PAT RAFTER & LARA FELTHAM'S LOVE MATCH
- Vogue, February 1999

How a sultry model conquered Australia's tennis sensation - On a strip of beach in Queensland's Noosa, Pat Rafter and his partner Lara Feltham are a sight to behold. Entwined like a living sculpture, sunlight bouncing off their telegenic features, dressed immaculately, they soon attract an audience of people who want to observe this love match first-hand. Between takes they goof around, Three Stooges-style. He lifts her off the ground playfully, she tells him how sexy he looks. He pretends to tee off into the ocean, she creeps up behind for a piggy back. Meanwhile, the photographer is firing off rolls of film as if they were tennis balls.

Despite their hectic schedules - Rafter as a star on the international tennis circuit, ranked number three in the world, Feltham as a model based in London - the two conspire to meet every two weeks. In December, they agreed to let Vogue take the first professional shots of them together. Previously, the couple have fiercely resisted all attempts to be interviewed, let alone be captured on film. The last time I interviewed Rafter, the subject of his private life was strictly off limits.

This time, it's different. "I really wanted to help Lara out," he says. "I don't know what it takes to make it in modelling but I do know that you need your breaks." As the model for our evening wear story, Feltham is a consummate professional, scaling trees in heels, balancing precariously on a rocky outcrop, powering up and down the boardwalk. She even finds time to smile at gawking onlookers.

For more than a year, Feltham has been based in England where she juggles modelling assignments with appearing courtside for Rafter. She fell into modelling while backpacking in Spain and is - although she knows it sounds pretentious - considering a move into acting.

Rafter may be a pin-up boy for RayBan, but he does not enjoy staring down a camera lens. "It's so hard to look natural," he moans at one point. In the lead-up to the Australian Open, his training schedule does not allow much time for a fashion shoot, yet he sets aside several hours. Such is his support for his girlfriend. The couple were introduced in 1997 at a charity event in Sydney for the Starlight Children's Foundation. Weeks into their relationship, the Queensland boy invited Feltham to Noosa for the weekend. On this trip they checked into the same serviced apartment, overlooking the ocean.

Asked to describe her paramour, Feltham says: "He is extremely loyal, considerate, caring, funny, cheeky. He knows who he is, he doesn't try to be someone he is not. Beyond the fame and attention he knows you still have to be a good human being." Recently in London, Rafter presented her with diamond earrings and a giant jar of Vegemite.

During our shoot he permits the Vogue team to camp in his hotel room, carries bags and signs a child's tennis racquet. "He's like a cousin or someone you're related to," says the photogtrapher's assistant, struck by his friendliness.

"I look like a Greek god with my hair like this," says Rafter, genuinely surprised at his transformation. His hair is slicked back, his Okanuis traded for a pinstriped suit. When the photographer calls it a day, Rafter looks as if he has just won a Grand Slam. At that moment a group of men admiring Feltham's charms applaud in unison. The couple take their bows.