play a lot of balls. I just like the way he plays. It just seems to match up quite nice for me.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I was pleased, yes, especially because I knew that he'd been injured for a long time. I've been practicing with him a few times last week. He hasn't fully recovered, I don't think, and he hasn't played for a long time. So those are the best people to get.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, 6-0.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm sure it does, yeah. I mean, today it's a little different. You know, first time -- I played badly last week. Still early in the year. I'm just trying to get my form right. If he was on peak form, maybe it would have been different. Most of the times I've played him, it's been middle of the season, both at our best. But it does help. I mean, I think it helps more -- I think it's more of a negative thing for him. I think he knows that, more than it's a positive thing for me.

WAYNE FERREIRA: The only one that I remember, which I used to love playing all the time, was Daniel Vacek. I think I was about 12- or 13-0 on him. I always seemed to play him every week, which was great. I think they were trying to help me out.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I never lost to him, no. It was about 12 or 13 times.