It began with a trickle. Soon it would become a river, if not quite a flood.
                  But by the time Pat Rafter wafted a crosscourt volley into open territory in
                  Flushing Meadows' sparkling new Arthur Ashe stadium last September,
                  Australia had returned as a legitimate Grand Slam contender.

                  It had taken ten years to uncover a talent of sufficiently high quality to
                  succeed 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, but Queenslander Rafter
                  deftly managed to erase memories of Australia's longest Grand Slam
                  drought.

                  By season's end, there was suddenly a new buoyancy about the Australian
                  game. Led by Rafter's New York heroics, there was an optimism about the
                  health of the antipodean stock unknown over the previous decade.

                  Aside from Rafter, there were Grand Slam singles semi-finalists in Todd
                  Woodbridge ('97 Wimbledon), Jason Stoltenberg ('96 Wimbledon) and Mark
                  Woodforde ('96 Australian Open).And there was a top 20 performer in
                  Mark Philippoussis, invariably anointed as the next player most likely to
                  break through at the highest level, and talents such as Scott Draper, Sandon
                  Stolle, Richard Fromberg, Michael Tebbutt, Lleyton Hewitt and Andrew Ilie.
                  There was even a glimmer of hope about the women's game with the
                  continued emergence and development of Annabel Ellwood and the rise of
                  young hopes Evie Dominikovic and Jolena Dokic.

                  But there was nothing to compare with Rafter.

                  The Brisbane serve-volleyer began the season ranked 62nd in the world,
                  quickly fell to 84th but thereafter would not take a backward step.

                  Feted as the ATP Tour newcomer of the year on the strength of his 1993
                  season, Rafter had tempted the impatient Australian public by soaring to
                  19th in the world before injuries intervened.

                  Troubled by chronic wrist soreness, Rafter struggled to recapture both
                  confidence and form after an Australian Open hammering from Andre
                  Agassi in 1995.

                  But what a revival it would be.

                  He thrived on European clay, the sight of which usually has instinctive
                  Australian serve-volleyers hankering after the grass courts of England,
                  reaching the semi-finals of the French Open, the first such appearance by
                  an Australian male in 20 years. Seeded 12th for Wimbledon, Rafter was
                  upstaged by Woodbridge, who rode his cerebral game into the All-England
                  Club semi-finals only to run headlong into a whirlwind called Pete Sampras.
                  Philippoussis, meanwhile, had claimed three singles titles and, until Greg
                  Rusedski's ballistic serving at the us Open, held the world record for the
                  fastest recorded serve.

                  As promising as the Australian game had become, it still required outright
                  success at Grand Slam level to shunt it back closer to its previous level.
                  Rafter was the conduit. In becoming Queensland's newest major-winner
                  behind Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, Rafter athletically signalled the end of
                  Australia's tennis Ice Age with victory in the us Open. The men, inspired by
                  Rafter's deeds, reached the Davis Cup semi-finals, losing to a vengeful
                  Sampras-led USA, and the women again performed well in the Fed Cup,
                  downing South Africa.

                  Rafter was runner-up in the Grand Slam Cup, one of the six finals he lost in
                  1997, as Australia finished the year with eight men ranked in the top
                  100.The Rafter phenomenon quickly took hold in Australia amid predictions
                  of more Grand Slam titles as the Down Under summer circuit lurched into
                  gear.

                  But as Rafter shouldered Australia's Hopman Cup hopes, it was left to a
                  16-year-old Adelaide right-hander, Lleyton Hewitt, to claim his home-town
                  tournament, the Australian Hardcourt Championship. The feisty baseliner
                  was the youngest winner of an ATP Tour tournament since Michael Chang
                  claimed San Francisco in 1988.

                  For good measure, undaunted Hewitt lit up for Sydney and promptly downed
                  world No.4 Jonas Bjorkman. A star had been born. He would lose soon
                  enough, to Tebbutt, before taking Daniel Vacek to five sets in the opening
                  centre court match at the Australian Open.

                  As fate would have it, the performance of Australian players at the Open
                  was below the heady standards of 1997. Fromberg and Woodbridge were
                  the leading candidates, reaching the fourth round after Rafter was downed
                  by Spaniard Alberto Berasategui in the third round. Annabel Ellwood, 19,
                  sped into the third round, but was the only Australian woman to win a round
                  during an event which ended with Martina Hingis and Petr Korda as the
                  respective singles champions.

                  But there were high hopes for Dominikovic, 15, and Dokic, 14, who have
                  blossomed under the tutelage of Fed Cup captain Lesley Bowrey.
                  Prodigious Hewitt was likewise acclaimed as the South Australian turned
                  his back on his junior career, with two years left to run, in his attempt to
                  consolidate his ranking of 160th in the world.

                  At the head of the pack, however, was Rafter.

                  Viewed for a long time as a sturdy foil for Philippoussis, Rafter drove tennis
                  back onto the front pages in Australia in the best possible fashion.
                  Marketable, approachable and successful, Rafter was a god-send for Tennis
                  Australia in its quest to attract more children to the game. Industry sources,
                  through the sale of rackets, clothing and shoes, indicate the Rafter factor
                  has already impacted strongly.

                  Little more than 18 months ago, Rafter might have suggested counselling
                  was in order if one had floated the idea of him becoming a Grand Slam
                  champion as quickly as he did. But, as a wizened Australian coach was
                  heard to muse as the crowds poured into Melbourne Park for the Australian
                  Open, winning covers a multitude of sins. And how.