{"id":25797,"date":"2020-06-08T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=25797"},"modified":"2020-06-06T21:27:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T01:27:16","slug":"memorable-mens-grand-slam-finals-in-the-2000s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/06\/08\/memorable-mens-grand-slam-finals-in-the-2000s\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorable Men\u2019s Grand Slam Finals in the 2000s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were some memorable major finals in men\u2019s tennis during the 2000s and Last Word on Tennis picked out five of the best.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Andre Agassi beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov 3\u20136, 6\u20133, 6\u20132, 6\u20134 &#8211; Australian Open 2000<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Agassi v Kafelnikov: 2000 Australian Open Men&#039;s Final Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p_0HDlVkwKY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agassi came into the first Slam of the millennium as the World No. 1, and on a run of three consecutive major finals, winning the French Open and the US Open with a loss to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His Russian opponent was the defending champion having beaten Thomas Enqvist\u00a0 4\u20136, 6\u20130, 6\u20133, 7\u20136 a year before and came in as the second seed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unsurprisingly, Agassi made the last-eight with a minimum of fuss, dropping just one set, to Mark\u00a0 Philippoussis in the fourth round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He then breezed past Hicham Arazi to set up a mouth-watering semi-final with compariot Pete Sampras where Agassi fell two sets to one down but he edged the fourth in a tie-break before sealing a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 triumph.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kafelnikov lost the first set of his tournament against Jens Knippschild but recovered to win and made it to the final without dropping another set.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like his American counterpart, this included beating a Morrocan in the last-eight before securing his place in a second successive showpiece but easing past twelfth seed Magnus Norman 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Russian took the first set 6-3 but Agassi took command and led by two sets to one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His second Australian Open title and fifth Grand Slam was sealed 6-4 in the fourth.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Goran Ivanisevic beat Pat Rafter 6\u20133, 3\u20136, 6\u20133, 2\u20136, 9\u20137 &#8211; Wimbledon 2001<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Goran Ivanisevic v Pat Rafter: Wimbledon Final 2001 (Extended Highlights)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DzoEVuRkLLo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ivanisevic had pedigree at the grass court major reaching three previous finals, losing to Agassi in 1992 and Pete Sampras in 1994 and 1998.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, since the latter final the Croatian had suffered with injuries and came into the 2001 at world No. 125 which was not high enough to earn an automatic place in the draw but he was given a wildcard due to his previous record at the All England Club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rafter came in as the third seed and reached the last-four the year before losing to Agassi in straight sets, his best run at Wimbledon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to his lowly ranking Ivansevic faced a tough draw, beating Carlos Moya and Andy Roddick and Marat Safin in four sets to reach the semi-final.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He faced home favourite Tim Henman the sixth seed but took the first set before the Englishman claimed the next two including a 15 minute 6-0 second set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However the rain came and the players had to resume the following day, Saturday, where the Croat leveled the match on a tie-break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five games into the deciding set, the rain came again so the players came back for a third day with Ivansevic sealing a remarkable victory, 6-3.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rafter also had a tricky run to the quarter-finals with a couple of four sets victories before comfortably beating Thomas Enqvist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His last-four match with Andre Agassi was a topsy-turvy encounter, with the pair trading sets before the Australian eventually prevailed 8-6 in the decider.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In one of the few finals to be played on a Monday, due to a rainy fortnight in SW19<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,the Croatian took the opening set but Rafter levelled by the same score.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ivanisevic won the third set but the Australian hit back again to force a decider.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fifth set seemed to last interminably, even more so when Ivanisevic twice had match point but double-faulted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, it was third time lucky as a Rafter return sank into the net.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rafter would never play at Wimbledon while Ivanesevic would return only once, in 2003, exiting in the third round.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Gaston Gaudio beat Guillerimo Coria 0\u20136, 3\u20136, 6\u20134, 6\u20131, 8\u20136 &#8211; French Open 2004<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gaston Gaudio vs Guillermo Coria 2004 Roland Garros Final Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i8W85I9_Guw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gaudio entered the French Open ranked 44th and yet to make a Grand Slam quarter-final, his best run being the fourth round in Paris two years before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His fellow Argentine was the third seed and had shown his prowess on clay having won tournaments in Stuttgart, Kitzb\u00fchel and Sopot and reaching the French Open semi-finals the previous year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 44th seed had an eventful run to the quarter-finals with his only straight sets victory coming over Igor Andreev in the fourth round, who had beaten defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two more straight sets wins over twelfth seed Lleyton Hewitt and eighth seed David Nalbandian took him to his first Slam final.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast, Coria had reached the last-eight without dropping a set with Nicolas Escude retiring after just one set in the fourth round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The run continued with a tight win against impressive clay-courter and fifth seed Carlos Moya.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Argentine finally dropped a set in the semi-final against Tim Henman but recovered to win in four and also reach his maiden Slam final.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After coming through semi-finals lineups which did not contain either Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer for the first time in 33 slams, it was the best chance either of them were likely to get.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the first all-Argentine Grand Slam final, it seemed as it would play out as many expected with Coria storming into a two-set lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Parisian crowd were so bored with the one-sided nature they had started in mexican wave in the third set but Gaudio took advantage of the atmosphere to stunningly force a decider.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here, the turnaround was complete as Coria could not convert a 4-2 lead or two match points in what would be his only major final.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gaudio\u2019s only Grand Slam title remains the most recent French Open final to be decided in five sets,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the most recent Grand Slam final in which the winner came back from trailing two sets to love.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Juan Martin del Potro beat Roger Federer 3\u20136, 7\u20136<\/b><b>(7\u20135)<\/b><b>, 4\u20136, 7\u20136<\/b><b>(7\u20134)<\/b><b>, 6\u20132 &#8211; US Open 2009<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2009 US Open Final Highlights- Federer vs. Del Potro HD\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xxb4MIsBBsg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Del Potro came into the US Open as the sixth seed and had reached his first Slam semi-final a few months earlier at the French Open, losing to Federer from two sets to one up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer was the undisputed world No. 1 and had won the previous two Grand Slams, beating Andy Roddick at Wimbledon and Robin Soderling at the French Open. He was also on a run of five successive US Open titles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Argentine eased through to the quarter-finals, only dropping one set and beat Marin Cilic after failing a set behind, to reach the last-four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here he produced one his most accomplished performances, thrashing third seed Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Likewise Federer only dropped a single set in his first few rounds, to Lleyton Hewitt and edged Soderling in four sets including two tie-breaks to reach the last-four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Swiss also produced a surprisingly one-sided affair, easing past fourth seed Novak Djokovic 7-6, 7-5, 7-5.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The experience of Federer showed in the first set when he took away del Potro\u2019s angles, and this coupled with strong serving gave him the early breakthrough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Federer broke for 3-1 in the second set and the outcome seemed a formality but the Argentine broke back, eventually forcing a tie-break where he levelled the match.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The third set was a tight affair until del Potro failed to convert a break point in the nith game and two double faults handed Federer the set.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roared on by the crowd, eager for a fifth set, del Potro grew in confidence and duly obliged by winning another tie-break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He raced out two a 3-0 lead and with Federer failing to convert another break point, his 22nd of the match, the 20-year-old drove home his advantage to seal a famous win.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Novak Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4\u20136, 6\u20134, 6\u20133, 7\u20136 &#8211; Australian Open 2008<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tsonga v Djokovic: 2008 Australian Open Men&#039;s Final Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N9RJ0I9Ivhs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Djokovic came into the first Slam of the year as the third seed on the back of reaching his first major final months earlier, losing to Roger Federer at the US Open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tsonga had claimed the ATP Newcomer of the Year award the year before but had yet to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Serbian Djokovic took care of business easily, reaching the semi-finals without losing a set including victories over Lleyton Hewitt and David Ferrer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His run continued, beating two-time defending champion Roger Federer 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 which ended the Swiss\u2019 run of 10 consecutive Slam finals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tsonga endured a tricker path to the quarter-finals with a couple of impressive four-set victories over Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet, the ninth and eighth seeds respectively before beating Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His opponent in the last-four was second seed Rafael Nadal but the Frenchman produced an outstanding performance, winning 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tsonga grabbed the opening set but Djokovic only needed the one break to level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was then just a set away after a more comfortable third set before the Frenchman produced a defiant last stand but to no avail as Djokovic became the first Serbian to win a Grand Slam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This would be the start of a love affair for Djokovic, the first of eight titles in Melbourne.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/94904920\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.498314% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/94904920?et=VN8pdf08SRNGn863mBdANw&#038;tld=com&#038;sig=KMUkqctvY4Lo65wcR-o4CbNGDHv6K-qA6eF4dxmezEE=&#038;caption=true&#038;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"395\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were some memorable major finals in men\u2019s tennis during the 2000s and Last Word on Tennis picked out five of the best. Andre Agassi beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov 3\u20136, 6\u20133, 6\u20132, 6\u20134 &#8211; Australian Open 2000 Agassi came into the first Slam of the millennium as the World No. 1, and on a run of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":25839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1735,7,2,5,8,6],"tags":[935,18,205,204,934,11448,4587,9659,314,84,22,11449,114,48,799,43,21,11450],"class_list":["post-25797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-time-best","category-australian-open","category-featured","category-french-open","category-us-open","category-wimbledon","tag-andre-agassi","tag-atp","tag-australian-open","tag-french-open","tag-gaston-gaudio","tag-goran-ivanisevic","tag-grand-slam-finals","tag-guillermo-coria","tag-jo-wilfried-tsonga","tag-juan-martin-del-potro","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-pat-rafter","tag-roger-federer","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-history","tag-us-open","tag-wimbledon","tag-yevgeny-kafelnikov"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}