Wayne Ferreira

Wayne Richard Ferreira (born 15 September 1971) is a South African tennis coach and a former professional player. Ferreira won 15 ATP singles titles and 11 doubles titles.

Professional career Ferreira turned professional in 1989. He won his first ATP doubles title in Adelaide in 1991.

1992 was Ferreira's breakthrough year on the ATP Tour. He started out by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open. In June he won his first ATP singles title at Queen's Club, London. His second singles title came just a few weeks later at Schenectady, New York. He also teamed-up with compatriot Piet Norval to win the men's doubles silver medal for South Africa at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Ferreira was defeated in the second round in the Olympic singles that year.

After 1993, when he didn't win any singles titles, in 1994 he won 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 as his partner. )

The biggest titles of Ferreira's career came at Toronto in 1996 and Stuttgart in 2000 (both Tennis Masters Series events).

Ferreira teamed up with Amanda Coetzer in 2000 to win the Hopman Cup 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's best Grand Slam results came at the Australian Open – where he reached the semifinals twice in 1992 and 2003.

Ferreira was 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. 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 and Jared Palmer (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, 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, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Björn Borg.

Though Ferreira retired from the professional tour in 2005, he still played on the Outback Champions Series senior tour. He finished both 2006 and 2007 fourth on points in that series.

Coaching Starting in 2020, Ferreira was the coach of Frances Tiafoe and became his primary coach, replacing coach Zack Evenden, until the end of the 2023 season when they split. During that period Tiafoe won two titles and became a top 10 player.

He coached Jack Draper on a trial basis, starting in May 2024, that ended prior to the 2024 US Open. During that period Draper won his maiden ATP title in June 2024.

He did a trial with Yosuke Watanuki during the 2025 Sunshine Double. He has coached Alexei Popyrin.

Since June 2026 he is coaching Brandon Nakashima. During that time Nakashima reached a Masters 1000 final.

Endorsements Ferreira played with and endorsed rackets made by Slazenger early in his career. He switched to Dunlop Sport 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) LegendGrand Slam (0–0)Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)ATP Masters Series (2–1)ATP Championship Series (1–4)ATP Tour (12–3)Titles by surfaceHard (11–4)Grass (1–2)Clay (1–1)Carpet (2–1)

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 2–6, 6–3, [11–9] in the Stanford Championships 2007– defeated Aaron Krickstein 6–3, 6–3 in The Oliver Group Champions Cup

Top 10 wins