Rafter's Set To Go Missing In Action
Sun Herald
Sunday December 2, 2001
SOME time between Christmas and new year, Pat Rafter will begin an around-Australia holiday with his girlfriend Lara Feltham, two neighbours from Bermuda and the visiting couple's two young daughters.
They will fly to the major cities visited so often on tennis business, but this trip will be different from any Rafter has made before.
``I'm sure he'll be doing a lot of soul-searching during that time," said Peter Rafter, the second eldest of Pat's six brothers and his travelling companion and unofficial tour manager since 1997.
``And the Australian Open time will be an indication of whether he's missing it or not."
Whenever and wherever they come to rest, it has been an incredible journey for Rafter Inc: from Mt Isa to coastal Queensland and then the world; from slow-burning sporting success to international fame to major charity work; from two years of Davis Cup disappointment to perhaps one last chance in the final against France today.
Parents Jim and Jocelyn and five of the seven remaining Rafter siblings Geoff is in Hong Kong and Maree recently gave birth to her first daughter will join Peter in the family seats in one corner of Rod Laver Arena when the tie is decided today. Whether or not this will be the end of the line, it qualifies as a significant stop.
Only for one brief stage along the way was there a noticeable change in the easygoing Rafter personality, and, apparently, it passed quickly.
``He had a little period in 94, 95 when he got to No20 in the world and he was going out with an English girl [Alexandra Dixon] at the time," Peter said during the week.
``Geoff, who was travelling with him, used to say to us how much Pat had changed, but we'd never been there to witness it, except one Christmas when he came home and we realised he had changed.
``But he realised through a bit of pressure from us that he had changed for the worse. He was just not being himself ... and he went through a period where he didn't want to spend much time with the family, and that came with dating her. But ... that was the only time. He really hasn't changed at all."
The opposite, clearly, is true of Rafter's life. He has earned career prizemoney of more than $US11.1million ($21.2million) and endorsements worth several times that amount. Among his 11 singles titles were two US Opens, and among his finals were two near-misses at Wimbledon.
He has spent the final years of his career in the top10, and the last week of July 1999 as the world's No1 player.
If immense popularity and a traditional style of net-rushing game have defined his career, it is largely injury that has curtailed it.
Who knows whether he would be taking this break had his shoulder not required surgery more than two years ago? Peter Rafter can only speculate, but believes that when the scalpel of Melbourne surgeon Greg Hoy sliced open that failing right shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff, it probably lopped a chunk from the serve-volleyer's career.
© 2001 Sun Herald