The Open Era

Wayne Ferreira

South Africa · born Johannesburg, 1971 · right-handed · won his first title at Queen's in 1992

Wayne Ferreira
Maartmeester, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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6-3, 6-4

The 1992 Queen's final against Shuzo Matsuoka, his first tour title

2

Queen's finals in a row, 1992 and 1993

56

Consecutive Grand Slam singles events, 1991 to 2004, a record at the time

6

Career-high ranking, May 1995

15

ATP singles titles, with 11 in doubles

Playing career

Wayne Ferreira was born in Johannesburg in 1971. He was the world's top junior in doubles and won the 1989 US Open junior doubles, then played on the tour from 1989 to 2005. His first singles title came at Queen's in June 1992, aged 20, and two months later he and Piet Norval won Olympic doubles silver in Barcelona, South Africa's first Olympic medal since 1960.

He reached the Australian Open semi-finals in 1992 and 2003, rose to No. 6 in May 1995 and won 15 singles titles, among them the Masters events in Toronto in 1996 and Stuttgart in 2000, and 11 in doubles, several with Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He won the Hopman Cup with Amanda Coetzer in 2000 and played 56 Grand Slam singles events in a row, from the 1991 Australian Open to the 2004 US Open.

As a coach he helped Frances Tiafoe to two titles and the top 10, and has also worked with Alexei Popyrin and, from June 2026, Brandon Nakashima.

On grass

Queen's 1992Seeded 12th, he beat the seventh seed Brad Gilbert in the semi-finals and Shuzo Matsuoka 6-3, 6-4 in the final, his first title and only his second tour final
Queen's 1993Lost the final to Michael Stich 6-3, 6-4
Manchester 1994Lost the final to Patrick Rafter 7-6, 7-6
Wimbledon 1994Reached the quarter-finals, his best Wimbledon result, and lost to Todd Martin 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5
Wimbledon invitation doublesRunner-up with Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 2010 and with Sébastien Grosjean in 2015

Every grass title: 1

Show every title, tournament by tournament
Queen's Club
1992 Men's singles

Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions

"It's a great thrill to win my first tournament."

Ferreira after beating Shuzo Matsuoka in the Queen's Club final, UPI, June 1992

Anecdotes

The person behind the player.

Queen's, June 1992

Into the seeds

The title lifted him from No. 24 towards the top 16, in time for the Wimbledon seedings. "I should come close to being seeded and it will help a lot," he said.

Source: UPI

Barcelona, 1992

Back in the Games

South Africa had been banned from the Olympics from 1964 to 1988. Ferreira and Norval beat Goran Ivanišević and Goran Prpić in a five-set semi-final before losing to Boris Becker and Michael Stich. "There was a huge media reaction just because of the fact of us being back in the Olympics," he said.

Source: ITF

Barcelona, 1992

The balloon shooter

"We were quite naughty in Barcelona," he admitted. The South Africans had a balloon launcher they called a Winger and fired water balloons at other teams. "Nobody knew where it was coming from and we tried to hide it."

Source: ITF

On court and off

Moody and generous

He was sometimes accused of not trying his hardest and was seen as moody on court; a South African profile put that down to his desire to win and noted that he often played through pain. Off court he was described as relaxed and generous with his time.

Source: SouthAfrica.info

Queen's, June 2026

Back at Queen's as a coach

He joined Brandon Nakashima's team in time for Queen's in 2026, and in their first week together Nakashima reached the semi-finals. "It's nice to have his experience and his expertise in the corner," Nakashima said.

Source: ATP Tour

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Page updated 4 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.

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