Background and career
Mark Anthony Philippoussis (born 7 November 1976) is an Australian tennis coach, commentator and former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winning the deciding rubber in the final of each. He also reached the final of the 1998 US Open and the 2003 Wimbledon singles tournaments. Philippoussis reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8. Philippoussis has had a minor career in modelling and starred in the American reality television dating show Age of Love. He is nicknamed 'the Scud', after the Scud missile. He is also known in Australia as "The Pou".
Mark Philippoussis (Greek: Μαρκ Φιλιππούσης, FIL-ih-POO-sis) was born in Melbourne to a Greek father, Nikolaos ("Nick"), and an Italian mother, Rossana; and was educated at Maribyrnong College and later at Wesley College. He is of the Catholic faith.
Coached by his father, Nick, the right-hander has played tennis since he was six years of age. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. He was briefly coached by former 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, which ended in an acrimonious split in 2000. In 1994, he finished third in singles 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 Patrick Rafter. On 25 May 1997, he recorded a personal best 229.0 km/h (142.3 mph) serve in a game he lost to Albert Costa. During the height of his career, Philippoussis was known as having one of the fastest serves in the game.
At the 1998 US Open U.S. Open, Philippoussis reached his first Grand Slam final, losing to fellow Australian Patrick Rafter in four sets. In January 1999, Philippoussis and Jelena Dokić won the Hopman Cup for Australia, defeating Sweden's Åsa Carlsson and Jonas Björkman in the final tie. This was the first time that Australia won the Hopman Cup and the only time until Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova won in January 2016. In March 1999, Mark Philippoussis defeated Carlos Moyá in five sets in the final of Indian Wells Masters. On 29 March 1999, Philippoussis entered the top 10 for the first time and stayed there for 10 weeks. He advanced to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1999 for the second straight year, where he retired in the second set against Sampras after having won the first set. During that match, Philippoussis suffered a moderate cartilage tear in his left knee and underwent arthroscopic surgery four days later. Sampras later remarked that he "dodged a bullet out there". Philippoussis returned to professional tennis seven weeks later at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and lost his second-round match after receiving a bye in the first round. He did not play again until October in Singapore, where he lost in the second round. He finished 1999 at No. 19. 2000 was the fourth consecutive year in which Philippoussis finished in the top 20, at No. 11. He reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Andre Agassi. He defeated No. 2 Sampras 8–6 in the fifth set at the French Open in a first-round match, but lost in the fourth round to Juan Carlos Ferrero. For the third consecutive year, he made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing again to Agassi. He appeared in his second Olympic Games in Sydney, losing in the third round to eventual gold medalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Philippoussis finished 2002 in the top 100 (seventh time in eight years), despite not winning a title. He moved from Miami to the San Diego area in September 2002.
Philippoussis has always claimed to be proud of representing his country in Davis Cup, but personal differences with John Newcombe and Tony Roche interfered with his commitment early in his career. Despite several highly publicised feuds, Philippoussis played a large part in giving Australia their 27th Davis Cup triumph—second only to the United States with 31—but it was their first since 1986. In 1999 he defeated Cédric Pioline, in four sets in Nice, France. Injuries plagued Philippoussis's availability for Davis Cup and was the cause of a public rift between team-mates Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt. Rafter publicly accused Philippoussis of jerking the team around after he withdrew from a Davis Cup tie in late 2000. Philippoussis said Rafter was ill-informed and upset by the lack of support and understanding from his team-mates. Knee surgeries forced Philippoussis out of Davis Cup until February 2003. By then, Pat Rafter had retired, and John Fitzgerald and Wally Masur were the new Davis Cup captain and coach. Philippoussis sealed victory for Australia in the Melbourne Final against Spain. Philippoussis beat Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero in a five set battle. Philippoussis suffered a pectoral tear at the end of the second set, which caused him to lose the third and fourth sets. He regrouped in the fifth set and beat Ferrero 6–0.
After three knee operations, Philippoussis embarked on a protracted comeback. He made himself available regularly for Davis Cup, hired a new physical trainer, and took up surfing as his new recreation. He made the 2003 Wimbledon final, losing to Roger Federer in straight sets. During a 2003 Wimbledon tennis match against Andre Agassi, he set a new Australian tennis record of 46 aces served in a match, three aces short of the overall ATP Tour record then held by Richard Krajicek. Philippoussis broke a two-year singles-title drought by winning the Shanghai Open in 2003. On 30 November 2003, he defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain to win the fourth match of the Davis Cup final in Melbourne, securing the title for Australia. At the end of 2003, Philippoussis received the ATP Comeback Player of the Year award. The honeymoon period 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 Davis Cup tie with Sweden with an unexpected below-par performance, Philippoussis struggled through to the Wimbledon fourth round in June 2004. From Wimbledon in June until the end of the season in October, he failed to win a single ATP tennis match and finished with one of his lowest rankings since turning professional in 1994. In October 2004, a much-publicised affair with Delta Goodrem had soured and seriously damaged his standing, after newspapers alleged that he had dated Paris Hilton while with Goodrem. In March 2005, he became engaged to actress and model Alexis Barbara. The Age reported the pair had split in July 2006, but Philippoussis denied this to Australian tabloid New Idea; they did split some time before he began filming Age of Love.
