Patrick Rafter

Patrick Michael Rafter (born December 28 1972) is
a former World No. 1 tennis player from Australia.
He is best remembered as a two-time men's singles
champion at the US Open, and a
two-time runner-up at Wimbledon
Championships. Rafter was well known for
his attacking Serve and volley|serve and volley
game and possessed one of finest volleys in
the game.

Rafter was born in Queensland and is
third-youngest in a family of nine children. He
began playing tennis at the age of five with his
father and three older brothers. In April 2004,
Rafter married his longtime girlfriend Lara
Feltham (with whom he has a son, Joshua,) at a
resort in Fiji. Their daughter, India, was born in
the summer of 2005.


== Tennis career==

Rafter turned professional in 1991, and won his
first career singles title in 1994 in Manchester.
Prior to 1997, this was the only top-level singles
title he had won.

Rafter's major breakthorugh came in 1997 at the US
Open, when he reached the final against Greg
Rusedski and won in four sets to claim his first Grand Slam title.

In 1998, he reached the US Open final again and
defeated fellow Aussie player Mark Philippoussis
in four sets. He also won five other tour singles
titles that year.

In July 1999, Rafter reached the World No. 1 men's
singles ranking. However he held it for just one
week, making him the shortest-reigning World No. 1
in tour history.

Rafter won the Australian Open men's doubles title
in 1999 (partnering Jonas Bjorkman).

In 2000, Rafter reached the men's singles final a
Wimbledon where he faced Pete Sampras who was
gunning for a record-breaking seventh title.
Rafter made a strong start to the match and took
the first set. But after the match he claimed that
he had "choked" part way through the second set,
and was then not able to get back into his game.
Sampras won in four sets.

In 2001, Rafter made the Wimbledon final again. He
faced Goran Ivanisevic, who had reached the
Wimbledon final three times before but had slid
down the world rankings to No. 125 following
injury problems. After a titanic five-set
struggle, lasting just over three hours,
Ivanisevic prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7.

Rafter was on the Australian Davis Cup teams which
lost in the final in 2000 (to Spain) and 2001 (to
France). He was ironically unable to play in the
1999 Davis Cup final where Australia beat
France to win the cup because of injury.

Rafter was on the Australian teams which won the
World Team Cup in 1999 and 2001.

Rafter retired from the professional tour at the
end of 2002. During his career he won 11 singles
titles and 10 doubles titles.

Rafter returns to the courts annually to play
World Team Tennis for the Philadelphia Freedoms.

==Grand Slam singles finals==

===Wins (2)===
Year Championship Opponent in
Final Score in Final
1997 US Open Greg Rusedski
6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
1998 US Open Mark
Philippoussis 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0

===Runner-ups (2)===
Year Championship Opponent in
Final Score in Final
2000 Wimbledon Pete Sampras
6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2
2001 Wimbledon Goran Ivanisevic
6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7