GREAT news for tennis emerged this week - Patrick Rafter wants to come out of retirement.

Bermuda's most famous part-time resident has taken a few months away from the rigorous demands of the professional game, but has apparently regained his enthusiasm for the sport.

Reports from Australia this week quoted his former coach and Davis Cup captain John Newcombe as saying that Rafter hoped to begin his comeback in October, play a few tournaments in Europe and build up to his Grand Slam comeback, the Australian Open next January.

But by October, Rafter will have been out of top-level competitive tennis for around nine months.

Can he come back and be the same player he was?

Only time will tell, but I believe he can be and maybe the break will actually have done him good - certainly physically.

His explosive style of play must take a heavy toll on his body. Sprinting to the net after every serve and stretching every sinew to make the volleys must have hammered his joints and tendons over the years.

The shoulder injury which sidelined him for several months and an elbow injury which troubled him during last year's Davis Cup final were clear evidence of wear and tear. Long-term rest must have helped his body to thoroughly repair itself.

If proof were needed that Rafter can still be a force in world tennis after a long lay-off, he has already provided it.

After the 1999 US Open, Rafter was sidelined for around six months by a torn rotator cuff, a nagging injury probably aggravated by the action on his fiercely kicking second serve. Within a few weeks of his comeback, Rafter reached his first Wimbledon final.

The difference between that lay-off and the current one is that this time, it's voluntary. Last time, he was constantly working to get back to the Tour, this time he has been taking it easy, enjoying the opportunity to travel around his native Australia without having to play tennis. Also he is a couple of years older. But at 29, there is still the potential for plenty of tennis in him.

Fitness will not be a problem for the Australian. Rafter is a sports nut and loves playing games other than tennis in his spare time. In the last few years, he has appeared playing soccer, cricket, baseball and golf (he is a regular player at the Mid Ocean Club) and even trained with a professional rugby league team Down Under. For sure he will have been sportingly active in recent months and so will have retained a certain fitness base. A Bermuda source close to Rafter said the Aussie had not changed his daily routine since starting his hiatus.

Newcombe said this week Rafter plans to resume practising with his coach Tony Roche in late July, ahead of his October comeback.

Of course, he will need a few tournaments under his belt to regain full match fitness and the necessary mental toughness which only matchplay can exercise.

The last piece in the jigsaw is incentive and Rafter has that in abundance. Always the team player, he once said his main ambition was to be part of Australian Davis Cup-winning team and that he would happily have traded one of his two US Open titles to have achieved it.

Injury ruled him out of Australia's 1999 Davis Cup triumph and last year, he helped the Aussies reach another final, but they went down 3-2 to France, with Rafter's troublesome elbow limiting his own personal contribution.

With the current world number one Lleyton Hewitt as a national team-mate, Rafter still has every chance of realising that cherished ambition.

The other unfulfilled wish is to win Wimbledon and his desire to achieve that could only have been made more ardent by coming so close for the past two years.

Both times he was losing finalist, first going down to Pete Sampras when his failure to convert a 4-1 tiebreak advantage into a two sets to one lead haunted him for long afterwards. And last year he played in one of the great Wimbledon finals, finally succumbing 9-7 in the fifth to his friend Goran Ivanisevic, when Rafter did himself proud, not only with his play but also his sportsmanship.

Another factor is that he has never got beyond the semi-final stage of his home nation's Grand Slam tournament, one his legions of home fans would love to see him win.

It will not be easy for Rafter to return to a men's field constantly deepening in quality. Last year, different players won each of the four Grand Slams and the nine Masters Series events provided eight different winners.

It all goes to show that there are many players capable of winning the big events and Rafter will have to show the type of dedication that helped Andre Agassi to haul himself out of the doldrums and back to the very top, if he wants to realise his wish list. And that means serious dedication!

Here's hoping he succeeds - and that he'll find the time to squeeze in another appearance at the XL!