Pat Rafter      By Amanda, Ashlee and Breanna

Pat Rafter is Australia's great tennis champion. His skillful and energetic tennis has won him the US Open and many other tournaments.
Pat was born on the 28th December 1972 in Mt Isa, a small mining town in west Queensland. Pat is the seventh child in the family of 9 children. He is very close to his brothers and sisters. As a young boy Pat loved playing tennis and was always hitting a ball. Pat Rafter is one of the tallest players in the world of tennis, but as a boy, he was always short for his age. Because of this, other boys beat him easily. Pat always played to win. 
As always he had the support of his family, especially when he started to think about playing tennis as a job. Playing tennis would mean that he would have to travel all over Australia and the world. 		 

 

 

 

 

In 1990,Pat played in a few small overseas tennis competitions. In 1991, he reached the finals in New Zealand and Asia. In 1993, he beat Pete Sampras, the best player in the world, in a match in the USA. After Pat decided to change his game and practice more, he began to win big games against top players. By 1995, Pat was ranked number 21 in the world. He entered the Australian Open, one of the biggest sporting events of the year, and won his first 3 matches. In 1996, Pat injured his wrist and his ankle, and had them both operated on. He didn't play very much tennis in 1995 or 1996.
In 1997, Rafter was fit again and ready to play good tennis. Pat won the Davis Cup in 1997 after a four hour long game against Cedric Pioline. In 1997, Pat was  a very tough player to beat and he won the US Open easily. After winning the US Finals, Pat became the second best player in the world. Pat now plays in over 30 competitions every year. In 1997,he earned nearly 3 million dollars. He is on the tennis court every day and spends an hour in the gym every day. Pat is one of the most popular sportsmen in the world. People like him for his aggressive and exciting tennis.