Wayne Ferreira, one of the great under-achievers and who last year nearly quit, may be best remembered in Britain as the guy who got away with giving a Wimbledon umpire a minute's abuse with the microphones full on. But yesterday one of the most volatile talents achieved the best success of his career against one of the most vaunted new stars in the longest final of the year.
Ferreira beat Lleyton Hewitt 7-6, 3-6, 67, 7-6, 6-2 in the Masters Series "I was ready to give up on the year and go on holiday," Ferreira said before the final. "Now I am ready to play for ever".
There were phases when it seemed he might have to. Two men who swing the ball from side to side but only move forwards only occasionally did so with a mixture of angles and a consistency which was mesmerising, but which after three hours caused a steady trickle of non-afficionados to the refreshment stalls.
Hewitt would have saved himself a lot of trouble had he not served a double fault while leading 5-1 and 30-30 in the third set. That triggered a bizarre Ferreira revival in which he saved six set points and served for the set at 6-5, and still managed to lose it.
When he did, hurling down his racket and breaking the frame, Ferreira's chances appeared to have been fractured with it. But Ferreira appeared to escape a code violation warning from the umpire and, to the general surprise, the comeback effort took more out of Hewitt, whose physical decline in the later stages he attributed to a virus.
Behind the South African's victory lies an altered attitude. By giving up expecting so much of himself the 29-year-old has concentrated on making the best of what limited time he has left on the tour.
Ferreira success was a minor setback to the "New Balls Please" campaign which has been promoting Hewitt as one of the successors to Pete Sampras. "There are a couple of good old ones too," Ferreira chortled. "But he has the ability to become number one - he has a good chance."
The defeat denied Hewitt the chance of emulating his girl-friend Kim Clijsters, who won the Sparkassen Cup in Leipzig and had left a message on the Aussie's mobile which he listened to as he came off court. It also left Hewitt just short of being a certainty for the eight-man year-end finals in Lisbon.
