The world according to Pat Cash

Published : Mar 01, 2003 00:00 IST

MANY tennis players don't know what to do with themselves after they retire. Not Pat Cash. The 37-year-old Aussie, who won Wimbledon in 1987, has more on his plate than Anna Nicole Smith at an all-you-eat buffet. Cash devotes much of his time to the environmental charity Planet Ark and another, GOAL, that aids the poor in developing nations. He also runs a tennis academy in Australia, plays rock music with his band, and even found time recently to write his autobiography, Uncovered (published in the U.K.), in which he talks about the time he spent coaching Greg Rusedski ("obsessed with Tim Henman") and his friendship and rivalry with John McEnroe ("I don't think anyone, much less him, knows how he ticks"). Cash talked with Tennis from the comfort of his London flat.

DOWN UNDER: "I wanted my book to show a side of tennis people don't see too much — this side that's not too glamorous, the one that includes hard work and strain."

ROLLING STONE: "I split my time between London and Queensland, Australia. I've got kids in London, Norway and Australia. During Wimbledon I'm a commentator for the BBC. But mostly I run the Cash-Hopper International Tennis Academy, in Gold Coast, Australia, about 40 minutes south of Brisbane."

ROCK ON: "If I weren't an athlete, I'd be a musician. I play with some buddies in a band called Pat Cash & the Wild Colonial Guys. We do a bunch of concerts around the U.K. some pubs, some corporate gigs, some charity events. I play guitar and sing a little bit. We do rock covers — Lenny Kravitz, U2, AC/DC, Metallica."

DREAM DINNER: "I'd have a dinner party with Jesus, Jimi Hendrix, and Adolf Hitler. All pretty obvious picks, don't you think?"

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY: "I wish I could have those two Australian Open finals I lost in '87 and '88 back. I had a bad shoulder against Stefan Edberg in the first. And I'd also want to have back the '84 U.S. Open semifinal against Lendl, where I had match point and he hit a top-spin lob over my head for a winner. That point stayed on my mind for a good year."

FATHER KNOWS BEST: "My words of wisdom come from my dad: One, you should treat others the way you want them to treat you. Two, the steel is tempered in the fire, or as Americans say, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger." — Joel Drucker

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