Rafter
Goes To Rome Despite Sore Shoulder May 2000 by Kim Trengrove (www.oncourt.com)
Patrick Rafter will arrive in Rome on Wednesday to prepare for the fourth Tennis
Masters, despite hurting his shoulder in a challenger event.
Rafter played the doubles of the Bermuda Challenger a week ago with good friend
Paul Kilderry and lost in the first round. He was alarmed after experiencing
soreness in his right shoulder, which he has been rehabilitating after
undergoing surgery last year to repair a torn rotator cuff.
The injury kept the two-time US Open champion from competitive tennis for almost
six months, but he returned to the circuit in late February and was able to play
doubles in Australia's quarter-final Davis Cup victory over Germany.
Rafter's manager and brother, Pete Rafter, said the recent injury was not as bad
as rumoured in some Australian newspapers. "He hasn't been doing the right
exercises and treatment since the Davis Cup," Pete Rafter said. "His
Melbourne physio gave him some stretching exercises to do which he has to do for
the rest of his life. He didn't really hurt his shoulder in Bermuda. He's just
got more pain than he usually experiences. Initially he was really worried, but
it's since settled down. It's all part of the rehabilitation."
Pete says Pat will get in some early practice in Rome with Andre Agassi and Pete
Sampras. The $2.95 million Tennis Masters begins on May 8, followed by the
Hamburg Tennis Masters on May 15, the World Team Championships and the French
Open. Rafter is hoping to play all these events.
Last year he became the first Australian to reach the finals in Rome since Rod
Laver won in 1971. Rafter was beaten by Gustavo Kuerten at the Foro Italica, a
stadium built under orders from Benito Mussolini. He then led Australia to its
first ATP World Team Championship in Dusseldorf since 1979 by winning three of
four matches in the round robin competition, including wins over Cedric Pioline,
Sampras and Thomas Enqvist.
Rafter's main goal this year is to help Australia win the Davis Cup for the
second year running. "He'll be shattered if he has to miss out on Davis
Cup," Pete Rafter said.
Rafter Needs To Have Fun
by Kim Trengrove (www.oncourt.com)
Pat Rafter, who is going on a skiing holiday in Canada with his girlfriend
before the European clay court season begins, needs to enjoy himself more
according to his brother, Pete.
"He has to enjoy himself off the court or it will be detrimental to
his tennis," he said. "Pat's a larrikin. He likes nothing better
than to go and have a drink with the boys. He's sacrificed all that."
Rafter has a little place outside Vancouver, and likes to spend time
with Canadian player Grant Connell. Rafter's model girlfriend, Lara Feltham,
will also join the skiing trip then the couple will head to Rafter's base
in
Bermuda for a challenger tournament on green clay.
He is competing in the doubles of the Bermuda Challenge with good friend
Paul Kilderry. "Pat gets nothing out of it," Pete
Rafter said. "He likes to give something back to the community."
He has also invited Australians Wayne Arthurs and Peter Tramacchi to train
with him in Bermuda.
As of Rafter's premature retirement plans, Pete said his brother's desire
to win and be involved in professional tennis is growing with each
tournament he plays. "I think he just saw a different side to life and
didn't particularly miss tennis," said Pete, who travels with his
brother throughout the year.Rafter was sidelined from tennis for six months
after a shoulder injury required surgery last year. "He took up
surfing and spent a lot of time back home with the family. He saw that
there was more to life than tennis."
Rafter returned to the circuit at Delray Beach in February and Pete noticed
a change with each tournament. "The longer he was playing tournaments,
the more he was getting into it," he said. "I've got a feeling
Davis Cup will rekindle his flame. He was down 6-2, 4-2, 15-40 against
Sebastien Grosjean at Miami.
He could so easily have said, 'Listen, I've had enough, I want to go
home.' His instincts told him to fight. It's still there. In many ways the
injury will prolong his career. He was getting stale before and burning
out mentally."
During the recent Australia versus Germany Davis Cup quarter-final tie
in Adelaide, Rafter down-played his chances at the French Open but said he
was a good bet for Wimbledon. "He's 100 percent fit now," his
brother said. "We can stop talking about the shoulder. In some ways
he's better than he was before. Stronger. When he came back to Australia
after Miami, the first thing he did was see the physio in Melbourne. They
said everything was going well. He wanted to hear what they had to say
about it. He used to do a lot of work on his serve in practice. He's not
doing that right now because he doesn't want to upset the shoulder."
Rafter's shoulder isn't the only part of him that has strengthened
since winning the first of two US Opens in 1997. "Pat's got to a stage
now where he's not going to take shit from anyone," Pete said.
"There are certain
aspects of tennis he doesn't care for. A lot of tennis players. There
are plenty of wankers out there."
St Patricks Fire 7 April 2000 Newsweek
Pat Rafter returns to Adelaide this week in an unaccustomed role
in unusual circumstances. The spearhead of previous Davis Cup campaigns is a
member of the supporting cast this time - the doubles player on the deuce
side - pondering his future and hoping for a golden goodbye.
Traditionally, Adelaide is one of the starting points for Australia's hectic
international tennis season. Memorial Drive, the venue for the second round
Davis Cup tie against Germany this week, has been the scene for some of Rafter's
more memorable moments.
In January, 1997, during the Australian Hardcourt Championships, he overturned a
line call in his favour against Andrei Cherkasov to give the Russian a
match-winning lead in a tiebreaker - an action so unheard of it subsequently won
him an ATP Tour sportsmanship award.
Three months later, with the Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic
wrapped up in two of the scheduled three days, Rafter and his team-mates took a
raucous tour through Adelaide's bars finishing, in at least one
case, at 5 am.
Hung over and playing like it, through the first set of this dead rubber against
David Rikl, Rafter later candidly acknowledged being under the weather. Bass
Strait on Boxing Day would be no more tempestuous than the reception for this
admission. The storm lasted 48 hours.
If there was a lesson from this, Davis Cup Captain John Newcombe
admitted, it was that you can sometimes be too honest for your own good.
In this instance, it's a quality that translates into charisma, or, more
accurately, humanity, a word you don't read in many sports stories. Crowds warm
to Rafter, not just because of how he plays, but the way he carries himself.
For the longest time, it would seem that Rafter's results would always lag
behind his character and ability. Three years ago, the former caught up with the
latter. Before long, he had won consecutive US Opens. In 1999, there would be no
sequel. It turned out to be quite a story, anyway. Lost in the euphoria of the
Davis Cup campaign and the rise of Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt, was an
extraordinary five-week period when Rafter further underlined his name in this
country's tennis history. It began with his first semi-final appearance at
Wimbledon, continued with a gripping comeback from two sets down against
American Todd Martin to seal the Davis Cup quarter final, and culminated in his
claiming the number one world ranking - the first by an Australian since
Newcombe in 1974. Within a month, Rafter's body would cry "uncle".
After four enthralling sets against Cedric Pioline of France in the first round
of the US Open, Rafter was forced to concede when his shoulder could take no
more.On October 24, Melbourne surgeon, Greg Hoy operated to repair a
posterior rotator cuff tear in Rafter's right shoulder. to that point, it had
been a year typifying the competitive and emotional rollercoaster that Rafter's
career had been. The irony was that even as a non-combatant, he would still
experience the best and worst the game had to give.
Asked to name his best memories, Rafter skips the US Open victories. "I've
had some amazing runs in Davis Cup. I've had my best times in Davis Cup: my
celebrations, the celebrations we have and the times we go out and mix as a
team". This was doubly so for the semi-final against Russia in his home
town of Brisbane last September. "I really got a lot out of the tie. We had
the best celebration we ever had. I didn't play. But I was on the sideline, all
day, and helping trying to be part of the team, having dinners and talking to
the guys and psyching them up as much as I could. It was one of the best moments
I've ever had. It was just great to see the guys come out and do it. Lleyton and
Wayne. I just felt so great for them, so happy for them, I got as much enjoyment
out of that as if I'd been out there myself."
When Australia, with Philippoussis leading the charge, met France in the final
at Nice, Rafter was back in Queensland sitting tight - a distant spectator
juggling mixed emotions."It was very tough. I found it hard to sit back and
watch it. At the same time I was sitting there, I was willing the boys on,
wanting them to win, and feeling like I wanted to be part of it at the same
time".
Davis Cup tennis had been the resurrection of Rafter's career. The stone was
rolled back with an emotional comeback against the ubiquitous Pioline, on grass,
at Sydney's White City in February 1997. Then and since, Rafter had risen to the
demands of playing for his country and, in turn, rejoiced that this could bring
out his best. And now, over the first weekend of December, 1999, his best was
not needed. "It was really hard," Rafter said quietly. "I was
speaking to them (team-mates) after each match, talking to them the whole time.
Maybe I should have gone over to France, I'm sure I would have got into it. I
found it very tough on the sidelines." Also lost in the celebrations of
1999 was the fact that Rafter and Philippoussis, his former doubles partner, if
not mending fences, had at least picked up tools. Their falling out occurred
during and after Rafter's 1997 US Open victory. It was an unspoken argument,
ignited by jealousies, misunderstanding and cultural difference, which prompted
Philippoussis, briefly, to declare himself unavailable for national selection.
At some point last year, even if differences were not fully resolved, there was
an agreement to disagree.
"Yeah," Rafter says, "we still have our ups and downs, but we're
starting to clear 'em up and we're starting to understand each other a little
better. Maybe I've misunderstood Mark a bit in the past, and maybe I've been a
little bit critical of him, but I'm pretty passionate about the Davis Cup and I
guess I like to see that expressed a little bit more, and Mark doesn't like to
express it as much as I do."I've had a lot of good chats with him recently.
We're definitely different personalities, there's no doubt about it, but we're
definitely on better terms than we used to be".
The acquaintance will be renewed at Adelaide this week, with Rafter having
answered at least some of the questions about his recovery. He won two matches
at his first tournament at Delray Beach, Florida, then stumbled the following
week, a first-round loser in the unseasonal chill of Scottsdale, Arizona, to
Spaniard, Juan Antonio Ferrero. "I came off the court thinking I
shouldn't", he said of a commitment to play the following week. "Shy
go through the motions? Why just go out there and lose three and three. You
think, what am I doing?" In such circumstances improvement can be found in
defeats, as much or more than victory. The following week, Rafter took Alex
Corretja, the eventual champion, to three sets over two hours and 36 minutes in
their second round match at Indian Wells. Late last month, he pushed Andre
Agassi hard in a straight set fourth round loss at Key Biscayne. But with his
recovery still in the early stages, Rafter cannot prepare himself to the extent
that he would like. "The hardest thing for me is training," Rafter
says. "I couldn't put in the hours on court. It's very difficult for me to
get in and train and do the hard work
In his time off court during the summer past, Rafter had the chance to consider
life after tennis, and what it might be like. It was treatment, a wedding (Jamie
Packer's), a film studio launch (Foxtel), some skindiving and some surfing. He
is 27, well past the mean age on the pro tour. It was not so much a look into
the future. More of a glance.
"Yeah, I reckon it's coming closer," Rafter says of the end of his
career. "there's a few things I would love to achieve, and then if I happen
to achieve them, I'd be very happy to do things on the side and not be so
heavily involved with tennis. I don't think I'd say I'm going to retire, I'd
probably just wean myself out of the game and if I wanted to come back when I
was 35 and have a hit of doubles then I'd love to do that."Those few things
are the Davis Cup defence, and the Sydney Olympics. In victory, as an
individual, at the US Open and other lesser events, Rafter as been gracious and
restrained. He travels with his brother Peter, but alone among his
contemporaries, is largely coach and entourage-free.
Victory, as a team member, be it Davis Cup or Olympics, might be something else
again.
Rafter Ready If Arthurs Falters Kim Trengove (Oncourt.com; 04/06/2000)
Pat Rafter is gearing up for a possible singles 'saviour' role if things don't
go Australia's way in the Davis Cup quarter-final against Germany tomorrow.
Rafter is playing doubles with Mark Woodforde on Saturday, but he
may also step into the reverse singles if Wayne Arthurs looks to be performing
below par.
Arthurs, who was summoned to the Australian side after Mark Philippoussis
withdrew with a calf injury, plays Germany's No.1 player David Prinosil in the
second singles rubber. The opening match is between Adelaide born Lleyton Hewitt
and lowly ranked emergency player, Michael Kohlmann. Players can be substituted
an hour before the reverse singles on Sunday.
"I'm prepared for anything at the moment," Rafter said."If the
boys are playing well, I'm happy not to play." Australian Davis Cup captain
John Newcombe said he was relieved to have Rafter as an option. "If the
match is live going into Sunday, it's fantastic having Pat there as a back up
player and we'll just have to make that judgment at the time. But it will be one
that we'll all make together," Newcombe said. "It's not a bad position
to be in."
Rafter reiterated his enjoyment of Davis Cup competition. "I really just
enjoy the lead up, playing the tournaments and talking about it with Newcombe
and (Tony) Rochey and all the little things that go on. When you're actually
here, hanging out with the boys and hopefully celebrating."
Rafter joked about over-celebrating on Saturday night if the Australians won the
doubles. "That would be a stupid thing to do," he laughed.
"Actually, I can." Newcombe nudged his star player in the ribs at the
media conference. "No," he ordered.
Rafter Relishes Return To Davis Cup by Marie McInerney
ADELAIDE, April 4 (Reuters) - Former world number one Pat Rafter said on Tuesday
he was enjoying his return to Davis Cup competition after missing Australia's
title win against France last year. Rafter is set to mark his return after
almost a year's absence from Davis Cup in Australia's doubles team in their
quarter-final against Germany starting on Friday.
``I'm just happy to be back in the Davis Cup, it's been a while,'' Rafter told a
media conference. The pin-up boy of Australian tennis, Rafter missed Australia's
3-2 win over France in the Davis Cup final in Nice last December while he was
recovering from shoulder surgery. ``It's something I'm really looking forward
to, playing again,'' he said.``I really enjoy going out with the boys, hanging
out, training hard and going for dinners, and doing all the Davis Cup things,''
he said. ``I'll fit back in really comfortably, I think.'' The Australian team,
under non-playing captain John Newcombe and coach Tony Roche, is known for its
camaraderie and also for its penchant for partying.
Rafter confessed to playing a dead Davis Cup rubber while still drunk in
Adelaide in 1997 after celebrating with his teammates the night before. The
former two-time U.S Open champion is set to play doubles on Saturday with
veteran Mark Woodforde, but he may also take advantage of recent changes to
Davis Cup rules and take over Wayne Arthurs' place in the reverse singles on
Sunday.
``I'm just going to commit myself to doubles right now and there's always the
option now, with this new format, that singles may play a part,'' Rafter said.
Rules for the prestigious men's teams event were altered this year to allow any
nominated team member to play in the reverse singles of a tie.
What a Match! 28 March 2000 Ericsson Open Julian Bristow (www.oncourt.com)
Andre Agassi has hit good form (unfortunately at the wrong time for Patrick Rafter) since
the Australian Open in January at the Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida today. Agassi beat Rafter 6-4, 6-4, in a fantastic game of tennis played by two of the world's best players in front of a full house.
Both players played hard and fast tennis with some of the longest rallies seen on the ATP
Tour so far this year. One rally in the tenth game of the first set had 28 shots made, with
Rafter eventually making an unforced error into the net on his backhand.
Agassi's return of serve was awesome today, squashing Rafter's chances of easy points. His
deep and fast returns putting Rafter on the defensive immediately, but the Aussie soon turned them to his advantage by forcing Agassi all over the court and making him work and earn every
point he scored.
Rafter lost the first set when Agassi broke his serve in the ninth game and went on to hold serve for a 6-4 first set win. Then with Agassi on fire early in the second set, broke Rafter again in his first service game of the second set. Rafter had his chances in the eighth game of the second set with seven break points but failed to
capitalise, and Agassi went on to wrap up the huge match in straight sets.
Aussie Hangs On To Outlast Grosjean
26 March 2000 ATP
Patrick Rafter produced a battling performance to pull out a thrilling 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sebastien
Grosjean. The diminutive Frenchman is one of the fastest players on the Tour and for a set and a half his quick feet and even quicker thinking made
the usually athletic Rafter look slow and lumbering. But the Aussie
never gives in and his play got better and better as the match wore on. By the third set it was Grosjean who was beginning to look tired,
having been run ragged by a resurgent Rafter. Grosjean broke the Rafter serve in the first set, his lethal
combination of crunching returns and clever passing shots often leaving Rafter stranded at the net. When Grosjean broke again in
the opening game of the second set, the Australian looked dead and buried But Rafter never knows when he is beaten, and though his missed three break points in the next game, his level of play was
on the rise and he eventually got back on serve by breaking Grosjean to love for 4-4. By now the capacity Stadium crowd were on cheering every point, assured of an evening to remember.
Another break in the second set ensured the pair were level at one set-all and with Rafter's confidence growing with every game, the Australian broke again for a 3-1 lead in the decider and never looked back, showing remarkably few signs of fatigue given that he has only recently returned to the Tour after a long injury lay-off.
But Rafter admits that his shoulder takes longer to recover from long matches than he would like. He has a day off to recuperate before a possible fourth round meeting with Andre Agassi, should the
top-seed get past Andre Pavel tomorrow.
Patrick Rafter Defeats Max Mirnyi Ericsson Open
March 2000 ATP KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) - A tough draw and tender shoulder are keeping
Patrick Rafter from being too optimistic about his chances in the Ericsson Open.
Rafter, seeking his first tournament title since June, looked impressive Friday
night in his opening match, a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Max Mirnyi.But Rafter is still recovering from rotator cuff surgery last October. The
shoulder is slowly improving, he said, but he's wary of getting too excited
about his game.``I try to contain that because I know the next day could be a bad day,'' he
said. ``The shoulder is a day-by-day thing. I can wake up and it can be quite
sore. If I get a couple of back-to-back matches, that's when I can find it
getting sorer and sorer a lot quicker.''
Rafter hasn't advanced beyond the third round at Key Biscayne since 1994, and he
faces a difficult path to the final this year. As the No. 15 seed, he'll face
1999 runner-up Sebastien Grosjean next, and a possible matchup against top seed
Andre Agassi looms in the fourth round. Rafter said early-round matches have become tougher because the ATP Tour now
requires all top players to participate in Master Series events, such as the
Ericsson.
``It's great how everyone is playing them this year,'' he said. ``It makes it
feel like a Grand Slam, so every match is very competitive.''
A beard and mustache have changed Rafter's appearance, but against Mirnyi he
looked like the same player who won the U.S. Open in 1997 and 1998. His serve
was so effective that he won 27 of 30 points on his first serve, and he hit 15
volley winners.
The victory improved Rafter's record to 4-3 since returning from the injury,
which sidelined him for six months.
``That's probably as well as I've played,'' he said. ``The more I play, the
stronger the shoulder is going to get.''
Patrick Rafter got the better of Belarus' Max Mirnyi, defeating his fellow serve
and volleyer in 6-4, 6-2. With both men advancing at every opportunity, it was a
race to the net, with Rafter's athleticism and accurate passing
shots proving the decisive factor. He won the first set 6-4 then broke early in
the second for a 3-1 lead which he never relinquished. The Australian threatened
again at 5-2, holding one matchpoint which Miryni saved when a Rafter lob went
fractionally long. When the second matchpoint came he made no mistake.
Rafter said afterwards that it was the best he had played since he began to
suffer shoulder problems during the French Open last year, and hinted that he is
finally recovering the form and confidence that saw him take back to back US
Open titles in 1997 and 1998.
Hard To Rock On March 2000 Bill Dwyre ( Los Angeles
Times Sports Editor)
Tennis star Patrick Rafter has a problem. All his working parts don't work. He
is 27, has more rock-star appeal than most rock stars and has played the game on
a level that brought him to the No. 1 ranking for a short stint last July and
also to U.S. Open titles in 1997 and '98.
He has tasted success' ultimates, has dreamed them and lived them, and now he is
facing the reality that he may not be able to get them back. The next stop in
his search will be Indian Wells, where things really get
serious. It is a tournament that awards $2.45 million in prize money. The
champion gets $400,000.
More important, it is perhaps the sixth most prestigious tennis tournament in
the world, after the four Grand Slam events and the Ericsson Open in Miami. A
case could be made that it is tied for fifth with the Ericsson, now that Charlie
Pasarell has made his $75-million dream into spectacular brick and mortar called
Indian Wells Garden. Indian Wells isn't Tuesday night in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
where losses can be explained away as "getting in some matches." The
lights are brighter; the headlines, like the money, much bigger. Were these the
best of times, as 1997 through the summer of '99 were for Rafter, Indian Wells
would be his ideal stage. He would be a superstar among superstars. His chances
of winning would be as much a roll of the dice, the luck of a well-timed ace or
passing shot, as anything. He could swagger alongside the game's top guns and
know that, while Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov have what
it takes and expect to be around when they are taking the trophy pictures, so
does he. Rafter's swagger started to disappear nearly a year ago, in the third
round of the French Open. He had played with a sore right shoulder for some
time, but this time, the pain screamed that it might be serious. He told his
coach, Tony Roche."I said to Rochey," Rafter recalled, "that I
might be in a bit of trouble with my shoulder tonight. He said to get it warmed
up and see how it felt after 20
minutes."
It felt good enough to play but not good enough to win. He lost in four sets to
Fernando Meligeni of Brazil.
At this stage, the macho thing to do, and there is plenty of macho in the male
Australian species, was to play through the injury. It would heal. If it didn't,
take a few days off and then crank it up again.
Thus went the summer of '99, right up until Aug. 30, opening day of the U.S.
Open. Sampras, apparently fit and appearing primed to make a run at a record
13th Grand Slam event title, had shocked the tennis world in the afternoon by
announcing he had injured his back in practice and was out for perhaps two
months. Rafter, the defending champion, was in the featured night match, against
French veteran Cedric Pioline.
"It was in the first set, serving up a break at 4-3," Rafter said.
"I knew something bad had happened. I thought I was ready. I had told the
media I was fine. I even took the week before off, just to make
sure." But this time, the tendons in his serving shoulder had
partially torn, and even though he kept playing and actually got within two
points of the match in the fourth set, reality was setting in. "I kind of
floated through it out there," he said. "I hit a lot of flat serves
because the kick serve hurt so bad, and a lot of people watching said later that
they thought I was playing great." But early in the fifth set, he walked to
the net, told Pioline he was sorry but
he couldn't go on, and left U.S. Open officials reeling with the loss of two of
their main attractions in less than eight hours. Ironically, the consensus at
that point was that Sampras' injury was much more serious, much more of a threat
to his career, and that Rafter would be back quickly and be a force in the
winter tournaments in Europe. Instead, Sampras returned in time to win the
season-ending ATP Tour World Championship and Rafter had rotator cuff surgery
Oct. 24 in Melbourne, Australia. Now, he is mostly scared, and frustrated.
"I even am careful about sleeping on my right side," he said. "I
think about things like that." He knows to be the Rafter of old, he has to
train hard, but he can't without the fear of re-injury. "I need to work,
and work long and hard, to get my game to where it was. I'm not a natural. I'm
not Pete Sampras." Rafter lost in the first round at the Scottsdale
tournament to a young Spaniard named Juan Carlos Ferrero, and he knows that
there will be more of those losses ahead. But he has a plan. "In a few
months," he said, "it will get to the stage where I'll have to go hard
and see what's there. I will go out and play as best I can and hope for some
good results and hope that the healing happens."
But if it doesn't?
"You also can get to a stage," he said, "where your whole career
has to be readdressed." Helping Rafter with positive thoughts through this
fairly negative period are goals and family. His goals are participation in the
final round of a successful Davis Cup defense and participation in the Summer
Olympics, which begin in Sydney a week after the U.S. Open ends. His family is
mom and dad and eight siblings. Rafter is the third youngest of the nine.
"My family has always been with me, keeping me straight," he said. He
talked about how growing up in the Northern Queensland town of Mount Isa,
population 18,000 and also home of Greg Norman, was the best
lesson in perspective ever. His brother Peter, who travels with him, agreed.
"We didn't have lots of money, but we never lacked for anything,
either," he said. "The tennis camp trips my father used to take us on
[are] still a good memory. We shared everything, including each other's
clothes."
It was at one of those outings that Peter, three years older than Patrick, saw
the future of tennis in his family and, at first, didn't like it much.
"I remember the day I quit the game," Peter Rafter said. "It was
the first time Pat beat me. He was 12, I was 15, and he beat me. I was so mad I
smashed two rackets." Patrick Rafter's reaction to that story? He laughed heartily."He said I was 12 the first time I beat him? I was a lot bloody younger
than that." So even if the classic Patrick Rafter kick serve is gone
for a while, till it stops hurting so much to hit it, and even if the heights he
once reached may never be reached again, Rafter has a lot to fall back on,
including a personality and perspective that is among the best in the
game.
Thursday at Scottsdale, when Sampras pulled out of the featured match against
Alex Corretja because of a sore back muscle, leaving tournament officials with
nothing to offer ticket-buyers except the announcement of a
default, Rafter was asked if he would go out and play an exhibition pro set
against an agreeable Corretja. Virtually any other player in Rafter's condition
would have declined. Rafter said yes.
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times and Total Sports Inc. All Rights Reserved.