Last Friday, Pat Rafter anonymously slipped back into Brisbane. No one was there to greet him except for his family. Just the
way he likes it. Brisbane for Rafter is for family, good times, golf and its access to the beaches.
 
But unfortunately there were two things he felt compelled to do during this six weeks of splendid isolation from the media and
the fans.
 
First was to have his knee seen to. Rafter, the world No 3 and two-time US Open champion, had been prepared to undergo
an arthroscope to fast-track a recovery from a knee injury which cut short his 1998 year in time for the big January
tournaments in his home country, where he has yet to win an ATP Tour title. But a Brisbane specialist told him on Monday that
surgery was not necessary after examining the second of two MRI scans taken at Holy Spirit Hospital.
 
 Rafter, savouring his Queensland holiday while the elite eight-man field contest the ATP Finals in Germany, said he would now
rest his body from tennis practice until after Christmas.

"There is inflammation behind the kneecap, which has been there for years," he said yesterday.

"I'll wait for a couple of weeks for the inflammation to settle down and then I can start to strengthen the muscles around the
knee.

"All through the American summer and European winter, I was changing surfaces and it just got worse".

The second task was to repay an old debt. He felt he should do something to give some publicity to the Brisbance motor
dealership which has lent him a luxury car whenever he has been at home for the past five years, through thick and thin.

He wasn't asked to do anything and by giving them publicity, he in effect was blowing his own cover.

But a sportsman who is prepared to give $300 000 to a children's charity, as Rafter did on his last Brisbane visit, is full of nice
surprises.

Centenary Motors sales manager Robert Tucker looks happy enough about lending Rafter a $121 000 Mercedes E280. After
all, Rafter who drives a mini Moke around his home base of Bermuda, has a clean driving record behind the wheel.

Perhaps Tucker should be more concerned about the sportsman seeing some bum on the streets on his way hiome and giving it
away.

Outside the showrom, there is a 90% chance of rain, Rafter's worry was about Australia's ability of being able to beat both the
England cricket team and the storms percolating towards the Gabba.

Inside, he knows that by giving yet another interview there is a 100% chance he will be asked to talk about Mark Philippoussis
again, but if that's the price of looking after someone who was loyal to him, so be it.

The story of the car deal is a simple one, but symptomatic of the push and pull forces which exert themselves whenever the
dual US Open champion enters Australian air space. This week, there is a fund-raising function for his sister Louise's Miss
Queensland campaign.

"I'd love to go. I feel like I should, but.....", he trails off.

Later in his annual holiday, there is a charity function in Adelaide which he is attending as a favour to his friend, John Fitzgerald.
But there are two best athlete awards which he will not attend, partly because he feels uneasy that he does not know all the
elite Olympic athletes he runs into when he feels he ought to.

"I just don't like being in the spotlight, which is part of the job when I come to Australia", he said. "I'd have loved to have gone
to the Gabba to watch the cricket, but there would have been so many people. I don't like to go outside like that these days. I
like to stay indoors".

Not that the 25 year-old multi-millionaire is some sort of Antipodean Howard Hughes. Rafter frequents the resort golf courses
on the Sunshine Coast or goes surfing with his brothers off coastal destinations like Peregian Beach, where the waves crash
from a little too high for his liking.

"My nature is not to be so restrictive. I like to go out and have a drink with my mates and relax like anyone else", he said. "It's
harder in Australia than when I'm on the tour."

"Here, when you are sitting on the bike, doing a workout and somone comes up for a chat or an autograph because they
recognise you, they aren't being disrespectful - it's just the way Australians are. you have to look at cultures. In Europe and
America, they don't come up so much".

On the shark-school which is the international tennis tour, Rafter has ruled the red pen through few names. "I give people
second and third chances, even if they burn me. When my tennis was down and I was getting a few injuries (in 1995 and 1996)
people were mostly pretty supportive, I didn't get many bad articles about me", he said.

In a sense, the strategy of Rafter's business advisers to take advantage of the looks which have seen him become a regular on
magazine "most sexy" lists, allied to his overseas success, have stimulated the interest in something other than his forehand
volley and record on grass.

The bus-stops of his homeown carry a moody, shirt-off shot to endorse sunglasses. He can even be seen without a shirt in
photographs promoting mobile phones.

"I don't mind the shirt-off ones. If that's the sort of image they want. But I've pretty much cut my losses when it comes to doing
underwear shots though", he said.

Part of the Rafter newsworthiness quotient is his model girlfriend Lara Feltham, the brunette in grandstands captured by the
cameras so often at the US Open in the role pioneered by Patti Connors and Bjorn Borg's former wife, Mariana.

Pressed on the future of that relationship, he offers: "I've still got a few more years on the tour. The future is something Lara and
I don't discuss much. We are taking it as it comes."

Rafter figures who he settles down with will partly decide where he lives after retirement from the tour. "The (Sunshine) Coast
is pretty good though. God's country," he said.