Australian tennis champion Pat Rafter has reflected on his heartbreaking loss to Goran Ivanišević in the 2001 Wimbledon final.
Rafter went down in an epic five-set match to the big-serving Croatian who became the first male wildcard entrant to win a Grand Slam title.
“I get reminded whenever I see him (Ivanišević), he makes a point of it,” Rafter told SEN's This Is Your Sporting Life thanks to Tobin Brothers Funerals.
“He’s a good bloke, I’m a big fan of Goran.
“It stays with me a little bit. It stayed with me for the first 10 years – it’s been 20 years now, so I’d like to think that I’ve forgotten a little bit of it.
“It wasn’t a great tennis match, it was just a really good spectacle between two guys trying to win their first Wimbledon and had equal amount of craziness going on in the crowd.
“It was a Monday final, there were Aussies and Croatians everywhere, there were passionate Goran fans, there was singing for three and a half hours - it was a pretty amazing feeling.
“Full credit to Goran, he took it away from me at the end. I would have loved for the result to be different.”
It was Rafter’s second straight Wimbledon final loss after going down to Peter Sampras in four sets a year earlier.
The 48-year-old is a dual US Open champion in 1997 and 1998.