Rafter

NEW YORK -- Andre Agassi lost to No. 13 seed Patrick Rafter the other day and after a moment's thought said that Rafter can't win the U.S. Open. Yesterday, Magnus Larsson walked off the tennis court, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-2, loser to Rafter in the quarterfinals and shrugged."In the semifinals, you are not out of the tournament," said Larsson. "Anyone can win."Such a vote of confidence simply made Rafter smile."That's good, huh," he said. "I have a one-in-four chance of winning. That's the way I look at it."

Maryland men's basketball Jerseys of Graham, Rhodes to be raised Ernie Graham and Johnny Rhodes , two of the greatest all-around players to don a Maryland basketball uniform, will have their jerseys honored at Comcast Center in separate ceremonies this month. The jersey of Graham, the 13th-leading scorer in school history with 1,607 points, will be raised to the rafters Feb. 16 when the Terrapins host Boston College. Rhodes, the ACC's all-time leader in steals, will have his jersey honored Feb. 21 when Maryland plays Miami.

NEW YORK -- Patrick Rafter is only a year older than he was when he won his first U.S. Open, but yesterday, when he became only the sixth man in the modern era to defend an Open title successfully, his celebration was that of a veteran.There were no wild gestures. No sprint to his friends' box. No tears.This time, when Rafter's Australian compatriot, Mark Philippoussis, double-faulted on match point in the fourth set to hand him a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory, Rafter simply smiled and walked to the net for a handshake and some back-patting.

Maryland has told former basketball players Ernest Graham and Johnny Rhodes that they will soon join 16 other Terps whose names and numbers appear on banners hanging from the Comcast Center rafters. The players — from different eras — confirmed in interviews Thursday with The Baltimore Sun that they have been notified by the athletic department that they will be honored this season. Maryland does not retire basketball numbers. Instead, the school hangs mock jerseys from the roof and holds ceremonies for players.

NEW YORK -- No. 13-ranked Patrick Rafter could feel what was coming. A bam-bam-bam net exchange got him his first point in what would be the last game of this U.S. Open men's championship, and Rafter pumped his fist.When a forehand volley winner put him two points from victory, he put his hand in the air, pumped -- and waved at the crowd.A 101-mph ace brought the Australian to match point and when he connected on a sharp cross-court forehand volley for the winning point, Rafter didn't know what to do with himself.

NEW YORK -- Pete Sampras was up a set and a break, but down a point, 0-15, in the third set of his U.S. Open match with Patrick Rafter last evening when he made a big lunge for a backhand volley.Sampras reached the volley and won the game. He even won the set. But in a classic example of losing the war, he pulled his left quadriceps muscle and lost his chance at tying Australian Roy Emerson's record of 12 major championships."You know, it shocked me a little bit," Sampras said after losing the semifinal to Rafter, the defending Open champion, 6-7 (8-10)

WIMBLEDON, England - Beyond the looks, the legs and the ever-changing hairstyles, Patrick Rafter has always set himself apart in men's tennis by his simple humanity. He's the champ who admits to nerves, the star hobbled by injuries, the veteran publicly pondering retirement. So there was a bit of anticipation yesterday when Rafter showed up at Centre Court on a warm, humid day, modeling a buzz cut and bandanna that made him look like an extra from a Rambo flick while embarking on what may be his last chance for a first Wimbledon title.

WIMBLEDON, England - At the bitter end, Andre Agassi snarled. At the bitter end, he smashed a ball that skipped close to a lineswoman, who had heard him curse in the match and reported him to the umpire. At the bitter end, he was ousted from Wimbledon in what might have been his last, best chance to win the tournament. Yesterday, Agassi lost a heartbreaker of a men's semifinal against Patrick Rafter, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 8-6. He lost when he was two points from winning, lost in one of the better semifinals seen at Wimbledon, lost against a player who has been chasing him here for three years.

WIMBLEDON, England - One is an old champion who won the title at the tail end of the first Bush administration. Two are old favorites who have come within inches of winning crowns. And the last is a quiet Englishman out to end more than a half-century of men's tennis misery for Britain. They are Wimbledon's men's semifinalists: Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Goran Ivanisevic and Tim Henman. Yesterday, the veteran grass-court quartet ousted the teens and pretenders by storming through the quarterfinals during a day of high drama and high humidity at the sweaty All England Club.

PARIS -- Australian Patrick Rafter has dreamed of being in a Grand Slam semifinal -- just not this one."The French Open, definitely not in the first two," he said, after serve-and-volleying his way to tomorrow's semifinals with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory over Spaniard Galo Blanco, the 111th-ranked player in the world."I think the first two were Wimbledon and the Australian Open," Rafter said. "The Australian Open, obviously, because it's home. Wimbledon, because it's regarded as where tennis started.

Six months after its owner started a renovation, Barfly's Pub is finally open. The Locust Point bar, which has taken over Rafters' old space on Fort Avenue, had its grand opening last Friday and has been in opening mode for about two weeks. It has been remade as a casual neighborhood bar with an ample beer menu and several wine options. Already, it's drawing small crowds, even on the Monday night I went. Owner Michael Leeds bills it as an "upscale dive bar," but Barfly's still needs some time to develop the personality of a dive and spruce itself up to be "upscale.

Ask Loring Cornish about his house and he will say it is for and about his art. He will call his circa 1920 brick rowhouse in Southwest Baltimore a "church" where, he says, "I can make art and worship God at my leisure." His is a dream house as unique as the visions at the root of all his works. Cornish, 34, considers himself a visionary artist - a "self taught" or "outsider" artist amid the trained variety. Although he grew up in Baltimore - his parents live just down the street - he lived elsewhere, mainly in California, for many years.

The birdhouse has gotten super-sized. A variety of fowl are homesteading inside big-box megastores, enticed by the safe environs and possibly free food - in the process enhancing the experience of shoppers on the prowl for gas grills or lawn spreaders. "There's a nest up there you can see," says Rachel Woodall, nodding toward a glob of grass and twigs wedged between metal roof rafters at the Home Depot store in Timonium. "And there's a bird on top of the light fixture!" Sure enough.

MIAMI -- While debate rages nationally about the steady flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, the people of one neighboring country, arriving in ever-growing numbers, still are playing by special rules. For reasons historical and political, Cubans continue to enjoy a unique advantage among would-be Americans: Under the policy known as "wet foot/dry foot," those who manage to slip past law-enforcement agents and into the United States generally are allowed to stay. Those who are intercepted at sea are most often sent back.

This is where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac, where the Appalachian Trail joins the C&O Canal path, where past and present converge as well. A lot of things come together in the misty, mystic hamlet of Harpers Ferry, W.Va. - often, in its history, tragically so. Here, abolitionists led by John Brown clashed with backers of slavery in an ill-fated attempt to take over an arsenal and launch a slave revolt. Here, north meets south, as the two sides did repeatedly - less than two years after Brown's attack - during the Civil War. Control of the town changed hands eight times.

SHELLTOWN, Md. - Eagles and ospreys and showers of bright warbler song. Mighty bald cypresses and hours of unbroken forest, studded with the blooms of wild azalea and native viburnum. From the quiet headwater swamps where we began to the wide open cordgrass marshes where we "took out" three days later, a recent kayak trip down the twisty old Pocomoke River was a joyous passage through spring. Less than a decade ago, such a trip might have been considered dangerous to one's health. The Pocomoke was on the list of America's most endangered rivers, and "For Sale" signs were posted along its banks.

NEW YORK -- No defending U.S. Open champion has ever lost in the first round here -- but it was close last night.On the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, Patrick Rafter met the tricky, troublemaking Hicham Arazi, who forced the defending champ to five sets before bowing, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.It was an improvisational end to an otherwise status-quo day."A few things agitated me throughout the night, and I tried to make a point," Rafter said. "The ball wasn't responding the way I liked and my first volley wasn't going the way I wanted.

NEW YORK -- The U.S. Open has proved to be an unhealthy place for top tennis players this week.First, No. 1 Pete Sampras withdrew before his first match with a herniated disk in his back. Now, No. 4 Patrick Rafter's injury has been diagnosed as a small tear in his right rotator cuff.Rafter withdrew from the Open in the fifth set of his first-round match Tuesday night because of shoulder pain. A magnetic resonance imaging scan yesterday revealed the tear."It's tough for the tournament," Rafter said.

Standing on a hill and shading his eyes from the sun that had just broken through the clouds, Air Force freshman Ryan Rafter couldn't help but smile. Fourteen years ago, Rafter was found to have leukemia, but he has been in remission for four years, and just three hours earlier, the Babylon, N.Y., native had scored his first college lacrosse goal against Quinnipiac. And perhaps most important to Rafter, Nicholas Voyton was there to see it all. Nicholas, 9, who was found to have leukemia seven years ago, was the honorary captain of Rafter's Falcons yesterday in the sixth Price Modern Lacrosse for Leukemia Tournament at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills.

Brett Schoolnick teaches hands-on trigonometry, plotting angles on paper and building them in wood. On Friday, the owner of Baywood Design/Build Group Inc. showed high school students at the Applications and Research Laboratory how to build a roof using trig. "When I was in school and we took analytical geometry and trigonometry, we never understood what it was applied for. It was really boring and rote, you know what I'm talking about, right?" said Schoolnick, who lives and works in Town Center.