Yup.
Made me a bit sad to see that these volleys are gone. Even the best volleyers today no longer attempt some of the volleys Rafter made. The incredible thing about his volleys was he was able to place them even when hitting low/half volley. As was said of Edberg, he was virtually rallying off the volley, he had as much control over it as if it was a groundstroke.
Great points! Rafter is probably the best volleyer I can recall, super nice guy as well
That one is insane. The redirection he could achieve on volleys was incredible. He couldn't even get a proper look and the ball was behind him as he hit and still sent it cross court, far away from Agassi.
Exactly. I put him even above Mac and Edberg . In almost all matches I watched he always showed some great volley artistry.
Was a passionate cricket fan during Rafter's playing days and the contrast between him and the Australian cricket team was startling, barring a few nice guys like Gilchrist and Brett Lee who reminded me of Rafter in terms of being sporting.
Unbelievable indeed. He also showed some great touch volleys in this match. Forehand, backhand, touch, backhand overhead. He could do it all. His reflexes were also superb. I remember one rally in the 98 USO semi where Sampras was directly aiming three or for shots at him from very close range and Rafter put them all back in play with superb reflexes until Sampras gave up and tried a pass instead which went out.
There's one point in this HLs too where Agassi hit a hard return straight into Rafter coming in and he simply carved a drop volley that gently dropped across the net.
2000 I think. 2001 was perhaps more dramatic, but definitely lower quality.
