LONDON, June 25 AFP - Second seed Pat Rafter maintains he's just a regular guy - even if he's once more closing in on that No.1 spot after reaching the third round of the men's singles at Wimbledon.

Rafter, who ousted doubles partner Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in four sets to advance to the last 32 for a meeting with another Swede, Thomas Enqvist, says his feet are firmly planted on the ground as he strives to be a role model for Australian sport.

Aussie legend John Newcombe, twice a winner at the All England Club, is on record as saying he considers Rafter the inheritor of his and fellow early 1970s stalwart Rod Laver's mantle as the swashbuckling face of Australian tennis.

Rafter has done his best to hark back to the golden era of tennis Down Under, and after three straight fourth-round defeats at Wimbledon he believes he could finally be up for the big one with his serve and volley game already finely-honed for the event.

Newcombe and Laver both won here before going on to capture a solitary US Open title and in that particular respect Rafter, who has twice lifted the US crown, is a notch ahead of both of them.

"Having the role models and a tradition like the Aussies - it's such a great thing to look up to," says Rafter, who nonetheless dislikes the hero-worship culture which so often accompanies sporting glory.

"Those guys (Newcombe and Laver) at the end of the day they are regular people and they realised that all we're doing is playing a sport and we shouldn't be looked at any differently than just that."

Rafter says he is determined not to let success go to his head - and says his family will make sure of that.

"I remember the first time I started to do pretty well in 1994 I started, you know, becoming a little bit affected by it - and they pulled me back in line very quickly," said the 26-year-old Queenslander who is now based in Bermuda.

Having already come within an ace of top spot on several occasion in the past two years, Rafter admitted after beating Bjorkman "I'd like to be number one - no doubt about it."

Rafter, who last year became the first Australian since Newcombe 25 years ago to end the year in the top five in two straight years, won six titles in 1998 but only claimed his first title this year in the Netherlands last week.

He is pleased with his form - especially having stepped up a gear to see off Bjorkman in their fourth set played out in fading light.

Rafter at first didn't want to continue - but once tournament referee Alan Mills had made the decision to the Aussie made the most of it.

"Alan Mills said he wanted us to stay out there and I said Alan Mills isn't playing so how's he going to judge that. I think they should probably have a light meter and just gauge it by that."

He added that he and Bjorkman were not going to fall out over the issue - or the result.

"We're pretty honest with each other and there's no aggro out there - but I didn't look at him too much today - I was trying to watch that little yellow thing."

Pete Sampras and company be warned - Pat's got his eye on the ball - and the trophy.