Mildura Lawn Tennis Club coach BILL MADAFFERI is a former ATP player and he joins the Sunraysia Daily sports team to look at local tennis.
LAST week I mentioned Pat Rafter and his ability to think his way through matches and the mental toughness he brought to training and games.
But there’s one story I would like to share with you about Pat.
I still remember the moment clearly. Pat was playing a singles match in the Australian Junior Open against a bloke from Europe and he was getting “pantsed” by him.
Watching from the sidelines was a well-known tennis scribe at the time who the next day in the paper teed off at the lack of tennis talent in Australia.
I can’t remember exactly the words he used, but it was something like, ‘‘the future for Australian tennis doesn’t look great judging by what I saw yesterday. A skinny kid called Pat
Rafter looking way out of his depth against his European opponent. It just goes to show you how far behind Europe and America we are as a tennis nation”.
Pat was staying at my place and he cut the article out, put it in his wallet and for the next few years it went everywhere with him.
I’d sometimes ask him, “do you still have that piece of paper?” And sure enough, he did.
It became one of his motivations to reach the top and often he’d say to me when he was struggling to keep going, he’d just have a quick read of that article.
Every top sports person probably has one of those stories, but it’s interesting how one little thing can change your destiny.
Pat was embarrassed by what was written about him and he was determined to prove that particular scribe wrong and he certainly did that, going on to become World No.1, winning consecutive US Opens in 1997 and 1998, as well as being runner-up at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001 – not bad for a skinny kid who couldn’t play.
But in that particular journalist’s defence, Pat was the unfortunate Aussie to be playing on that day and the article wasn’t just about him, it focused on the health of the game and the lack of support young players received from Tennis Australia.
Fast forward three decades and not much has changed.
Most up-and-coming male and female players are still given little, if any financial support by Tennis Australia.
Players don’t want a hand-out, they just want the opportunity to win some decent prize money locally to help support them to travel overseas and play.
For years, people like myself, and others involved in the game at the grassroots level, have been calling for an increase in prizemoney for second-tier events.
I know Tennis Australia will argue it already has that in place through its Australian Money Tournaments (AMT) and the Futures and Challenger events run by the ITF, but what players win in monetary terms from these competitions often doesn’t even cover their expenses for the tournament.
Just look at our own pro tour in Sunraysia, players ask to be billeted out because they can’t afford to pay for accommodation and food.
If we are going to have any chance of becoming a tennis powerhouse again, we have to make sure our best junior players keep playing.
At the moment, too many are giving the game away when they get to 18 or 19 years old because they just don’t have the money to keep going.
Italy has done it really well in recent years through the number of domestic tournaments it now has and it shows in the number of players it boasts the top 100.
It not only gives players the chance to win some good prizemoney, but they also consistently have the opportunity to play multiple tournaments, one after the other, against quality opposition, which prepares them better to compete when they do get on to the professional circuit.
