Career
His serve was his strongest weapon by far, and had been referred to as the "best in the world" by several of his fellow players, including Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Thomas Johansson. He consistently had one of the highest ace counts on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour and favours a serve-and-volley style of play. Because of this, his game is best suited to fast surfaces.
He also was a runner-up there for doubles with Paul Hanley, and lost to American team Bob and Mike Bryan.
Throughout his singles career Arthurs experienced victory over no fewer than six players who have reached the number 1 world ranking: Pete Sampras, Marat Safin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Patrick Rafter, Andy Roddick and Gustavo Kuerten. In his last ever Australian Open match the Aussie retired just three games into his third-round match against American Mardy Fish due to a rare reaction to a local anaesthetic.
In practice that morning he tried out a short-term local anaesthetic that worked well against his sore hip. Just before the match began, he took another shot that was supposed to last for the duration of the match.
The stronger dose deadened his leg and he could not co-ordinate his movements.
He refused to blame his doctors who said that this adverse reaction happens to about 1 in 1000 patients. Arthurs became emotional during the match once he realised he couldn"t compete. After the in-between-game break, down 3–0 he waved to the crowd who thanked him for an outstanding career.
lieutenant was the last Australian Open match of his career.
At the time, he was the oldest participant in the Australian Open. Arthurs played his final tournament at Wimbledon in 2007.
In the second round Arthurs caused a major boilover by defeating the 11th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo in straight sets. Arthurs was defeated in the third round by 19th seed Jonas Björkman in straight sets.
He now coaches the young Queensland player Oliver Anderson.