When the world was 'blown away' by a tennis match on Burj Al Arab helipad

From Iceland to New Zealand, people in every country across the world may point to Burj Khalifa and Tom Cruise when you ask them what comes to their mind when they think of Dubai.

- Rituraj Borkakoty

Who could blame them after the makers of Mission Impossible created the most jaw-dropping action scene in which Cruise jumps off a Burj Khalifa window and climbs up several floors, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats?

But a few years before Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol hit the screens, Dubai made global headlines when stunning images of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi, two of the most iconic tennis players in history, hitting the ball on the helipad of the majestic Burj Al Arab spread like wildfire.

That iconic Federer-Agassi tennis match completed 20 years last Saturday February 22.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships organisers' highly ambitious plan to promote their tournament and the city of Dubai still holds a special place in the hearts of everyone who played a part on that historic day in 2005.

One of them is Jorge Ferrari, the UAE-based photographer who was next to the two players on the helipad as they traded shots and banters at more than a thousand feet above the Arabian Gulf.

"Every year the tournament organises photo shoots with the top players to promote the tournament and Dubai. So there were always brainstorming sessions before the tournament, and this came up. And I was asked to do the still pictures," the Argentinian expat recalled.