Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter

Ivanisevic and Rafter face to face again

Published: Wednesday, 2 December 2009, 2:51PM

Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter came face-to-face, called each other a few names, laughed, and then hugged.

It had been a long time - more than eight years since their 2001 Wimbledon final - and the memory of that Monday final came rushing back as they prepared for the AEGON Masters Tennis event at the Royal Albert Hall, where they will play each other again this week.

“When I see Pat I laugh,” admitted Ivanisevic.

“It’s great to see him. It always reminds me of winning Wimbledon, of me struggling to put a serve in in that final game. It’s great. I felt sorry for Pat but he won two US Opens, so he’s ok. It was my only chance, my last chance, my last train to glory.”

Rafter agreed.

“I saved his life. He should thank me!” he said.

The Australian joined the ATP Champions Tour last year, but has yet to face Ivanisevic on the court.

“It’s going to be good to play him actually, I haven’t played him since Wimbledon so it’ll be a good laugh. We’re going to go out there and have a real crack at each other and that’s the fun thing about this tournament is that we will still play competitively but we can have a laugh and be a lot more light-hearted. That’s why I think the event really works.”

Ivanisevic said he had no plans to go easy on his old rival.

“If I can I’m going to kick his ass. It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be interesting. It’s great to play again in London, everybody’s going to be talking about that match and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

In the first round-robin match of the tournament, Stefan Edberg gave away five years to ATP Champions Tour debutant Younes El Aynaoui, but won through 6-3, 6-4.

Rafter will make his debut in the evening session on Wednesday against Cedric Pioline. Mark Philippoussis also debuts in the afternoon, against Britain's Greg Rusedski.

To view the full order of play for the week, click here: http://www.aegonmasterstennis.com/schedule.asp

The AEGON Masters Tennis event is a round-robin event featuring former World No.1 tennis players, Grand Slam finalists and Davis Cup winners. Each event on the ATP Champions Tour can also invite two wild card entrants of its choosing.

Matches are played over the best of three sets with a Champions' Tie-Break (first to ten points) to decide the winner in a deciding set.

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