PARIS. June 5: Thomas Muster may be the 'king of clay' and Pete Sampras the master on grass but

Patrick Rafter rules on 'ant bed'.

But with no Grand Slam event on the slippery surface Ceculiar to Australia. Rafter as been able to adapt his ant bed' game successfully to the slow clay courts of Roland Garros to become the first Australian in 20 years to reach the French Open semifinals.

"We have a surface at home called ant bed ", said the 24-year-old Queenslander, after reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal with a straight-sets win over little-known Spaniard Galo Blanco on Wednesday.

The big ants, they make these huge mounds and they get them and crush them and make courts out of the stuff.

"It's very slippery, you can't move. You slide a lot and its difficult to stand up.

'That's about the closest thing we have to clay courts back in Queensland."

Rafter, ranked 25 in the world, is now the closest thing to a pure attacking player with a chance to lift the French crown since Yannick Noah walked away with the title in 1983.

In a perplexing French Open which has seen as many players ranked outside the top 100 as seeds reach the quarterfinals, the presence of a serve-and-volleyer in the last four may be the most confounding aspect of all.

That's jtist the w#n ^lay ” said Rafter, who is already reaping some benefit from his success at Roland Garros having earned a place among the seeds at Wimbledon with his results so far. "If I try and stay

back I'm not going to compete as well

"If the conditions are right.

I'll keep going."

To book nis place in Sunday's final Rafter has one more major hurdle to clear - rejuvenated twice champion Sergi Bruguera. the game's quintessential clay-courter.

The Spaniard, winner of back to4>acic French’ titles in 1993 and 1994, has won-both previous meetings against the Australian. Rafter admitting. "He kicked my butt".

The next match is another tough match but it’s winnable," he said. "It's an opportunity for me to make the finals.

"I’m going to keep serve and volleying but I think I'm doing it a little bit better now than when I played him before.

"He's going to have to hit a few more balls past me."

Two more wins would go a long way to erasing unpleasant memories of two injury-plagued seasons and a controversial start of the current campaign.

Batting wrist and ankle problems, last season never really got started for Rafter until April. Finally recovered, he was sidelined again in August with a shoulder injury and played Just three more tournaments. His world ranking plummeted to 62.

Finally over his health problems. Rafter began this season with a major public relations gaffe when ne found himself apologising for arriving for a Davis Cup match against the Czech Republic still drunk from a party the night before.

"My life is going to start changing again." said Rafter, adding that ne had learned his lessons from past mistakes. "All of a sudden there's people who want a piece of you again like in 1994 and 1995.

T know who my friends are. You have to be careful, that's part of the learning curve.”