Posted by Joel on April 22, 1998 at 03:04:03:

Last weekend here in Aust. Sports Sunday ran a large piece on Pat Rafter
and how he is coping since his rise to the top.In his interview Pat said he is struggling to set goals for himself andlately he has been walking out onto the court thinking "what do I have to gain from beating this guy?", which gets him angry and frustrated. He sayshe wants to go out thinking that he wants to "Crush the hell out of em". When asked if that is how he felt last year he said "Oh definately" and that last year he played with that attitude and wasn't scared of losing, just went out every match and gave it everything. He said he felt that heshouldn't played Davis Cup against Zimbabwe but his judgement was clouded because he loves playing for Australia so much and he felt he let the team down. He said the Australian public have been good because even if you lose if they can see that you gave it everything and "left your guts on the court"then you did well, but he has had trouble dealing with all the media/sponsorship dmands and attention. Pat said that he ha salways had trouble saying No to people and that has ment he ha sbeen court up in doing ads, modeling etc. One funny line Rafter said was that he was poseing for some photos and the photographer wanted him to wear some tight blue shorts or something and Pat said "Look, I'm not gay mate, what are you trying to do here". He has a lot of people wanting his time and a piece of him but he is getting better at "saying no and if people can't understand that then that's their problem".He said he knows he can get back on top of his game and he is taking threeweeks off just to relax at home in Bermuda and practice on the green clay. He said it is pretty different from the European clay but it seemed to work
last year.

John Newcomb was interviewed and I think he summed it up well when he said
since the US OPen Pat now gets disappointed if he loses a semi-final,
believeing he should be making finals, when he should be ecstatic at making
a semi-final like he was in the past. Newk also sain that Pat is at a stage
in his career where he has been successful and is in demand and that
requires adjustment and that Pat HAS to make that adjustment and that's all
there is to it.