US OPEN

August 31, 1997

Wayne Ferreira

Q. Can you describe the atmosphere and the crowd being in Justin's favor?

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think actually, surprising enough, I thought they'd be a little louder than that. I think after the second set when I started to get on top of him, they slowed down a bit. They tried to get him back, but it was a little bit hard. At the beginning when he was up, I thought they would be much louder.

WAYNE FERREIRA: No. The only thing annoying was people clapping when I missed my first serve. That's a little bit irritating because it's not really fair.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's fun; it's good. It helps him a lot. It's exciting, people like that. It's a good thing.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Been a long time. I had a fourth round in Australia, beginning of the year. I'm feeling a lot better in this one than I have in the others in the last maybe two years. I'm quite happy. I've been playing good tennis up until here. You know, my matches are tough from now on, but they're definitely winnable. I'm pretty excited to be here and excited about the next couple matches.

WAYNE FERREIRA: You know, I think 5-3 when he served for the second set, it was a huge game. I think if he had won that second set, things might have been really, really difficult for me. Getting back at 5-3, I had a couple of chances; I didn't use them. Then when I broke back, gave me a lot of inspiration and inspired me a lot because I had been coming close. I just hadn't gotten through to break him. I did then. It helped me a lot. Obviously winning the second set made it a lot easier.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I didn't see him tiring. The only thing that I noticed was that he missed a couple more first serves than he did in the beginning and he stayed back a lot more, which I don't think was such a good idea for him. I think he should have been a little bit more positive, should have come in a lot more.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It got me. I was trying to run around it. Had too much kick.

WAYNE FERREIRA: No. Actually at that stage I still wanted to make him play a lot. Matches like that, if you can be down 40-Love and come back and win it, it does a lot for you.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think he has a good game; he's very aggressive. Has a good serve and volley. I think he has to improve his groundstrokes a little bit because I think he tries to go for a bit too much. Tries to hit the ball too hard, too flat. He tries to come in too soon. He has good enough groundstrokes to rally for a while. Serve and volley is tough to play against.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, it's going to be a very hard match. I played him a couple weeks ago and beat him like 12-10 tiebreak in the third set. It was a rough match. This one is going to be a rough match. We always have tough, grueling matches against each other. It could be a long one. It's going to be a very tough one.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah. I think coming back in the second set and winning the second set, I think a couple years ago maybe I wouldn't have done that. I think the experience I've had over the couple of years helped me focus a little bit better on that to try and win that.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I think after I won the second set, he definitely got a little bit worse. I think he lost a little bit of heart, maybe he felt like he let a really good opportunity go by. Maybe he didn't feel like he was going to get another one.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Well, I'm moving well. I'm feeling good. But, you know, I've had problems with my ankles which still hurts me a lot. I've just been able to get used to dealing with the pain a little bit. I've got to the stage where it doesn't bother me in running. It doesn't stop me going for everything that I would like to. But when I do stop after the points, I have a lot of pain, like right now. But I'm just used to it now.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I've had a lot of fourth rounds. I've had a couple quarters.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I've had a quarterfinals here once before, semifinals in the Australian. I've had a lot of Round of 16s. It's a tough hurdle for me. I'd like to get through it. I have a good opportunity. I'm playing really good tennis. If I'm going to have a shot, this is going to be it.