PARTY TO END ALL PARTIES
by Patrick Rafter
One of the big kicks I got out of the US Open, apart from winning, was the party afterwards. We went to a nice restaurant in Manhattan and pretty much closed the place down. They had to kick us out in the end. Everybody was relaxed and fired up pretty well. Rochey was there with all the boys until late. I  felt I was a lot more aware of what was going on this year. I knew what was happening and it was a different feeling. There was a great sense of satisfaction and it was good to share with a lot of people like John Fitzgerald, Darren Cahill and Wally Masur. We ended up at Macdonald's at 4.30am the following morning and it was just a great night. Since I’ve been home I’ve pretty much stayed inside. I met my nephew and I tried to hold him for a while. I'll be going to Townsville in the next day or so for Davis Cup and I'm really looking forward to that. It's been a huge month or so. I hope it can continue.

PETE’S BECOME A CRY-BABY

Apart from winning the final, it was nice to get over the top of Pete Sampras again. He's taken the defeats pretty hard, which is fine by me. He's become a bit of a crybaby but it doesn't worry me. Going into the tournament, people were saying I should worry about burnout because of the amount of matches I had played. But I knew I had done the work and I was relaxed and I had done it before. I didn't have any injuries and I was ready to go. I got through the first match against Hicham Arazi, coming back from 2 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. And everything went great. I'm sure it is going to set in later and it will hit me then. It's amazing when I think about it-back to back Slams. It's a huge buzz.

I’LL WALK OUT IF ROCHEY GOES

If Australia loses Tony Roche as Davis Cup coach, I'm going to resign too. We all really value Rochey and he doesn't deserve what he has copped during the week. He's never come out looking to take abuse like that. The bloke is an absolute champion and he's done so much fo Australian tennis. Hopefully it won't come to that because we’ve just got to get on with the business of playing tennis. One of the unfortunate things for me to deal with out of the final was the comment Mark made about Rochey. It's tough for me because I want to try and work things out with Mark and we’ve been getting along a lot better lately. But Rochey is my good friend. He's a mate and when someone attacks a friend it's hard to be amicable with that person.
I don't want to have to go back to square one with Mark, but if he continues with the attack, it's going to be difficult. It seems Mark didn't think about it again. Rochey was just doing his job, as he does with all the Davis Cup players. This attack is not going to help our situation. Mark's playing great tennis and it would be good for him to keep his mind on the game. He didn't need to make that attack. I hope he can come back and play Davis Cup, but it's up to him.

It's been almost a week now since the US Open final and it hasn't really sunk in yet. In fact, it's been pretty lowkey. I’ve spent time with the family and on the golf course since I’ve been back home, and it's been great to kick back and relax. Winning the US Open for the 2nd time has brought a whole different set of values in the way I look at Slams. It's great to be able to do it again. I'm now thinking that maybe I do deserve to win the big ones. I know I'll have a different attitude going into the Australian Open next year. I think this year I really didn't 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 it for a second time it does two things - it shuts up the critics and it shuts you up. Now I know I can 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 sink in. At the moment it's really lowkey. But I think I’ve appreciated it more this year.
  


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