The end finally came with a twist. The main protagonist of the match became the victim, the largely tormented character emerged victorious. It was not the match-shaping Andre Agassi who advanced through to the Wimbledon final yesterday but Australian Pat Rafter.

For most of a match in which the 1992 champion, Agassi, squeezed the natural serve and vollyer, Rafter, the outcome finally came down to opportunity, fortune and no less the resilience and endurance of last year's 27-year-old defeated finalist.

After the match a frustrated Agassi could not honestly believe how many chances he had let slip to Rafter, how many times he had permitted the third seed to find firm ground after he'd sent him scrambling around the court for a lifeline.

Rafter even conceded that this was a match he survived rather than controlled, but, importantly, whoever he meets in the final will not wear the veneer of invincibility that Pete Sampras did for almost a decade.

Rafter will challenge either Tim Henman or Goran Ivanisevic, whose match was postponed last night as the great green bivouac inflated on Centre Court and the rain poured down, with Henman leading two sets to one and 2-1 up in the fourth. The match resumes today at 1.0pm on centre court, with the women's final to follow.

"Relieved and excited is how I feel," said Rafter. "Maybe one in a 100 or one in 200 matches turn out that way for you. I hung in and got very lucky."

For much of the match the momentum was with Agassi.

Effortlessly breaking Rafter in the first set for 6-2, the second seed was spare with every point. But the Australian's immaculate timing could not have been better as he pounced on a weak Agassi start to the second set to go a break up and hold for the set.

That opportunism from Rafter was what finally decided the match as he consistently toughed out the important points while Agassi created but couldn't convert. The American broke once for 2-1, before Rafter again responded in a fraught fourth set for 2-2.

The statistics ultimately bore out Agassi's unusual generosity. Rafter converted five of his nine service break points while Agassi won just four from the 15 he earned. As well as fortune favouring the Australian, two other issues obviously affected the outcome.

In the fourth, set a break point down and with Rafter leading 3-2, a ball Agassi clearly saw as out was not called. It then happened a second time.

Furious, Agassi threw down his racquet and at the change over demanded that the line judge be removed.

"You've plenty of people, get rid of him," urged Agassi. "How many more do you want him to miss? If he misses the slow ones, how's he going to call the serves?"

After the match Agassi denied hitting a ball at a female line judge who had subsequently called him for uttering an audible obscenity in the fifth set.

"Did you aim at her with the ball at the end?" Agassi was asked. "No, I meant to hit that in the net," he said weakly.

Even Rafter was unconvinced of his opponent's intentions with the ball, but he defended Agassi on the obscenity charge, which he sensed had derailed the 30-year-old's concentration.

"I still think what affected him was that lady who reported him. You know, I think just let it go. Only one person heard it. It's not that big a deal."

But was Rafter aware that Agassi had almost hit the line judge with the ball when the match had ended? "Listen, I don't want to look around. He was shaping up to hit a ball in that direction. As I said, I thought it was a little bit unfair of that lady to report him. I guess she took the rules a little seriously."

It is the second successive year that Rafter has put Agassi out of the championship, and last year's match was also a five-set affair but with less convincing opportunities for Agassi.

"The closer you get to winning the harder it is to accept not winning," he said. "So in that respect he won the fifth set decisively last year and this year I'd a lot more chances. You know it's more disappointing. I thought it sucked, really did."

Rafter now has the chance to become the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash's straight-set win over Ivan Lendl in 1987. Last year against Sampras he admitted to getting tight and not performing when he had the chance to go two sets up. He's unlikely to repeat the error.

"I hope I get in that situation again," he said. "It would be a nice position. I was saying 'relax' last time. 'Relax, relax.' It didn't work. Maybe I might say, 'choke, choke,' see what happens."