Mark Philippoussis

Mark Anthony Philippoussis (born 7 November 1976) is an Australian tennis coach and former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent.

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.

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.

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 (Μαρκ Φιλιππούσης, ) 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.

At the 1998 US Open U.S. Open, Philippoussis reached his first Grand Slam final, losing to fellow Australian Patrick Rafter.

Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winning the deciding rubber in the final of each.

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.

On March 14 1999, Mark Philippoussis defeated Carlos Moyá, 5–7, 6–4, 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 in 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.

In 1999 he defeated Cédric Pioline, 6–3, 5–7, 6–1, 6–2, in Nice, France.

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.

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.