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Mark Anthony Philippoussis (born November 7, 1976,
Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian tennis
player of Greek heritage (turned professional
1994) currently residing in Florida, United
States|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
championships|Wimbledon champion Pat Cash during
his junior years, which ended in an acrimonious
split. Philippoussis' style of play is to hit
every shot hard, and this accomplished by his
amazing natural ability.  Many players hit serves
hard, but only Mark Philippoussis can hit a
groundstroke at the same speed.  This is what
separates him from other players like Andy
Roddick, and he is widely regarded as the hardest
hitter in the history of the game, next to Lew
Hoad.

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 (tennis)|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,
Indiana|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,
Florida|Miami to San Diego, California|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_championships|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
championships|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==
# 1996 Toulouse 
# 1997 Scottsdale, Arizona 
# 1997 Munich 
# 1997 Queen's Club, London 
# 1998 Memphis, Tennessee 
# 1999 San Jose, California 
# 1999 Indian Wells, California 
# 2000 San Jose, California 
# 2001 Memphis, Tennessee
# 2003 Shanghai, China

==External links==
*http://www.atptennis.com/en/players/playerprofile
s/default2.asp?playersearch=philippoussis Profile
on www.atptennis.com
*http://www.atptennis.com/en/players/playerprofile
s/Highlights/default.asp?playernumber=P338 Career
highlights on www.atptennis.com
*http://www.hooloovoo.com/mark/ The Mark
Philippoussis Archives
*http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/3279/MARK
.HTML Mark Philippoussis