Ferreira looks forward to retirement after loss

The South African played the final ATP Tour singles match of his 15-year career on Wednesday, losing in the first-round of the US Open.

South Africa's Wayne Ferreira played the final ATP Tour singles match of his 15-year career on Wednesday, losing in the first-round of the US Open to former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

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The 32-year-old Ferreira plans to retire after representing South Africa for the last time in a Davis Cup tie at the end of September.

"I am going to play the Davis Cup at the end of the month and that is about it for me," Ferreira said after his loss to Hewitt.

Ferreira was appearing in a record 56th consecutive Grand Slam. He beat Stefan Edberg's record (54) for consecutive Grand Slams when he played Wimbledon earlier this year.

"I have been doing it a long time and now it is time to do something else," said Ferreira who never won a major.

"I want to go out at a good time rather than playing matches that I don't like losing."

This marks Ferreira's 14th straight year at the US Open. He has the third most ever appearances of any player in this year's mens draw behind Andre Agassi.

American Todd Martin made his 15th appearance this year and like Ferreira bowed out in the first round and then announced his retirement on Monday.

Ferreira, who has been hampered by a shoulder problem in recent months, said the older he gets the more difficult it is to stay healthy.

"I wake up some mornings and different things hurt. I look at it now and I feel like I could carry on but I also feel like maybe it is more important for me to be able to walk when I am 50.

"I would like to live long and still be able to play some tennis for the rest of my life and be able to do things that I want to do."

Ferreira's best years are behind him but he reached back and found the fountain of youth on at least one occasion last year when he beat Hewitt in the final of the Los Angeles tournament for his 15th career singles title.

"That week was great because I played a great final. It made me feel that I had the ability in me.

"Since then it has been a bit of a struggle because at the end of last year I decided this would be my last year. It has been disappointing. I lost a lot of matches this year to people that normally I would beat."

Ferreira reached the semi-final of the Australian Open last year. One of his best years was 1992 when he reached the Australian semis and won a silver medal at the Barcelona Games, becoming the first South African to win an Olympic medal in doubles in 32 years.

Hewitt said Wednesday it was sad to see someone as well like as Ferreira leave the sport.

"Wayne had an awesome career," Hewitt said. "I practised a lot with him in the past. For all of us there comes a time when we have to step away from the sport.

"He has been a great ambassador for tennis."

Ferreira said he has no immediate plans other than to spend more time with his wife and two small children, who were all in attendance on Wednesday.

"I brought them all here to watch my last match," Ferreira said.

Ferreira spends most of his time at his home in California but says he would like to someday return to South Africa to work with young tennis players.

Ferreira said it is tough to signal out one single moment from his career but he has fond memories of competing against some of he greatest players of his time.

"I have played pretty much everybody," he said. "I played (Bjorn) Borg, (Jimmy) Connors, I played (Ivan) Lendl, (Stefan) Edberg, (Boris) Becker. I've gone through, you know, up to Agassi and (Roger) Federer.

"I can say I have played two generations of tennis players."

Ferreira also played American legend Pete Sampras a number of times. He said an off-the-cuff comment by Sampras years ago prompted Ferreira to work on improving different aspects of his game.

"He beat me the first four times." Ferreira said. "He told somebody that I was good but I didn't have anything great. I guess it inspired me to beat him a few times."

Ferreira ended up winning six of 13 career matches against Sampras.

"He said he hated to play me. There were times when I had to play him, he would walk by and shake his head and go 'Oh, no, not again'."

Agassi was a different story. Ferreira won't miss not having to play the eight-time Grand Slam winner. He is 0-11 against Agassi.

"I never once ever played him and walked off the court and felt like I played decent. I always felt I played terrible.

"It was the weirdest feeling. I could never play well against him," Ferreira said.