AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 20, 2001

Wayne Ferreira

THE MODERATOR: First question.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm very disappointed. Kind of a freak thing that happened. It's my finger and just bad timing.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, I tried to catch a ball on the warmup and it hit me right on the nail and I guess the doctor said probably tore some ligaments in my finger. I can't really bend it. I had a tough time trying to hold a tennis racquet.

WAYNE FERREIRA: My backhand. Yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Lots. I could not hit a backhand the whole match. I really struggled. I had a lot of pain. Kind of mentally it's tough, too, trying to hold the racquet. So I think it affected me quite drastically.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's hard to say. I do actually -- I have to try to play doubles tomorrow so I have to see tomorrow. If it is still sore tomorrow, I'll probably go get some X-rays done, something. See if there's anything wrong with it.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, yep. Hit me on the top of the finger on the nail.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Geez, no. It's very disappointing. I mean, I would have loved to have given myself the best opportunity to win that match. You know, I was feeling great going in there. I was excited to play the match. You know, it's always nice to play the young guys and see how good they are and how well I can compete against them. So from that aspect, it's very disappointing.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm sure he was, yeah. He played solid. Definitely he played better. I mean, didn't really have to do anything in the first set. He didn't play that well in the second. Then he got a lot better in the third and fourth. He moved around well, hit the ball well, competed good. I mean he played solid, yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's the first time with the finger thing, yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Oh, I just -- in the warm-up, I was trying to hit serves. I tried to catch -- a serve came and I tried to stop it. The ball hit me on the top of the finger on the nail, and the doctor says probably tore a ligament in the finger. He's not 100 percent sure exactly what it is, but it came up bruised pretty quickly and I had a really tough time trying to hold the tennis racquet.

WAYNE FERREIRA: I'm not sure at this stage.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Yeah, very much so, yeah.

WAYNE FERREIRA: No, I thought he was a good player. I mean I knew from talking to people and watching him play before, I knew that he was -- he hit the ball very well. He moved well, good ground strokes. I was pretty confident in going into that match and believing that I had the ability to win. So obviously I'm disappointed. I still believe that I could have won if I had played a little bit better. But, I mean, he's still a good competitor. He hits the ball and plays well.

WAYNE FERREIRA: It's a bit of both. It's a bit of both. It took me the first set to just overcome sort of the pain thing. And then, you know, I got used to that a bit, but there were a lot of shots -- it was just the backhand side. Just every time I tried to grip the handle, I had a lot of pain. So it's difficult when you have to try to change the way you play so quickly for, you know, for certain reasons. It changes your whole way -- you know, I wasn't able to hit my backhand well today so I wasn't able to get the opportunities to hit more forehands which is what I like to do. That's the way I have to play against him to beat him. And the backhand killed me. Didn't give me any opportunity or any chance to win.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Always. Yeah. I don't think I could have hit a one-handed today.

WAYNE FERREIRA: Always, I always had a two-handed. My one hand's pretty awful actually.