australianopen01agassi_rafter

Points won by each set: [ 41-32, 22-33, 41-42, 27-16, 30-17 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
30 % Agassi – 45 of 148
33 % Rafter – 51 of 153

Fascinating match in the first three sets which unfortunately turned into a borefest in the last two. Rafter [15] was serving & hitting forehands above his standards (for instance he struck two straight aces at 1-all, 15/40 in the 3rd set) and the crowd could expect the first Australian finalist since Pat Cash in 1988. Rafter felt cramps at the beginning of the 4th set though, took a medical time-out trailing *1:2 and was never the same afterwards. His acrobatic skills at the net disappeared, on Agassi’s service games he was simply helpless (the American won the last 18 points on serve). I think that if Agassi [6] had been more focused on return games, he could have won the last two sets “6-1 6-1” or something similar. Rafter’s last match in his home Slam, at the age of 29… somehow expected because at the beginning of the season he said it’d be his last.

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