Mark Philippoussis

Mark Anthony Philippoussis (born November 7, 1976, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian tennis player of Greek heritage (turned professional 1994) currently residing in Florida, USA. Coached by his father, Nick, Philippoussis, and a right-hander, he has played tennis since he was six years of age. He was briefly coached by former 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash during his junior years, which ended in an acrimonious split.

In 1994, he finished third in single ranking for juniors. Philippoussis also finished as junior doubles champion with Ben Ellwood in Australia, Wimbledon, and Italy. He turned professional in 1994. In 1995, at the age of 19, he was the youngest player in the year-end top 50. In 1996, he reached the 4th round of the Australian Open upsetting Pete Sampras in the 3rd round and in doubles with Pat Rafter, he advanced to semifinals at Wimbledon and US Open. On May 25, 1997, he recorded a personal best 142.3 mph serve in a game he lost to Albert Costa.

In 1998, he reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open losing to Rafter. On March 29, 1999, he entered the top 10 for the first time and stayed there for 11 weeks. He advanced to the quarter finals at Wimbledon for the second straight year and retired in 2nd set against no. 1 Pete Sampras after having won the first set. He suffered a moderate cartilage tear in his left knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery four days later on July 6. He returned to professional tennis seven weeks later in Indianapolis and lost in his opening match. He did not play again until October 12 in Singapore where he lost in 2nd Round.

He finished 1999 in the top 20. 2000 was the fourth consecutive year in which he finished in the top 20. He reached the 4th round at the Australian Open losing to eventual champion Andre Agassi. He defeated Pete Sampras 8-6 in the fifth set at Roland Garros in a 3rd round match but lost in the 4th round. For the third consecutive year, he made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon losing again to Andre Agassi. He appeared in his second Olympics, losing in 3rd Round to eventual gold medalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He finished 2002 in the top 100 (7th time in 8 years) despite not winning a title. He moved from Miami to San Diego, California area in September 2002.

Philippoussis is also a regular member of the Australian Davis Cup squad. In 1999 Philippoussis, along with doubles partner Jelena Dokić, won Australia's first ever Hopman Cup title by beating Sweden 2 rubbers to 1 in the final.

A hallmark of Philippoussis' game is his powerful serve, which gave him his nickname "The Scud", and his sturdy groundstrokes. During a 2003 Wimbledon tennis match against Andre Agassi (6-3, 2-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4), he set a new Australian tennis record of 46 aces served in a match, just three aces short of the overall ATP Tour record then held by Richard Krajicek.

Philippoussis had an initially rocky relationship with the Australian tennis hierarchy and tennis public. Early in his career, he regularly sacrificed Davis Cup events in the interest of playing more individual tournaments, and had a famous falling out when the Davis Cup captain Neale Fraser appeared with Rafter's family at the US Open final. He was also regarded as somewhat of an underachiever, with his reported penchant for fast cars (he reportedly owned several Ferraris and Lamborghinis) and women (amongst them Anna Kournikova) supposedly the reason for a record poorer than his immense natural gifts would suggest.

After three knee operations and a protracted comeback, Philippoussis avowed a new seriousness to his sport. He made himself available regularly for Davis Cup, hired a new physical trainer who instituted a gruelling fitness regime, and took up surfing as his new recreation. It seemed to work, as he made the 2003 Wimbledon final, finally losing to an on-fire Roger Federer 7-6, 6-2, 7-6.

Philippoussis broke a two year singles title drought by winning the Shanghai Open in 2003. On 30 November 2003 Philippoussis defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain to win the fourth match of the Davis Cup final in Melbourne, thus securing the title for Australia. This victory in front of his home crowd won him a place in the affections of the Australian sporting public which some of his behaviour in earlier years - including refusal to play Davis Cup - had put in jeopardy.

The honeymoon with the Australian public however did not last. 2004 proved a disastrous year in terms of his tennis career and public profile. After shouldering most of the blame for losing Australia's David Cup tie with Sweden with an unexpected below par performance, Philippoussis then struggled through to the Wimbledon finals in June 2004. By the close of the year, Philippoussis had failed to win a single ATP tennis match and finished with his lowest ever ranking since turning professional in 1994. In October 2004, a much publicized affair with Australian singer Delta Goodrem had soured and seriously damaged his public standing when newspapers revealed that Paris Hilton had professed her interest for Philippoussis. This only added to his "playboy" image with the public siding with the popular Goodrem. As of June 2005, he is engaged to model Alexis Barbara.

Singles Titles

1. 1996 Toulouse
2. 1997 Scottsdale, Arizona
3. 1997 Munich
4. 1997 Queen's Club, London
5. 1998 Memphis, Tennessee
6. 1999 San Jose, California
7. 1999 Indian Wells, California
8. 2000 San Jose, California
9. 2001 Memphis, Tennessee
10. 2003 Shanghai, China

External links

• Profile on www.atptennis.com (http://www.atptennis.com/en/players/playerprofiles/default2.asp?playersearch=philippoussis)
• Career highlights on www.atptennis.com (http://www.atptennis.com/en/players/playerprofiles/Highlights/default.asp?playernumber=P338)
• The Mark Philippoussis Archives (http://www.hooloovoo.com/mark/)
• Mark Philippoussis (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/3279/MARK.HTML)ja:マーク・フィリプーシス

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