11-year gap

Ferreira finally returns to Melbourne semis

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Wayne Ferreira admitted he still had to solve the riddle of beating Andre Agassi after defeating fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 7-6 6-1 on Tuesday to reach his first grand slam semifinal in 11 years.

The unseeded South African, who advanced to the last four in Melbourne in 1992, continued his improbable run this year with a masterful display against the Spaniard to set up another clash with Agassi.

Ferreira has never beaten the American second seed, taking just one set off the him in 10 meetings stretching back to 1994.

"It's weird. Most of the time I've played him, it's been in situations like this where he has ended up winning the tournament," said Ferreira.

"This week, he's basically steamrolled through everyone. He's got an interesting game. It's tough to get any rhythm. You end up running a lot."

But Ferreira was upbeat about his chances, saying he had worked hard to improve his backhand.

"That has always been a very, very big factor against him -- he has absolutely dominated me on the backhand side," said the 31-year-old.

"If I can hit my backhand like I did today, move like I did, be able to stay in the point from the backhand side, things might be a lot different."

Ferreira said his decision to shift his priorities away from tennis and towards his family had, ironically, helped him become a better player.

"Before, it was more of a life-and-death situation, and there was nothing worse than losing a tennis match," he said.

"Now there (are) a lot of things worse than losing a tennis match. It's not as important and it's more just an enjoyment factor now."

Ferreira, who beat John McEnroe before losing to Stefan Edberg in the semi-finals here in 1992, showed all his new-found maturity and experience against Ferrero, fighting back from early breaks in the first two sets to take them on tiebreaks.

Ferreira is renowned for some astonishing five-set victories in Melbourne down the years, but it was all one-way traffic in the third set against Ferrero, whose game simply fell to pieces.

"The first game he played in the third set pretty much showed me that the wind had gone out of his sails," said Ferreira. "Mentally and physically he was done, throwing in the towel a bit."

 

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