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 ==