Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Marcos Baghdalis of Cyprus during their second-round match at the US Open on Wednesday

New York: After 15 years of professional tennis and 56 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, Wayne Ferreira remembers the trivia as much as the 15 career titles.

“I’ve beaten Daniel Vacek 14 times,” the 32-year-old South African said laughing about the Czech veteran who last played in 2003. “I keep telling him that every time I see him.”

Ferreira said goodbye to the men’s Tour on Wednesday following a 1-6, 5-7, 4-6 first-round loss to No. 4 seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia at the US Open, a match that took just over an hour and a half.

With his 33rd birthday coming up in two weeks, Ferreira said a Davis Cup tie against Greece later this month in Pretoria would be his last competitive match.

“I’ve had a bad shoulder for the last 10 months. Every time I wake up, a different thing hurts,” he said. “I just thought maybe it was more important to be able to walk when I’m 50.”

Besides his titles, including two in masters events, an Olympic silver in doubles, and nearly $10 million in tour earnings, Ferreira reached the semi-finals at the 1992 Australian Open, his best performance at a Grand Slam event. He reached the quarter finals of the US Open the same year.

But he seemed most proud in his 511 career victories of having beaten nearly everybody he played at least once and being able to tick off the names of his victims.

“I’ve played against two generations,” Ferreira said. “I’ve got a lot of good stories to keep dinner conversations going for a long time.” (AP)