By LOUISE EVANS SYDNEY

Pat Rafter knows there's going to be a lot of hype, a lot of people and a lot at stake today in his first-round match at the Sydney International against in-form Adelaide teenager Lleyton Hewitt.  Two Australians, head-to-head, centre court.  The sex god playing the underdog.  Thre prince and the pauper.

Rafter needs to get some confidence rolling ahead of the Australian Open next week.  His body, injured and tired from a year that won him a second US Open title and left him ranked number four in the world, is holding together.  But his head hurts.  Losing in the second round of the men's hardcourt championships last week in Adelaide hurt.

The No. 2 seed needs to be ready for Hewitt, who reached the hardcourt finals on Sunday.  Yet here he is at a Bondi tennis club in the stinking heat in front of a bunch of adoring kids.

"It's tough playing at home," Rafter confesses as he signs a ball, a picture, a shoe?  "I can't say whether I love it or dread it.  I just want to do well. There's no better feeling.  If you do badly, you dread it.

"It will be tough playing Lleyton.  It will be a big match, being two Aussie guys.  A young 'un and me, who is starting to get a bit older.  I want to win. I hate losing.  I'd love to do well.  Lleyton has nothing to be scared of.  He is not looking down the barrel.

"I just want to win some good matches and some tournaments.  The losses seems to make me more hungry.  When you get the wins you get very excited and I am trying to get that good feeling back."