Better come clean right at the start. Like most tennis observers, I believed Mark Philippoussis was Australia’s great white hope, the only player with the physical potential to land a grand slam title. I was wrong. But I was in good company, Patrick Rafter for one. “I never thought I’d win a Slam,” Rafter admitted the day after claiming the US Open and bolting to number three in the world, the highest-ranked Aussie since the carefree days of Newk & co. ‘I always dreamed about it, but never thought I’d win one. When I do actually think about it more and more it’s like, this is freaky.’

    Well, yeah, freaky is one way to put it. Freaky reversal of fortune. Rafter was ranked 62 at the start of the year, a lowly number six in the Aussie pecking order. He hadn’t won a pro singles tournament since his first: a Wimbledon tune-up in Manchester back in 1994. He showed great fire in Davis Cup, and in reaching the semis of the French Open, (the toughest event for a serve-volleyer) but he’d bombed in five finals in 1997.

    Rafter’s leap of faith came after his straight-sets demolition of world #2 Michael Chang in the Open semis, just as Chang, the previous year’s finalist, had firmed as the clear favourite after Pete Sampras’s shock upset at the hands of the walking toothbrush, Petr Korda. Looking every bit the high priest of the serve-and-volley game, Rafter’s near-flawless 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory had Carl Chang, Michael’s stunned brother, staring at an empty court for half an hour after the match. A sense of destiny enveloped Rafter after this match and he backed up his defeat of the world’s toughest returner with a defeat of the world’s biggest server, Greg Rusedski, 6-3, 6-2,4-6, 7-5 in the final, becoming Australia’s first grand slam winner since – all together now – Pat Cash at Wimbledon in 1987.

The Cash Factor

    The parallels with Cash are so inevitable we may as well get them out of the way first. Both took the serve-volley game to its apotheosis. Their playing styles are so similar that even Cash finds it ‘scary’. But Rafter wields a much bigger serve than Cash – as Cash admits – and has worked harder for more solid groundstrokes, a necessity in an era of master blasters. Little separates them at the net. Cash had perhaps more instinct and feel on the volley, Rafter is a bit more physical. Cash may be the purer athlete (he was also a gifted junior footballer), but was prone to shocking injury and emotional turbulence. Rafter, while not escaping his share of injuries, may prove to be the more physically and mentally durable.

     A grand slam title always seemed to be Cash’s destiny. Pundits picked him to win Wimbledon six months out. Not so Rafter. He’d later admit that even well into the tournament he was thinking: “Everything’s going great . . . but these guys can kick my bum as well.”

    Cynics will say that Rafter’s win says more about the attrition rate of top players than about the calibre of the cast of unknowns who have fought out grand slam finals in this strange tennis year (Carlos Moya in the Australian Open, shock French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten, Cedric Pioline at Wimbledon, and Rafter-Rusedski at the US Open). True, Rafter didn’t beat any legends in New York (while Cash beat Mats Wilander, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl for the Wimbledon title), but that doesn’t mean the standard of tennis is anya weaker. If Rafter is perceived as an overachiever, he’ll just have to cry all the way to the bank. And he prefers being the underestimated underdog to being a wondrously talented flop. Don’t think he’ll be swapping places with Goran Ivanisevic.

    In several ways Rafter's victory is arguably more impressive than Cash’s. firstly, it was such a mental victory. Rafter had no real finals success from which to draw confidence, and his record at the US Open was the worst of all the grand slams. Cash had reached two grand slam semifinals and an Australian Open final before his Wimbledon breakthrough.

    Second, Cash won the biggest title but on the specialised surface and the one that gives most advantage to Australians because of their greater exposure to grass courts. Rafter enjoyed no such surface advantage. Just about every country with a tennis court has hard courts, making it the fairest competitive surface.  Far more players are capable of taking the US Open than Wimbledon. Says Darren Cahill, a contemporary of Cash’s and a former US Open semifinalist who commentated for Star TV at the Open: “This was the biggest achievement by an Australian player in my time. The match against Chang was the best match I’ve seen an Australian play. It was faultless I was supposed to be commentating and I didn’t know what to say.”

    Steve Casey, the Sydney-based communications manager for the ATP tour, was also in New York and similarly transfixed: “In respect of surface, this was probably the best two weeks of tennis an Aussie has played in 25 years. Cash played incredibly well at Wimbledon, but the US Open demands a more complete game. I would put Rafter in the same class as Cash. But you could say the US Open is a tougher event to win.”

    Rafter was 14 years old when Cash scaled the ivy-green walls of Wimbledon and did a Crocodile Dundee over the heads of spectators to make his way to his father, trainer, girlfriend, psychologist and his ecstatic coach Ian Barclay. The goosebumps on Barclay’s arms were so prominent you could pick them on the tv. From that moment, the dream was embedded deep in Rafter. He admired Cash’s athleticism and emulated his net-rushing style, even though, with his puny frame, it made more sense for him to play like Michael Chang. The sixth of nine children, Rafter tirelessly trained on the sunbaked courts of Brisbane with his older brothers and father Jim, who revered the Aussie greats and approved of his son’s role model because Cash was the modern embodiment of the great Australian heritage.

    Cash’s bold game wasn’t the only feature of his idol that Rafter emulated. Note the hairstyle. Note the post-victory Tarzan climb into the players’ friends box, which manages to look both spontaneous and like the ritualistic fulfillment of the dream that took seed 10 years ago, like some sort of weird homage to Cash.  All this, of course did not escape the notice of the original, who, watching from at home in London, was awash with a sense of déjà vu. “I’d seen that somewhere before,” he said, bemused and impressed.

The Philippoussis Factor

    Rafter crashed our consciousness by reaching the third round at Wimbledon in 1993 as a raw qualifier and taking a set from defending champ Andre Agassi on centre court. No sooner did he complete his bow to the Royal Box than he was anointed the next saviour of Australian tennis. For 18 months he carried the load without complaint. But by the end of the 1995 Australian Open, Rafter was all hyped out. In the fourth round of that Open, he had crashed to eventual winner Agassi 6-4 6-2 6-0 in a ridiculously hyped encounter. It scooped the highest-ever tennis ratings for Channel 7, it was a sellout and it was great copy (at least until the score came in). It was great for everyone, except Pat Rafter. Not until he defeated Agassi in the quarter-finals of the US Open did Rafter fully recover from this loss. Soon after it he was sidelined by a serious wrist injury that pretty much wiped out his whole year. Rafter was a first-round loser at the French Open and Wimbledon and didn’t reach a final on the 1995 ATP tour. He underwent wrist surgery in October and ended the year ranked 68 (down from 21 the previous year).

    Meanwhile, Mark Philippoussis, the ticking time bomb, exploded. Only 18, the intimidating young Melburnian blazed from 307 to 32 in the 1995 rankings, made 3 singles finals, won two doubles finals and ended the year ranked 32. By the 1996 Australian Open, his eclipse of Rafter was complete. While the Queenslander limped off stage with injury (and was to miss the next ten weeks), Philippoussis ignited the tournament with a straight-sets upset of Sampras in the third round.

    Philippoussis’ occupation of the spotlight gave Rafter the opportunity to reflect on and remake his game and career in relative anonymity. While Rafter initially found the level of notoriety and adulation hard to take, a part of him was also privately stung at how quickly he was replaced.

    Philippoussis has been of more tangible benefit as well. Starting in 1995, the two formed a successful doubles combo and Mark’s vaulting confidence surely rubbed off on his partner. Rafter was quick to acknowledge his ‘great mate’ after his US success. “He’s a big reason why I’ve done so well,” Rafter said. “With Mark pushing me, along with the other guys, there’s no reason why more titles aren’t down the road. Mark and his coach Gavin Hopper have been really helpful in including me in their workouts. We do a lot of drill work and while Flip takes a break, I’ll move in and Gavin works me all over the court.”

    Cash was quick to observe the benefits of regular practice against the most intimidating player on the circuit: “Pat’s got so much better from the back of the court. I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that he practises a lot with Philippoussis. He’s had to improve his groundstrokes. Plus it’s helped his ability to break serve and put pressure on an opponent."

    While Rafter has now overtaken his friend, there is consensus that, just as Philippoussis was good for Rafter, Rafter's success will work wonders for Philippoussis.

The Newk and Roche Factor

 Rafter's tennis traditionalist father Jim was determined that his son would not sell out to double-handed backhands and multi-segmented forehands from five metres behind the baseline.  If he was going to be a tennis champion, it would be in the time-honoured Australian style: intensely physical, athletic, whole-hearted attacking tennis. Said Rafter recently of the long shadow cash by Aussie greats Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe et al: “I was just born when they were finishing their careers. But I heard a lot about them. I thought they were some sort of gods or something in Australia. My father always talked about those guys.”

    It may be no coincidence that Rafter came of age under the guidance of two of those legends: Davis Cup captain John Newcombe and coach Tony Roche. For years as a youngster he had persisted with their style of play; serving and volleying and charging to the net to face countless blistering returns and scornful passing shots. Like death by a thousand cuts. When his own self-belief was depleted, Rafter ran on the belief of others – his father in particular. But he stayed true to his tennis instincts. Australian instincts. Newcombe and Roche repaid that faith in kind when they plucked Rafter out of the doldrums last February (first-round loser in the Australian Open, ranking of 64, zippo form), and threw him into Davis Cup singles duty against defending champions France on grass at White City.

    Against Cedric Pioline (who would reach the Wimbledon final months later), Rafter made a comeback of Cash-like proportions, 3-6 6-7 6-4 7-5 6-4. It was the first such comeback of his career, it fuelled the Aussies to a 4-1 victory, and it turned his year (and career) around. Later Rafter admitted he would never have won that match without Newcombe exhorting him at each change of ends. “I said to him that this was going to be a five-set match (when he was down 2 sets),” Newk related. “When you’re down and you look as though you’re out, you’ve gotta believe, you’ve gotta dig deep, you’ve gotta fight. You’ve gotta say, “I’m not leaving this court unless there’s blood all over it.”

    Months later at the US Open, Rafter recognized that win as the moment when he started to vindicate the belief that others had in him: “I probably owe my whole year to them [Newcombe and Roche]. The guys actually had more confidence in me than I did myself.”

The Archetypal Aussie

    Rafter's conversation is sprinkled with so many ‘mates’ that at first he comes across like one of those embarrassing professional Aussies you meet overseas, the ones who talk like they have a blowfly up their nose. But it’s really no act. Rafter is a throwback to the way Australian sport heroes once were and the way some of us like to think they still are. Short on sophistication but big on old-fashioned G&D [guts & determination]. Laconic, non-political, anti-intellectual. In his public pronouncements Rafter is open and cordial but never deep. He reduces everything to the most basic, even frivolous, level.

    On how he turned around his finals losing streak: “I was sick and tired of losing finals.” On hype and the pressure to perform: “The pressure thing can be a problem.” On his sex-symbol status: “No complaints.” On how to beat Sampras: “Maybe punch him in the head at thechange of ends.”

    The reluctance to take himself too seriously is another Australian trait. If you have to be a trash-talking egomaniac to succeed at the top level of sport, someone forgot to tell Rafter. Above all, he is determined to stay a good bloke. “I don’t want to change from this experience,” he said in his most profound sound-bite. “If I fall to 50 in the world and I’m happy, it’s better than being #1 and being a pain in the ass.” In his excitement at winning the US Open, he forgot to pick up his cheque for $US650,000 (not true –Mandy). Is this kid unaffected or what?

    Rafter may be uncomplicated, but he’s not stupid. 18 months ago, when he was  ‘in the depths of despair’, according to a tennis insider, Rafter severed relations with IMG because he felt he wasn’t getting enough attention from them (perhaps not without reason: he was injured, off-form ranked in the 60s and looked to have burnt out too early). Rafter felt IMG had lost faith in him, but his family never did. Enter brother Steve, who has an accountancy practice in Maroochydore. When the time came to renegotiate contracts with Prince and Reebok, Steve advised his younger brother to hold off, rather than sign from a position of weakness. Use the gear gratis if need be. Patrick heeded the advice, in one of his smarter career moves. The recently resigned contracts were worth 15 to 20 times the amount offered earlier this year.

The Playboy

    Chang and Sampras wasted no time in administering a butt-kicking to Rafter the next chance they got (both beat him in four sets in the Davis Cup semi-finals in Washington). Sampras was even more ruthless in the final of the zillion-dollar Grand Slam Cup in Munich (where, in a real tennis oxymoron, Rafter walked away the ‘loser’ with a cheque for $A1.5 million). Rafter had anticipated this. That the top players in the world were so fired up to beat him was a real mark of respect for his abilities. But there’s a bit more needle to it. Rafter is not just a serious rival for the big titles, but a rival for the big commercial dollars.

    Sampras has been saying for years that he just wants respect and recognition as a good player and agood bloke who sticks up for tennis tradition, yet this upstart Rafter is congratulated for all this after one grand slam. Chang is a hard sell outside Asia. Agassi’s heartthrob image is in bad need of a makeover. Rafter is eminently marketable. He has no competition in the looker stakes. He has reintroduced good old sex appeal to men’s tennis (remember Bjorn Borg, Vitas Gerulaitis and Guillermo Vilas – men who actually tried to appeal to women?). Rafter attracts thousands through the turnstiles, mostly of the young and female variety, he sells shirts and shoes, he draws tv viewers.

    Few media reports out of America neglected to mention Rafter’s looks. Sports Illustrated tagged him ‘the Australian dreamboat Pat Rafter’. Even the acerbic JP McEnroe introduced Rafter as the ‘handsome young Australian’ when calling the Agassi match. American writer Gene Scott raved: “If tennis can’t market Rafter as the game’s next headliner, the game doesn’t deserve him. His smooth bronze face punctuated by dark eyes is matinee idol material.” Distinguished tennis writer Richard Evans wrote: “He will quickly become the kind of open, charming, sexy superstar the game so badly needs.”

    In this respect, the 24-year old Rafter represents the revival of another, thought-to-be-dying breed: that of the tennis playboy. From all reports, he plays the field as well as he plays the net. When I asked the Woodies which player would be a good spokesman for the joys of the single tennis life, they replied – in unison – “Pat Rafter.” Since ending a 2-year relationship with aristocratic blonde Brit Alexandra Dixon a couple of years ago, Rafter has been footloose and fancy free – sort of. Edith, a 20-year old Dutch model described by one insider as a ‘free spirit’, has been on the scene for over a year but she has not been elevated to official girlfriend status. The two hook up in various cities around the world. In New York there was talk of another Dutch model, whose name was not Edith (Sonja – Mandy). Even international model Christy Turlington, if you believe the stories, left a note at the US Open saying she wished to get to know our Pat better. “There’s no shortage of women wanting to get close to him,” says our tennis insider. “But he doesn’t exactly jump from girl to girl.”

The Rankings

    How high can he go? Because he’d played so miserably at the end of 1996, Rafter needed every point he could get if he was to displace Chang at #2 by year’s end. In an effort to narrow the gap, he set himself a punishing five-week schedule after the US Open: Lyon, Stuttgart, Paris Indoors, Stockholm and the season-ender in Hannover, the ATP tour championships. When Chang faltered in this last event, Rafter closed his incredible year on a new high, ranked as the world’s #2 player.

     “I think I’d like to be #1,” Rafter says. “I never would have said that a while ago, but you never know. Things might happen again which I had never dreamed of . . .”