BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Patrick Rafter is out to prove he's not a 'one-Slam wonder.'
(AP photo)
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MASON -- Hard-core tennis fans knew Patrick Rafter last year, when he entered the Great American Insurance ATP Championship ranked 19th.
The rest of the world would soon find out.
One U.S. Open championship later, Rafter was global. The 25-year-old Australian hunk was proclaimed the Sexiest Athlete of 1997 by People magazine. Women were dropping their phone numbers in his pocket, proposing marriage.
And he's supposed to be thinking about tennis?
"At the time it was quite distracting," Rafter said. "It's strange when you walk out on the court and the announcer says, "One of the sexiest athletes . . .'
"Now you hear it and sort of get on with it. Now I think it's more fun."
After turning the tennis world upside down -- and watching his own life go topsy-turvy, too -- Rafter is finding a balance. The world's third-ranked player beat Guillaume Raoux 6-1, 6-3 in his opening match Wednesday, and last week won the du Maurier Open in Toronto without losing a set.
Perhaps it was the arduous climb to the top that made seems things seem so chaotic when he got there.
Rafter's family scrimped and saved for years to fund his training. Geoff Rafter believed in his little brother enough that in 1991 he gave him his life savings -- $14,000 -- to finance Patrick's trips to the Asia circuit.
Rafter beat Pete Sampras in 1993, then Thomas Muster at the 1994 French Open, the same year Rafter rose to No. 21. A wrist injury followed by a sprained ankle caused him to miss most of 1995, and his ranking dove into the 60s.
Then came the miraculous run in last year's Open. The morning after he won, he said, "I never thought I'd win a Slam. And when I actually think about it more and more, it's like, this is crazy."
He partied with fellow Aussies, current and retired, celebrating the first Australian singles title at the U.S. Open since John Newcombe in 1973. He quietly donated $300,000 of his $500,000 winner's check to fund a wing for chronically ill kids at the Brisbane Children's Hospital.
His ranking rose from No. 62 to No. 2. But while his fame soared, his game soon soured. He lost early in both the Australian and French Opens, suffered five consecutive opening-round losses this spring and saw his ranking fall to No. 6. Commentator John McEnroe called Rafter "a one-Slam wonder."
Rafter wants to prove McEnroe wrong, but his goals are modest.
"Everyone responds differently to different things," Rafter said. "My sort of personality is kind of laid-back, so I'm not going to say I have to be No. 1 or anything."
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