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,[1] Andre Agassi,[2] Thomas Johansson,[3] and Ivo Karlović.

[4] He consistently had one of the highest ace counts on the ATP Tour and favours a serve-and-volley style of play.

In February 2005 he achieved a belated breakthrough in singles by winning the ATP event in Scottsdale, United States, the Tennis Channel Open, in straight sets over Croat Mario Ančić.

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 the second round Arthurs caused a major boilover by defeating the 11th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo in straight sets.