Wayne Ferreira says he would have won more if he played less

[VamosRafa]

One of the things I love about updating tennisnews.com is that I get to read more than I write. ;-)

And I just love this latest item about Wayne Ferreira:

When Ferreira burst on the scene by reaching the 1992 Australian Open semifinals, there were those that predicted he would be a senior World No 1 within five years.

'We should try to give them as much entertainment as we can'
But he admits that he didn't quite live up to those lofty expectations, and now knows the reason why.

"When I started out my goals were perhaps unrealistic - I wanted to win every tournament that I played," he said.

"Maybe I should have played a little less and said: 'I only want to win the Grand Slams and I only want to win the Masters Series'.

"I travelled a lot, played too much, and when I got to the Grand Slams I was often tired."

He highlights his five-set quarterfinal defeat against Todd Martin at Wimnbledon in 1994, and five-set loss in the last eight of the US Open in 1992 as ones that got away, but he is still proud of his achievements.

"I trained as hard as anyone could and I did exceptionally well," he added.

"I had a good career, it's given me a good life, made me a lot of money, and I did a job that I wanted to do for 16 years. I had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends."

Ferreira is convinced that he could still comfortably make the top 100 of the ATP Tour if he so desired, but the motivation simply isn't there.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=30&art_id=qw1160815681219S163


But this just highlights how hard it is to win events day in and day out. Players have to pace themselves, and they are now doing so, but they are also coming under fire for doing so.

 

[LowProfile]

Tell that to Nikolay Davydenko.

Man's a machine.

 

[VamosRafa]

Tell that to Nikolay Davydenko.

Man's a machine.

And how many slams has he won?

And wasn't he the guy who was too tired to play Davis Cup for his country a few weeks ago? Tursunov took up that slack for him.