Rafter keen to boost Aussie men’s tennis

Two-time US Open champion Pat Rafter is to present Tennis Australia with plans to stop the national men’s game from sliding into oblivion.

Frustrated by the poor state of men’s tennis at top level in Australia, Rafter intends to convene a meeting of fellow ex-professionals to produce a blueprint for the board at next month’s Australian Open.

Australia has just two players in the top 100 – rejuvenated veteran Lleyton Hewitt at No.22 and journeyman Peter Luczak at No.77, with Carsten Ball next best at No.135.

“There’s a group of us that all think the same way and we think that Tennis Australia could make those changes and implement them a little better than what they are right now,” Rafter told AAP.

“They’re things that we’ll put together and give to them in formal writing.

“They don’t have to follow us … but we all seem to come to the same sort of conclusion amongst the group of ex-professionals as well.

“We’ve been there, we know what it takes, so we think we know a little bit about what we’re talking about.”

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said Tennis Australia would welcome Rafter’s input.

He added Tennis Australia wanted to hear from Rafter as soon as possible.

“Our position is very clear – we’d love to have Pat’s involvement and ongoing contribution to the future of our sport,” Tiley said.

“On two different occasions this year he’s done things for us and one over a whole week, which was fantastic for our young kids.

“We welcome the input, we welcome the advice of young players – in fact, we have more than 30 past players on our books right now who we employ or are in the decision-making capacity with the development of our younger kids.

“There are very few past players who are not directly impacting the future of our sport.”

Rafter remained tight-lipped about his ideas and the make-up of his proposed panel, but he believed something needed to be done.

“It’s not really that healthy in a lot of ways, but hopefully it will turn around,” he said.

“It’s not going to be something that’s going to change overnight. All of a sudden you’re not going to see 20 players. It’s a 10-year process.”

Tiley said Tennis Australia had made significant changes and agreed with Rafter that these would take time to have an effect.

“We’ve made many changes over the last four years, the changes are across the board.

“Pat himself said something takes 10 years to get done, we’re at the very beginning of that journey.”

Rafter was in London for the AEGON Masters senior event, where he plays Goran Ivanisevic on Saturday for the first time since their epic 2001 Wimbledon final, which the Croat won.

“Every now and then it comes back to me in a nightmare and a cold sweat goes on,” Rafter said with typically laconic humour.

“There’s so many ifs and buts in this world in anything we do, so I try not to think about that too much,” added Rafter, who was runner-up to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon the previous year.

“I’ve got a couple of plates there that I’ve put to use, Wimbledon plates to serve dinner up on, so it’s all good.”

© 2010 AAP