Ferreira joins Davis Cup cause
Long-time friends Marcos Ondruska and former world top-tenner Wayne Ferreira will combine their tennis knowledge to accelerate the progress of South Africa's Davis Cup tennis team towards regaining their former glory.
Team South Africa Davis Cup captain Marcos Ondruska and Wayne Ferreira were part of a formidable SA Davis Cup team in the 90's, when the country was still campaigning in the Euro-Africa Group 1.
Both players were also part of the South African tennis team at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, where Ferreira won a silver medal with Pietie Norval in the men's doubles, losing in four sets to Boris Becker and Michael Stich of Germany in the gold medal match.
Now the two long-time personal friends will combined their collective tennis brains as the South Africans host Estonia in a Euro-Africa Group 3 tie this week at the Irene Country Club in Centurion.
Ferreira, now 45 and a permanent resident in the USA, also teamed-up with Amanda Coetzer in 2000 to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa.
He retired from the professional tour in 2005 with 15 career ATP singles titles and 11 in doubles. He reached a career-high ranking of 6th in the ATP World Rankings in May 1995.
Ferreira is in the country on invitation of his long-time friend Ondruska as a consultant to the young SA team featuring the likes of Lloyd Harris, Ruan Roelofse, Nic Scholtz, Tucker Vorster and senior statesman Raven Klaasen.
"Marcos and I have been friends for a long time and we live close to one another," explains Ferreira.
Ondruska took the job last year and has made impressive strides trying to improve and grow Davis Cup tennis, and to rekindle the enthusiasm for the world's oldest team tennis competition.
"He's been begging me for the last year to see if I could come and help him improve even more than he wants to do. He has great ideas and I thought it would be valuable to see if I could be of any help," he adds.
Ferreira arrived in the country on Monday and aside from watching them practice briefly at the Irene courts, he hasn't had time to have a good look at the young guns.
On his envisaged role over the next few days Ferreira says: "The idea is to look at them play, look at things they need to do, work on them and improve and better them as tennis players."
Ferreira still has strong links with the game he loves and between business commitments. He is a fulltime 'tennis dad', coaching his 17-year-old son Marcus, a promising junior active on the ITF circuit.
He says unfortunately the Davis Cup has lost some of its stature when compared to his playing days and is still harbouring the faint possibility of luring the country's leading player Kevin Anderson back into the Davis Cup fold.
Both players were also part of the South African tennis team at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, where Ferreira won a silver medal with Pietie Norval in the men's doubles, losing in four sets to Boris Becker and Michael Stich of Germany in the gold medal match.
Now the two long-time personal friends will combined their collective tennis brains as the South Africans host Estonia in a Euro-Africa Group 3 tie this week at the Irene Country Club in Centurion.
Ferreira, now 45 and a permanent resident in the USA, also teamed-up with Amanda Coetzer in 2000 to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa.
He retired from the professional tour in 2005 with 15 career ATP singles titles and 11 in doubles. He reached a career-high ranking of 6th in the ATP World Rankings in May 1995.
Ferreira is in the country on invitation of his long-time friend Ondruska as a consultant to the young SA team featuring the likes of Lloyd Harris, Ruan Roelofse, Nic Scholtz, Tucker Vorster and senior statesman Raven Klaasen.
"Marcos and I have been friends for a long time and we live close to one another," explains Ferreira.
Ondruska took the job last year and has made impressive strides trying to improve and grow Davis Cup tennis, and to rekindle the enthusiasm for the world's oldest team tennis competition.
"He's been begging me for the last year to see if I could come and help him improve even more than he wants to do. He has great ideas and I thought it would be valuable to see if I could be of any help," he adds.
Ferreira arrived in the country on Monday and aside from watching them practice briefly at the Irene courts, he hasn't had time to have a good look at the young guns.
On his envisaged role over the next few days Ferreira says: "The idea is to look at them play, look at things they need to do, work on them and improve and better them as tennis players."
Ferreira still has strong links with the game he loves and between business commitments. He is a fulltime 'tennis dad', coaching his 17-year-old son Marcus, a promising junior active on the ITF circuit.
He says unfortunately the Davis Cup has lost some of its stature when compared to his playing days and is still harbouring the faint possibility of luring the country's leading player Kevin Anderson back into the Davis Cup fold.
"I still see the enthusiasm in these young kids and it's still exciting. Its still a good platform to build confidence, play for their country and work on their game."
Twitter -@SportswaveAndre