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TENNIS sensation Pat Rafter says he will quit Australia's Davis Cup team if coach Tony Roche resigns over ructions with Mark Philippoussis.

In a relaxed mood during a short break at his family home in Brisbane before flying to Townsville for the Davis Cup clash with Uzbekistan starting Friday, Rafter said he had patched up his relationship with the temperamental Philippoussis but he could not condone his behaviour towards coaches Roche and John Newcombe.

"If those guys go I'm going to resign too," he said after both coaches threatened to quit the team last week.

"We all really value Rochey and the reason he's so upset is because he doesn't deserve it. He's never come out looking to take abuse like that."

The Davis cup squad was in turmoil last week after Philippoussis, who has refused to play for the Cup team, criticised Roche for sitting in the Rafter family box during the two Australians' tense final at the US Open. Philippoussis' father also allegedly directed criticism at Roche and Newcombe, who was commenting for television at the other end of the court.

"Mark and myself are starting to patch things up ¨C we are a lot better than we were," Rafter said.

"But it's hard to defend him when he also offends another good friend of mine."

In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail, the reigning US Open champ described his nemesis, world number one Pete Sampras, as a "crybaby" who he will topple for the top spot by the end of the year.

Rafter said he believed he was ready to wrest the world number one ranking from Pete Sampras whom he beat in a US Open semi final.

"He's taken the defeats pretty hard which is fine by me," he said of his last two victories over the American.

"He's become a bit of a crybaby but it doesn't worry me."

Sampras was reported as saying that "10 Grand Slams" were the difference between he and Rafter after he was beaten by the Australian in August.

"It's only nine now," Rafter said.

In his regular column in The Sunday Mail, Rafter wrote that winning the Open for the second time had brought a whole different set of values in the way he looked at the Slams.

"It's great to be able to do it again. I'm now thinking maybe I do deserve to win the big ones," he said.

"I know I'll have a different attitude going into the Australian Open next year. This year I didn't really believe I could do it. And I really didn't know if I could win the US Open again.

"The first time you win a Slam, you don't know if it's a fluke or not. When you win a Slam for the second time, it does two things ¨C shuts up the critics and shuts up yourself.

"Now I know I can maybe win another Slam. The big thing for me is that this year I'm six for six in finals. Last year I went one from seven.

"Somewhere down the track the significance of it all will really sink in. At the moment, it's been really low key. But I think I've appreciated it more this year.

"Going into the tournament, people were saying I should be worried about burn out because of the amount of matches I had played. I got through the first match against Hicham Arazi, coming back from two sets down and that match was pretty big for me.

"From then on, whenever I went into the matches, my attitude was if I lose, I lose but everything went great."