Cabeza del Demonio
Professional
Welcome to the 20for20 series, recounting the 20 greatest Australian Open matches from the century's first 20 years! I'll be posting one match a day (if I have time) in countdown style, ranking the best Australian Open classics of the century. I already know some of you tennis aficionados will disagree with my ranking choices, but they're MY rankings so deal with it 
Today we start with #20, a 5-set battle between defending champ Andre Agassi and home hope Pat Rafter. The Aussie delivered one of his greatest serving performances, raining down aces and putting the world's greatest returner under pressure. The capacity Melbourne crowd were treated to a beautiful display of contrasting styles between Agassi's machine-like baseline tennis and Rafter's elegant aggression. Rafter brought the home crowd to their feet clinching the 3rd set in a tiebreak, but Andre finally withstood the barrage and pulled ahead in the last 2 to close it out, 7-5 2-6 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3.
He would go on to beat Clement in the final and claim his 3rd Australian Open crown.
Enjoy!
Today we start with #20, a 5-set battle between defending champ Andre Agassi and home hope Pat Rafter. The Aussie delivered one of his greatest serving performances, raining down aces and putting the world's greatest returner under pressure. The capacity Melbourne crowd were treated to a beautiful display of contrasting styles between Agassi's machine-like baseline tennis and Rafter's elegant aggression. Rafter brought the home crowd to their feet clinching the 3rd set in a tiebreak, but Andre finally withstood the barrage and pulled ahead in the last 2 to close it out, 7-5 2-6 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3.
He would go on to beat Clement in the final and claim his 3rd Australian Open crown.
Enjoy!