發表退休後第一次現身接受訪問
內容大約是說他不會去當任何人的教練
但不否認接任Davuis cup的教練...
Davis Cup role stirs Rafter
By Margie McDonald
26feb03
ONLY the job of captain or coach of Australia's Davis Cup team could tempt Pat
Rafter to return to tennis.
The dual US Open champion said he would not be following in the footsteps of the
likes of Jason Stoltenberg and Darren Cahill who retired from playing and
turned to coaching.
But Rafter said no players had approached him about coaching since he announced
his retirement in mid-January, just days before the start of the Australian Open
.
"No. I don't think I can help anyone who's going to sit on the baseline," Rafter
said yesterday.
"What am I going to say to them? How to hit a top-spin backhand? I don't think
so."
He revealed he would not consider coaching even if a top-10 player did get in to
uch.
"No, not now," Rafter said.
But he was not so adamant about passing up the opportunity to head the Davis Cup
team, if and when current captain John Fitzgerald or coach Wally Masur stepped
down.
"Maybe ... maybe ... but as I said, I wanted to get away from all the travel,
but maybe in five or six years if I did miss it, we'll wait and see," he said.
Rafter has found other sporting interests to occupy him, such as touch football,
surfing and golf.
He was partner to Britain's Laura Davies, who won last Sunday's Australian
Ladies Masters at Royal Pines in Queensland, in a Pro-Am yesterday at Terrey
Hills golf course in Sydney's north, which hosts the Ladies Open, starting
tomorrow.
"There was a few things I really wanted to do when I stopped playing (tennis)
and one of them was golf, touch footy ... just to get into a rhythm. That's the
thing you really miss when you're not playing tennis," Rafter said.
"I just want to be normal like everyone else."
But the extraordinary outpouring of emotion when he retired told him otherwise,
although he confessed he never fully understood the public adulation.
He retired via a one-page written statement and did not hold any final press
conference. Yesterday was the first time he had spoken publicly about his
decision and the way he made it.
"I gave a written statement and thought I got the message across. I didn't think
you need to see me on camera," Rafter said.
"It was a great reaction (from the public), really encouraging, really nice. You
're always going to get your baggers but that's all part of it."
He also said he had no regrets about the decision.
"None. I don't want to live with regrets and that's why I took a year off to
think about it to make sure I had no regrets," Rafter said.
"If I came back was there a guarantee I'd win Wimbledon? Was there a guarantee
I'd win Davis Cup? That's part of life's game, that there are no guarantees."
Rafter said his continuing shoulder injury in 2001 - after he had three months
out in 1999 - forced him to accept that "I only had so much time left for
playing tennis".
"At that stage I had to curtail my training and cut back on my (tournament)
schedule so I knew at the beginning of 2001 it was nearly over."
The birth of his son Joshua in August last year also confirmed he wanted more
time to be a family man.
"All the travel, planes, airports, hotels. I don't miss that. It's family you
know ... we've got the baby now and we get to do what we want to do."
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我因為你而變得更好...
我已全然了解你並愛著你的靈魂 ~高更
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