Ever happy Rafter simply has it all, mate

If you were casting around, trying to think of one really difficult thing about the game of tennis, here is a ready solution: find somebody, man or woman, who doesn't like Pat Rafter. The tennis correspondent of one of our more august broadsheets carries multiple images of the Rafter torso on her laptop; envious males hover near Pat, admiring his rugged looks and hoping to be addressed as "mate", a near-certainty. No more popular winner of Wimbledon 2001 for the British public, other than you-know-who, could be imagined.

Rafter just has it all. He is a brave and attractive athlete, a fine advert for his sport, and he collects a strong sympathy vote because of the dicky shoulder which could go again at any moment. And being Australian is no handicap either, that nation's sporting standards being what they are. Rafter turned 28 last Christmas, not necessarily an advanced age considering two of the greats, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, are respectively just the right and wrong side of 30. What makes Pat's position infinitely more poignant is that shoulder, on which he underwent an operation in October 1999. It could even give out in mid-match during the final, and all would be over for the man from the Queensland mining community of Mount Isa.

Needing to take great care how much and where he plays, Rafter has aimed his efforts and energy towards the three Grand Slams he feels he can still win: Wimbledon and the US and Australian Opens. This year, this policy, added to an elbow injury he picked up in Australia's Davis Cup win over Brazil in April, has restricted the Rafter travels. Wimbledon is only his eighth tournament.

The inability to finish matches because of cramping is something else which has caused problems, most notably in the Davis Cup final against Spain in Barcelona last December and in his home event, the Australian Open, in January, when he lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winner, Agassi. Those problems have now been addressed by a special liquid intake.

It was in Melbourne that the first comments were uttered about his future and the possibility that this might be his last season. What Rafter plans to do is to give himself a long break at the end of this season and then assess his reaction. As his coach, Tony Roche, explained on Friday in the wake of his remarkable revenge victory over Agassi: "When he is away from the game for four or five months he will either say, 'Hey, this wasn't a bad idea' or 'I'm missing it and I'll get back into it'. That's just my opinion. But he is pretty set on having this break. I certainly haven't tried to talk him out of it. We are pretty much the same sort of character, and when Pat makes up his mind it's difficult to talk him out of anything."

By then, of course, Rafter's appetite could have been reinvigorated by victories here and in New York to add to the brace of US Opens he garnered in 1997 and the following year. The story has grown that after that first US triumph Rafter was dismissed as a "one-Slam wonder" by John McEnroe. Not so, insists McEnroe, who explained (most politely) to your correspondent on Friday night that what he actually said was that unless Pat lifted his game he was in danger of becoming a one-Slam wonder.

Rafter, of course, undertook the required lifting process, and came close to lifting an even bigger prize at Wimbledon this time last year. The problem, according to Rafter, was that he kept telling himself, "Relax, relax" against Sampras. "So this time I'll be saying, 'Choke, choke.'"

Though it will indisputably mean most to Rafter himself, victory today would mean much, too, to Roche, the 56-year-old who has seen much more than his fill of runner-up finishes. As a singles player, the left-handed Roche won the Grand Slam title of France but was beaten in the 1968 Wimbledon (by Rod Laver) and the 1969 and 1970 US event (by Laver and Ken Rosewall). As Ivan Lendl's coach, he watched his man fail repeatedly at Wimbledon. For heaven's sake, he was even the coach of Chris Lewis, another who lost a Wimbledon final (1983 to McEnroe). As Rafter joked on Friday, "I think Tony's going to coach Sampras next year if I don't win it."

"So I'm looking for a victory from Pat," Roche smiled as he relaxed on the player's tea lawn in the wake of Friday's momentous match. Assessing the dismissal of Agassi, Roche said: "Pat was never ahead until he got his nose in front right at the end. But that shows you a lot about the character of Pat. He is a great fighter, and that has been one of his greatest qualities."

Roche, whose reputation at Wimbledon was ensured by his doubles dominance – five titles – with John Newcombe, feels Rafter's experience in last year's final will be valuable today. "If you look at the great Australians who have won in the past, they sort of followed a pattern where they would lose the final and then come back and win."

Rafter himself put the retirement rumours in context by promising: "If I miss out again, which may happen, I'll always come back for Wimbledon." Which is good news for Roche's quest, since he too belongs to the Pat Rafter fan club. "He's a terrific bloke. I'm lucky to be associated with him, though I don't think I would be involved with somebody who wasn't a good bloke."