Six months ago, when Pat Rafter was wrestling with the hardest times of his professional life, John Newcombe knew what to say......once again.

It was Australian captain Newcombe who sat beside Rafter during his 1997 Davis Cup win from two sets down against Cedric Pioline, the match whihc the Queenslander knew - with equal measures of instinct and unbridled optimism - would turn his tennis career around.

Rafter was immersed in his first Australian summer circuit as a Grand Slam winner six months ago, ranked No 2 in the world and having trouble becoming accustomed to the view.

"Pat had a lot of people wanting a bit of his time, and decisions to be made", Newcombe recounted this week. "I said to him: 'You won't know how good a player you can become until December 1999. No one will'.

"He's not the finished product yet, not by a long way."

There is a growing feeling among those associated with Rafter that he has made the hard yards through the difficult times, reassessed his priorities and ridden himself of some of the wear-and-tear injuries whihc dragged him down.

"It should be remembered that wehn Pat won the US Open he had won one other tournament," said Newcombe, who was one of the revellers in those green paper hats worn in the Rafter victory celebrations in a New York bar last September.

"Now, when he is beaten in the semi-finals of a tournament where onece he would have been pleased at what he had achieved, he has the media asking him if he is disappointed.

"If you look at it this way: he has won two tournaments this year (Chennai and Rosmalen) and this time last year he would have been quite happy with that."

To say the Us hardcourt circuit is important for Rafter's ranking is to suggest Shane Warne's return to the Australian cricket team would be a bonus.

Even though Rafter, now ranked fifth, is one player for whom a ranking is merely a reflection of success not an end in itself as a psychological prop, a significant slump in the rankings would raise persistent questions over his future, whihc he would do well to avoid.

The Association of Tennis Professionals' rankings operate on a "top 14" basis. A player's performances in his best 14 tournaments over a 12-month period are totalled, with the points having to be 'defended' on the anniversary of the
tournament.

Rafter's best three tournaments all came out of one four-week period from mid- August to mid-September, New Haven, Long Island and the US Open comprise 1493 of his total 2878 points. The 20th ranked player has about 1400 points.

After this week Rafter will attack tournaments in Toronto, New Haven and Long Island before his US Open defence. It's a possible six weeks of solid tennis on some of the most punishing of surfaces.

"He's had some crazy scheduling, but that is the same lenght of preparation he had before the US Open last year and he thrived on it then," said Gary Stickler, who oversees Rafter's training when he is in Brisbane and is a touchstone when he is on the road.

After his defeat by fellow Queenslander Scott Draper at Queen's in London, Rafter bluntly assess his confidence as 'about as low as it's ever been'.

Since then he has won 10 of 11 matches - taking in the title at Rosmalen, Holland, before he made the fourth round of Wimbledon and his two wins in LA.

"At Wimbledon, when he lost to Tim Henman, his lower back gave him a lot of trouble on the morning of the match,: Stickler said.

"He doesn't tell the media those things. He doesn't want it known. But he didn't have much on his serve against Henman.

"Generally, he is a lot better than he was for half of the year.

"Pat is feeling good about the American circuit. When I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago he was a lot happier in himself. The time he had off after Wimbledon has done him a lot of good."

In Los Angeles this week, Rafter said he had moved the best he had in a long time since overcoming knee and back injuries.

Stickler said the 25 year old had absorbed valuable lessons and sorted throught his priorities as his 1998 season progressed.

"He has come to terms with tennnis being the most important thing. All the other things that come to him are due to him doing well in tennis.

"Pat being Pat, he was finding it very hard to say no when asked to do things because he's an open bloke....you know, charities or people with a deal, or just wanting a word. But he is getting better at saying 'no'.

"If someone offers a $500 000 endorsement deal it's not as big a deal if you are worth $30 million or whatever it is. The rest of us, you and me, would see $500 000 differently".

There are some things Rafter's advisers really want him to change, especially his tendency to reveal too much of himself for his own good in his public comments .

He backed himself into corners with the media by, for example, claiming he was suffering from the effects of too much alcohol before a dead Davis Cup rubber in Adelaide last year.

Among the free advice given Rafter through the media is the repeated point that he is one of the few players in the top 50 who does not have a coach travelling with him fulltime.

Tony Roche is on hand leading up to Grand Slams and Davis Cup ties and he has friends such as Perth's Paul Kilderry and Adelaide's Matthew McMahon along for patches of tournaments as hitting partners.

He has other sounding posts, like Stickler, who is sent videos of matches and contacted every few weeks for opinions and plots training programmes.

"Pat's nature is that he doesn't want to have someone around all the time, organising practices and making sure of his transport," Stickler said. "His brothers go on tour with him and help him, but he likes to do things himself.....and he thinks that's what works best for him."

Rafter's supporters believe the longer he remains at the top, the more at ease he will become with the attention.