Krajicek defeated Bruguera (17) & Ivanisevic (8). Goran dismantled Rosset (16) & defeated Bruguera (12) in a third set tiebreaker. Goran ousted Pete (1) in the semis in straights.
He lost to a next to unstoppable Courier in 4 sets. Goran defeated Carlos Costa (10) in 4 sets in the fourth round, handing him two breadsticks. He ousted Muster in 4 sets in the third round.ġ8 year old Goran ousted Becker (3) in 4 sets and made the quarters. He defeated Ivanisevic, and bageled him (16), Agassi (13) & Mantilla (15) in straights. Skips every clay tournament barring Rome. I not only took into account if they made the finals, the semis or the quarters, but also what player/s (rankings too, needlees to say) they defeated on the tournaments. It may very well be a pointless excercise but i was egged on by curiosity, since their abilities and careers are compared. I went over their results on said surface to try to lessen (a bit) the importance of power in their respective games. Rafter was a deserving number one during his brief time at the top of the game. He defeated The Man for the third consecutive time en route to successfully defending his US Open title, during Sampras’ 6-year run as year-end number one, creating the biggest thorn in Sampras’ resume for the GOAT debate.ĭon’t let the 1-sided head-to-heads fool you.
Rafter did it with athleticism and commitment to his attacking style. I loved how he made crafty use of the slice forehand approach to attack short high balls.Īnd I loved how, during his short peak, from 1997-1999, he didn’t back down from Sampras, who was ‘the man’ at the time, even though Sampras seemed so much more talented. Unlike Edberg, who had a world-class backhand, Rafter did his thing with shaky ground strokes on both wings. Watching him completely dismantle Chang (the huge favorite to win after Sampras was knocked out) in an absolute clinic of serve-and-volley and chip-and-charge tennis was probably the most I’ve ever enjoyed watching a one-sided tennis match.
He was already one of my favorite players in 1997 when he suddenly ‘put it all together’ and rolled through the 1997 US Open draw. At the same time I'm not afraid to admit this: off the top of my head Pat is only one of the three players, along with Pete and Noah, who could regularly finish off points with an overhead from the baseline, and given his advantage in backhand smash (which was the sole chink in Sampras' overhead armor, kinda like the running FH for Federer) I wouldn't object much if you argued Pat's overhead was even better than Pete's iconic slam dunk.Īs a fellow serve-and-volleyer, I followed Rafter’s rise closely. Perhaps Pat was indeed superior in routine volleys - return the ball over his shoulder and you could kiss the point goodbye - but I suspect that if one were to compile a collection of volleys in big GS matches between these two Pete would come out ahead. I must add here that I don't subscribe to the fashionable opinion (if not consensus) that Rafter was a better volleyer than Sampras. Apart from Agassi he was the only player who could maintain such consistency without an overpowering serve, which speaks for itself. This kind of resourcefulness isn't obvious to the untrained eye, but it allowed Pat to hold serve more often than almost anyone else, ending up in the top 10 every year from 1996-2001. Of course it also didn't help that S&V is the most difficult style of play to appreciate for the casual tennis fan, who more often than not missed how much craft went into that unique net-rushing game of his in an increasingly baseline-friendly era.Ĭase in point: Sampras at the end of his book makes the rather remarkable claim that he preferred to play Edberg to Rafter, because with Stefan you knew what was coming whereas Pat would mix up his serve so much he'd force you into a "guessing game" as to where and how the serve would land (Pete gives a particular shout-out to the latter's body serve, which as he rightly notes is an underutilized shot in tennis). And though it's become almost a cliche to say Pat was one of those few guys that could excel in other major sports his athleticism wasn't of the flashy kind that made you sit up and pay attention a la Monfils or even Chang.
#Pat rafter free#
In fact almost everything about his game screamed effort: you could tell he was trying with that grunting of his, nor was he going to win lots of free points with his serve or FH like pretty much every prominent serve-and-bomber. Rafter, pace Drysdale, wasn't an "artist" in the mold of Edberg or even Sampras. If he's underappreciated that's because there was more to his game than meets the eye.
0 kommentar(er)
