This was never a case of who deserved to win the biggest tennis tournament in the world but who might not survive if they lost. That's why a raucous Centre Court crowd, most of whom had slept on the pavement overnight outside the All England Club to claim their £40 ticket, bought heavily into the forever shifting persona of Goran Ivanisevic.

Alluring, frustrating, on the edge, occasionally beyond belief, Ivanisevic inserted his fingers into the nervous system of the entire 13,800 crowd and squeezed. He did it on four match points and for that the crowd adored him even more. The fans, God and his favourite UK television programme The Telly Tubbies, they were all on his side.

Not since the days of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe have spectators become so involved in a match but rarely has a player been so connected with the crowd. Ivanisevic didn't just wear his heart on his sleeve with every net cord, line call and error that went against him but pulled it out, threw it into the bleachers, let it Mexican wave, then asked for it back to hold serve.

The fans even followed Ivanisevic around the Wimbledon acres after the trophy presentation. As he strode across an elevated walkway between the players' enclosure and media area, they again chanted his name. Raising his clenched fists in the air another shirt came off his back and flapped into their arms.

Ivanisevic had declared before the match that he didn't care if his injured shoulder fell of after the final so long as he did not have to endure a fourth Wimbledon climax that went against him.

Pete Sampras in 1994 and 1998 and Andre Agassi in 1992 had previously deprived him of the most sought-after trophy. No, the arm could go.

For third seed Pat Rafter, who finally fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7, the over riding feeling was of respect. Having lost in last year's final to Pete Sampras, it could, at 28, be the Australian's last visit. But with him, as with Tim Henman in the semi-final, the Croatian was able to steer the end game towards his own strengths and that was a fraught series of service games in the fifth set.

In that crucible there could only be one winner. Ivanisevic's last ace in the final game was his 213th of the tournament, a record that beat his previous mark of 206, which he struck as a runner-up in 1992.

The story of Ivanisevic now is as the only wildcard player ever to walk through the gates of a Grand Slam event and win.

While Jennifer Capriati was providing the tennis story of the year as she picked up the first two Grand Slam events in Melbourne and Paris, Ivanisevic was considering how to arrest a serious career fade.

While he never lost his attraction to the fans, it was clear that he had begun to play like them.

Coming into the championship he had won just eight matches in 2001. In trying to put a foot in the door in Melbourne before the Australian Open he was defeated by Petr Luxa in his first match of the qualifying round. Then at Queens, the principal warm-up event before Wimbledon, he lost in the first round. Ivanisevic didn't even attempt to qualify for the French Open as his ranking plummeted to 125 in the world.

From the initial reception, which more belonged at a soccer match, the crowd was entirely involved. A bad toss from Rafter on serve which forced a "sorry mate" to Ivanisevic as he pulled up was met with "no worries" from a lone court-side voice.

The match then went into a gear that never changed, each player looking for a fracture on serve, just one, in which they could eke out the set.

Rafter was first to wobble in the second game, Ivanisevic breaking for 1-0 before the Australian took advantage of a double fault for break point, whipping a forehand past Ivanisevic in the second game of the second set for 1-1.

Rafter then offered two break points in the sixth game of the third set, Ivanisevic luckily floating the second serve to the baseline for 2-1. That was God. Rafter looked surprised.

Ivanisevic curled his fists with delight.

By then even the Royal Box was showing that life existed among the cushioned wicker chairs. Rattled out of their slumber, the fourth set saw Ivanisevic almost lose his post racquet-breaking poise as Rafter moved up a break for 4-2 on a tough line call.

Rafter broke again for 6-2 and as Goran appeared to be going into persecution complex mode, he pulled himself together for the fifth set.

There his serving became phenomenal. In a five-game serving stretch he dropped only two points on serve, both of them double faults as the set moved to 7-7.

Finally the service break arrived leaving Ivanisevic to serve for the match at 8-7. A double fault on match point was followed by a second as the entire stadium watched fearfully that the left hander would spectacularly choke.

A third match point and Rafter anxiously lobbed him at the net before Ivanisevic, who famously uttered "I want to die" after his last final defeat to Sampras, sustained the torture, earning a fourth.

Rafter this time could do little, the netted ball on the agonising second serve sending a tearful Ivanisevic upwards to his father in the stand, to God even.