The Australian Tennis ace, Patrick Micheal Rafter
The former top ranked Australian tennis ace, Patrick "Pat" Michael Rafter was born on 28th December 1972 in the city of Queen’s land. He has succeeded in the final match of the United States Open championship on two occasions and has been a runner up at the grass court Grand Slam tournament twice in his career. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame back in 2006 and was famous for his natural volley and serve style of the game.
Born in Queen’s land as the third youngest in his family, Rafter started practicing the game of tennis when he was five years old along with his father as well as three brothers. The right handed professional tennis player turned pro back in 1991 and gained his very first singles trophy in Manchester in the year 1994. Before the season 1997, it was the only singles ATP trophy, Patrick had gained.
A turning point in Patrick’s professional career came in 1997, at the French Open tournament where he made his way into the semi finals, however ultimately falling down to Sergi Bruguera in a total of four sets. Later, in the same season, he stunned every one by triumphing in the United States Open championship, knocking down Greg Rusedski in a four set final encounter after defeating Micheal Chang as well as Andre Agassi in the initial rounds of the tournament. He was the very first non- American tennis player who gained the trophy after a period of five years. It was his first Grand Slam trophy which resulted in lifting the ranking up to number two in the world towards the end of the year with Pete Sampras ahead of him.
The abruptness of his United States Open championship led many, including John McEnroe who is a four times US Open winner to pass judgment of Rafter as a “ single slam wonder”.
The season 1998 was comparatively a strong one for Rafter as he won a total of two ATP Masters Series one after the other singles trophies in Cincinnati as well as Toronto. He knocked down Pete Sampras in the final of the Cincinnati and Richard Krajicek in Toronto.
After winning his trophy at Cincinnati, Rafter triumphed in a United States Open tune-up championship held in the city of New York. Appearing in the final of the United States Open championship as the defending champ, Rafter made his way into the finals once again after knocking down Pete Sampras in a total of five sets.
Next year, Pat made his way into the semi final of the grass court Grand Slam tournament however, fell down by Agassi in straight sets. The 1.895 meters tall Patrick held the number one spot for the first time in 1999 however couldn’t last there for more than a week. Being the two times defending winner in the United States Open tournament, Pat retired in the round number one of the championship while playing his match against Cedric Pioline as a result of shoulder pain.
In the same season, he along with his partner Jonas Bjorkman succeeded in the Australian Open men’s double championship thus became one of the few players who have managed to triumph in both the singles as well as the doubles Grand Slam competition. The Australian player along with Bjorkman also triumphed in the doubles ATP Master Series championship held in Canada back in 1999 as well as in the Indian Wells in 1998.
After 2000, Rafter’s ranking had fallen down to as low as number twenty one in the world. Although, he did well to make his way into the semi final of the grass court Grand Slam tournament in 2000 and eventually knocked down Andre Agassi however, couldn’t grab the title in the final against Pete Sampras. The American later took his revenge of the Wimbledon semi final defeat by knocking him down in the next year’s Australian Open semi final clash. Later in the season, he managed to win the grass court Grand Slam tournament after falling down Goran Ivanisevic in a total of five sets.
Michael Rafter announced his retirement from the international cricket back in 2002 after gaining a total of eleven single trophies as well as ten doubles titles. He returns to the courts of tennis on annual basis to contest for Philadelphia Freedoms in the World Team Tennis.
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