TMS - CINCINNATI

August 8, 2000

Wayne Ferreira

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Wayne?

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I guess. It was pretty close. I did well to come back, fight back, and then got into the breaker. I didn't really play that well in the breaker. I was up 2-1, two serves, and played two pretty ordinary points. So it was just a couple of bad points in the breaker.

WAYNE FERREIRA: No, not necessarily. I mean it's just the way -- the type of tennis he plays. He did get a lot better in the second set. Not that I didn't get worse. But in the first set I definitely had chances.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, it's demoralizing when you put in a really shitty serve. You deserve to get killed. The serve that I served was awful. So I wasn't really -- I mean I would hope that he would do that to it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's tough. He plays so fast. Before you can even think about, you know, what just happened, you're down a break already. That's what happened. I didn't really get time to get back in there again and to focus on the second set and start concentrating on that. And before I knew it, I was down a break already. It's tough to come back.

WAYNE FERREIRA: He just plays fast the whole time.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I mean you can take your own time on your own serve. You can take more time. But he still plays fast in between the points.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I think the difficulty that I have is that I just don't match up that well against him. He has a great record; he's won a lot of tournaments; he's beaten everybody; and he's been on the top for such a long time. So I mean, yeah, he's one of the best -- probably the best player around. But, you know, it's hard for me to say if he's the best because of just the way that I play, he likes. There are people like Pete, for instance, who people can't play and hate playing against him. I like playing against him. So it's just a matter of matchups.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Because I keep getting my butt kicked; that's why. (Laughter.)

WAYNE FERREIRA: Ordinary. I didn't play that great either. I think the tennis was pretty ordinary. It wasn't a lot of good points, there were no long ones, everything was quick, I didn't get any returns back. He got a few. When he got them back, I missed them. It was pretty ordinary tennis.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I wanted to make a lot of returns, which I obviously didn't, and I wanted to keep the ball back a lot, which I guess I didn't. So my game plan didn't really work out. I just played awful. I didn't play well at all from the word go.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's hard to say. Maybe it is because playing against him, having lost so many times. The thing is it just -- the points just go so fast. Whenever I play against him, it just goes by so quick. Before you know it, you're down a set, a break. There's just no way. It's tough for me to really get into it like I do against other people.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Oh, yeah. It's kind of a bit of a laughable situation for me. Just because I seem to do the same thing every time I play him, even no matter how hard I try to make it different, it always ends up being the same. So all I can do is keep laughing.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I sure hope so, yeah. I would just like to actually play well once. I don't think I've ever played well against him to what I believe is good tennis, or tennis that I would like to play. Whatever reason it is, I don't know. But I'd like to play well once, to see if I do play well, if I really have a chance.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I can't. I don't know yet.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Various. Lots of various reasons.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I will not discuss it at this stage. Thank you.