On this day 20 years ago, Patrick Rafter became No. 1—for one week

On July 26, 1999, exactly 20 years ago today, Patrick Rafter rose to No. 1 on the ATP rankings. It would turn out to be the shortest reign at No. 1 in tennis history.

Having soared into the Top 10 for the first time after winning his first Grand Slam title at the 1997 US Open, Rafter would embark on a 12-month stretch that propelled him to the top of the sport. He would win five titles, including ATP Masters events in Canada and Cincinnati—as well as the US Open. Shortly after reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999, where he fell to Andre Agassi, Rafter supplanted the American at the top of the ATP rankings.

His reign would only last one week, though. That same week, Pete Sampras won a tournament in Los Angeles and returned to No. 1, bumping Rafter out of the top spot.

Rafter is the only player since computer rankings began in the 1970s, male or female, to spend just one week at No. 1. Evonne Goolagong and Carlos Moya spent just two weeks there.

One of the most popular players in the history of the sport, the Australian didn’t even get to play a match as No. 1—his next tournament came the week after at the Masters tournament in Canada.

“I always joke with the players,” Rafter would say. “They say, ‘Congratulations, mate, you made No. 1.’ I say, ‘Yeah, one week.’ They say, ‘At least you bloody got it. At least you can say you got there.’”

The No. 1 ranking changed hands eight times during the 1999 season, between five different players: Rafter, Sampras, Agassi, Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Agassi ended the year at No. 1.

For Rafter, though, getting to No. 1 was just the icing on the cake.

“This year was never going to be a ranking sort of thing for me,” he said in Cincinnati. “It was never a goal, it just sort of happened that I was so close so many times, and then it just happened.

“It was nice to get it, but it was never going to be a matter of ranking this year.”

Rafter would go on to reach two more Grand Slam finals, both at Wimbledon, finishing runner-up to Sampras in 2000 and Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. He retired from the tour in 2002, but he has stayed active in the tennis world, playing on the ATP Champions Tour and in World Team Tennis, and spending more than four years as Australia’s Davis Cup captain. He has also played three tour-level events in doubles since retiring, most recently the 2014 Australian Open with Lleyton Hewitt (the Australian pair fell first round). In 2006, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Rafter is one of just three Australian men to reach No. 1—keep in mind that computer rankings weren't around for the country's glory days of Rod Laver et al. The other two are John Newcombe, who spent eight weeks at No. 1 in 1974; and Hewitt, who spent 80 weeks at No. 1 between 2001 and 2003.