Rafter eyes grand finale

Rafter is set to bow out of tennis after the Davis Cup

BBC tennis correspondent Iain Carter laments the imminent retirement of Patrick Rafter as the Australian prepares for the Davis Cup final against France on Friday.

A crowded press conference room at the Foro Italico, home of the Italian Open, bore witness to the question.

It was a very long and convoluted inquiry but the player sat and listened with patience and grace that then had to extend the length of the translation.

Fully three minutes after the question began, it was time for Pat Rafter to answer.

The odds suggest that Rafter's planned sabbatical will become a permanent retirement

Iain Carter

A pause for thought and then a grin: "sorry mate, can you ask that again."

It doesn't matter what was the question and he wasn't being evasive - that's not the Rafter way.

He simply used it to provide a much needed dose of Aussie wit and humour, and it's going to be missed.

Rafter - twice the US Open champion, twice Wimbledon finalist - is about to put his racquets under his bed, fetch out the surf board and golf clubs and spend the next few months finding out whether he misses the sport at which he's excelled for the better part of a decade.

If he enjoys the fact that his arm and shoulder no longer ache from the exertion of playing his all action serve/volley game, tennis will lose one of its most popular figures.

And the odds suggest that Rafter's planned sabbatical will become a permanent retirement.

Rafter has been plagued by a shoulder injury

It's clear that life on the tennis road has become a grind for the Queenslander, and unlike some of his peers this is a guy blessed with a generous dose of common sense and perspective.

That's why he's always been as good to listen to as he has been to watch.

These days his serve/volley game is about as rare as his honesty and wit in the press conference room.

So relish this week's Davis Cup final, when Rafter joins new world number one Lleyton Hewitt as Australia attempt to overcome France on a specially installed grass court in the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.

It could provide the perfect conclusion to his career.

If ever there was a team player in an individual sport it's Patrick Rafter.

And only if you're French would you begrudge him one last crowning glory.