Berasategui was known for his extreme western grip, known as the "Hawaiian grip", where his unusual hold on the racket would allow him to hit both forehands and backhands with the same side of the racket. This helped him on clay, but he did not have much of an impact on other surfaces except for a quarterfinals appearance at the
1998 Australian Open, after having beaten world No. 2,
Patrick Rafter in four sets in the third round, and came back from two sets down to beat the
1995 Australian Open champion, former and future world No. 1,
Andre Agassi, in the fourth round. He lost in quarterfinals to
Marcelo Ríos after winning a tight first-set tiebreak. ==Grand Slam finals==