Wayne Richard Ferreira (born 15 September 1971) is a South African former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player and current tennis coach.

Career

As a junior player, Ferreira was ranked world no. 1 junior doubles player and no. 6 junior singles player. He won the junior doubles title at the US Open in 1989. Ferreira turned professional in 1989. He won his first ATP doubles title in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in 1991. 1992 was Ferreira's breakthrough year on the tour. He started out by reaching the semifinals of the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

. In June he won his first ATP singles title at

Queen's Club The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reas ...

, London. His second singles title came just a few weeks later at

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, New York. He also teamed-up with compatriot

Piet Norval Pieter ("Piet") Norval (born 7 April 1970) is a former tennis player from South Africa, who turned professional in 1988. His most notable achievement was winning the mixed doubles at the French Open in 1999. The right-hander represented his nat ...

to win the men's doubles silver medal for South Africa at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona. Ferreira was defeated in the second round in the Olympic singles that year. After a quieter year in 1993 in which he didn't win any singles titles, Ferreira came back strongly in 1994 to win a career-best five singles titles. He then won another four events in 1995. He competed at the Olympics again in 1996, reaching the quarterfinals in both men's singles and men's doubles, with

Ellis Ferreira Ellis Ferreira (born 19 February 1970) is a former professional male tennis player from South Africa. He played collegiately at the University of Alabama, earning all-SEC and all-American honors. Ferreira competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in ...

as his partner. (The two Ferreiras are not related.) The biggest titles of Ferreira's career came at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1996 and

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

in 2000 (both

Tennis Masters Series The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

events). Ferreira teamed-up with

Amanda Coetzer Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971, in Hoopstad) is a South African former professional tennis player. Coetzer finished in the WTA rankings top 20 for ten consecutive seasons (1992–2001), peaking at world No. 3. She reached three Grand Slam ...

in 2000 to win the

Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...

for South Africa. He played in his third and final Olympic tournament that year; this time, competing only in singles and being defeated in the first round. Ferreira is the former record-holder for the most consecutive

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament appearances in men's tennis, having participated in 56 consecutive slams between the

1991 Australian Open The 1991 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 79th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 14 through 27 January 1991. Seniors Men's s ...

and the 2004 US Open. Ferreira's best Grand Slam results came at the Australian Open – where he reached the semi-finals twice in 1992 and 2003. During his career, Ferreira won 15 top-level singles titles and 11 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were world no. 6 in singles (in May 1995) and world n. 9 in doubles (in March 2001). His career prize-money earnings totalled $9,969,617. Though Ferreira retired from the professional tour in 2005, he still plays on the

Outback Champions Series Since 2006, the Champions Series is a series of tennis tournaments designed for former champion members of the ATP Tour. The Champions Series consists of tournaments played in select markets where top players of the sport compete in one-night, four- ...

senior tour. He finished both 2006 and 2007 fourth on points in that series. He is now residing in Lafayette, California. Ferreira is currently president and CEO o
''EcoloBlue, Life and Energy''
an environmental and renewable resources corporation based in Miami, Florida, and Lafayette, California. Ferreira is known for regularly causing upsets against top players. He is one of the few players with a positive record against 20 time Grand Slam champion,

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

. Ferreira teamed up with Federer in the men's doubles at Wimbledon in 2001. They got to the third round and were due to face

Donald Johnson Donald James "Don" Johnson (born September 9, 1968) is an American former professional tennis player who reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 2002. Although born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was raised and learned the sport of tennis i ...

and

Jared Palmer Jared Eiseley Palmer (born July 2, 1971) is a professional tennis player who won 28 professional doubles titles (Including his wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon) and one singles title in his career on the ATP Tour. He also won four dou ...

(the eventual champions) before Federer withdrew to focus on his singles campaign. In addition, Ferreira has a 5-6 head-to-head record against 14 time Grand Slam champion

Pete Sampras Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...

, with Sampras breaking the tie by winning their final match at the 2002 Canadian Masters. He also holds a positive head-to-head record against multiple Grand Slam champions and former world no. 1 ranked players, including

Patrick Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking on 26 July 1999. His career highlights include consecutive US Open ...

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis p ...

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. ...

and

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...

Coaching

Since 2020, Ferreira has been the coach of

Frances Tiafoe Frances Tiafoe Jr. ( ; born January 20, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has ranked Tiafoe as high as world No. 17 in singles, on October 10, 2022, and world No. 160 in doubles, on No ...

and became his primary coach after Tiafoe parted ways with former coach Zack Evenden.

Racket

Ferreira played with and endorsed rackets made by

Slazenger Slazenger () is a British sports equipment brand owned by the Frasers Group (formerly Sports Direct). The company was established as a sporting goods shop in 1881 by Ralph and Albert Slazenger on London's Cannon Street.J. R. Lowerson, 'Slazen ...

early in his career. He switched to

Dunlop Sport Dunlop Sport is a British sports equipment manufacturing company established in 1910 that focuses on racquet sports, more specifically tennis, squash, padel and badminton. Products by Dunlop Sport include rackets, strings, balls, shuttlecoc ...

very early in his career and stayed with them, using the 200G racket, until the end of his ATP career.

Career statistics

Olympic games

;Finals: 1 (1 silver medal)

Masters Series finals

Singles: 3 (2–1)

Doubles: 12 (6–6)

Career finals

Singles: 23 (15–8)

Singles performance timeline

¹Held as Stockholm Masters until 1994, Essen Masters in 1995, Stuttgart Masters 1996–2001, Madrid Masters from 2002–08.

Doubles: 24 (11–13)

Doubles performance timeline

Senior Tour championships

*2007– defeated

Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals ...

2–6, 6–3, 1–9in the Stanford Championships *2007– defeated

Aaron Krickstein Aaron Krickstein (born August 2, 1967), nicknamed "Marathon Man", is an American former professional tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1983 to 1996. He currently competes on the Outback Champions Series Over-30 tour. Krickstein r ...

6–3, 6–3 in The Oliver Group Champions Cup

Top 10 wins

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferreira, Wayne Hopman Cup competitors Olympic medalists in tennis Olympic silver medalists for South Africa Olympic tennis players of South Africa Tennis players from Johannesburg People from Lafayette, California South African expatriates in the United States South African male tennis players South African tennis coaches South African people of Portuguese descent Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) junior champions White South African people 1971 births Living people Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Alumni of Parktown Boys' High School Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles