Mark Philippoussis tipped Andre Agassi to win his second Wimbledon crown after losing out to the American in a high-class quarter-final on Centre Court.
The giant Australian finally ran out of steam after two epic five-setters as he had to bow to the brilliance of Agassi, who reached the semi-finals for the second year in succession.
Philippoussis was undone by some brilliant returning from Agassi and by the American's greater ability, and after going down in three sets, he said Agassi could be the man to beat, especially given Sanpras's inujry problems.
"I don't how Pete's injury is, but if he's not warming up before matches, he will obviously struggle at first in his matches.
"Andre is so tough to beat when he gets on top, that if that happens (against Sampras), if Andre gets past Pat (Rafter), then it'll be very tough for Pete.
Philippoussis said he was proud of his fortnight's work, during which he beat Sjeng Schalken 20-18 in the fifth set and also beat Tim Henman in another five-setter.
"I can hold my head up high,'' he said. "I have played well anbd I know that next year I will come back even better."
Philippoussis said he was looking forward to the Amerian summer and the hardcourt tournaments, but also cast an eye towards the Olympics.
"My last experience in Atlanta was incredible, staying in the village amongst the best athletes in the world. Obviously I'm very excited about having the Olympics at home.
"I think for a lot of players it's going to be big and I'm looking forward to winning a medal for my country if I can."
Philippoussis disarmed in Agassi masterclass
By Giles Smith
telgraph.co.uk
Wimbledon
TIM HENMAN said he wasn't going to stick around and see how the rest of the tournament panned out, but maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea to bite the bullet and do so. Yesterday, for instance, he could have watched Andre Agassi deliver a masterclass in the art of neutralising Mark Philippoussis, the challenge which Henman fell sadly short of on Monday.
Return to sender: Andre Agassi on his way to victory
Yesterday's quarter-final pitched the game's fastest server against the game's quickest returner of serve, in an atmosphere of whooping partiality, the burden of the Centre Court's needy adoration now passing by default, in the absence of Henman, to Agassi, whether he wants it or not. (To judge from the kisses he flung to each corner at the end, he wants it).
Like Henman, Agassi had to look down the court at this grimly determined slab of Australian muscle. And like Henman again, he had to suffer the mild indignity of being made to look slightly powdery in the shadow of Philippoussis's bronzed mass.
Unlike Henman, he saw off Philippoussis in straight sets in a victory remarkable for guile, spin and astonishing speed of reaction.
If anyone was going to get inside Scud's armoury, conduct a full inspection along UN guidelines and disable the active warheads, it was Agassi. "I don't get distracted by people aceing me," Agassi said later. The ace is, of course, what marketing men would call Philippoussis's unique selling point. He does a lot well, but this is the thing he does really well and his reputation for eliciting a slightly appalled "ooh" from crowds, as well as screams of pain and fright from line-judges caught in the crossfire, precedes him.
On Monday, Henman had often worn the expression of someone who felt that each of Philippoussis's unplayable deliveries was a blow to some tender part of himself. In stark contrast, Agassi's reaction to each ace (and he was obliged to live through 22 of them) was simply to scuttle busily to the other side of the court and forget about it. This would have to be a smart move. When Philippoussis is in his groove and serving, tennis might as well be golf: a man alone with his ball, his club and his thoughts. He is probably best left to get on with it. As Agassi proved, other opportunities come. Or, at least, if you have Agassi's game and can stick around long enough. "There's a lot going on out there that kind of helps you get around one guy's particular weapon," Agassi said.
Yesterday he exploited Philippoussis's sometimes uncertain arrivals at the net with three unforseeable lobs, two of which the Australian could only turn and stare at. At other times, he hared deep into the corners to retrieve balls which seemed well past their hit-by date. He appears to have abandoned entirely the concept of the lost cause. The smash which others would leave for dead, Agassi gets something to.
The awesome thing was that Agassi, even on many telling occasions, had coherent answers to Philippoussis's first serve. Philippoussis spoke afterwards about having wound himself up tighter for Agassi than he might do generally. "His reactions are so quick. I knew I would have to step it up a little, put a bit of extra pace on than normal," he said.
But it didn't work. "A couple of times he almost half-volleyed my serve, he was so far in," said Philippoussis. Indeed. The memory will live long of Agassi several feet in from the baseline, catching the ball before it had barely risen from the grass and directing it down the line past his entirely shapeless opponent.
The fastest serve Agassi could manage all afternoon (123 mph) was three miles per hour slower than the average speed of Philippoussis's serves and a full 12 mph adrift of the Australian's biggest hit. But, in the broader lesson of this match, speed is no contest for timing and placement. One of Agassi's seven aces travelled at just 97 mph, according to the speedo on the court, and Philippoussis found it utterly beyond him.
Altogether, Agassi is looking ominously driven at the moment, which could be bad news for Pat Rafter in the semi-final. Agassi exerts more energy preparing to receive serve than many players exert while serving - skipping from foot to foot, inserting some extraordinary and seemingly unnecessary tuck in the folds of his shirt and then stooping low and rocking on his soles.
Meanwhile, his own preparations for service now involve a particularly rigorous check on the available balls for blemishes, optimum freshness and pressure. Five games into yesterday's match, he was not satisfied until he had seen all six balls, batting the rejects back to the ballgirls, bemusedly discovering another one in his pocket from earlier, as if he were a comedy magician. Certainly the crowd found it funny. Agassi, though, wore the clenched expression of someone whose mind is on higher things.
ANDRE SENDS THE SCUD CRASHING TO EARTH
mirror.uk.
SO much for brute force. After riding roughshod over British ambitions in the last round, Mark Philippoussis had his own demolished by a power even greater than his own.
It was not strength with which Andre Agassi countered the big-hitting Australian but conviction, proving that, in tennis, aces are not always the trump card.
Philippoussis sent down another 22 but, energised as he was yesterday, Agassi shines brighter than The Strip in his native Las Vegas. Wedded to that, unwavering self-belief utterly negated the Australian's challenge.
A match that many expected to go the distance was over inside two hours. The velocity of his 7-6 6-3 6-4 ascent prompted pirouettes and wisecracks from Agassi and despair from the crestfallen Philippoussis.
"You can't serve at 140mph, be fast and think as well. That would not be right," said Agassi, hinting that panache must be added to pace before
Philippoussis joins the elite.
"While Mark might have a few limitations in his game he can mostly get around it with his power, but not always.
"Mark has a fantastic serve, but if you are not quick enough to get behind a 135mph serve and it comes back, it can present problems."
Still shell-shocked, Philippoussis muttered: "It will take a good player to beat Andre.
"No-one in the world returns like him. He reads the play so well and takes the ball so early that I felt I had to go for it on my second serves.
"In other matches it worked. Today it didn't. You need a lot of luck to win Grand Slams. I played some tough matches leading up to the quarter-finals only to run into Andre playing like that."
As Agassi pointed out, the problem with serving fast is the speed with which the ball returns when met. The Scud might as well have been facing his own serves and, thus defused, was unable to build the momentum which accounted for Tim Henman in the previous round.
He still managed 22 unanswerable deliveries at an average speed of 126mph, but with Agassi strong in mind and body, intimidation was never going to be part of the equation.
Unlike the British No.1, Agassi did not see Philippoussis at the far side of the net, only an opponent. He played the man not the reputation.
"I'm not distracted by people acing me," said Agassi. "I just try to make sure I do well with the opportunities I get." Agassi was perhaps fortunate in meeting a Philippoussis fatigued by successive five-set matches.
The 6ft 4in Australian is rarely balletic when fresh, and more than once found himself wrong-footed as he struggled to manoeuvre his lumbering physique into place.
That said, so deep and accurate were Agassi's groundstrokes that had he been on the receiving end of his own searing hits, a response would have
been difficult to fashion.
After a first set in which neither was breached, the tie-break that concluded it would set the pattern for the remainder of the match.
Agassi was immense. The ace with which Philippoussis levelled at 2-2 was his 10th, but it did not impress Agassi. He simply turned on his heel and took his mark for the next assault. With fortitude like that you are never under threat. Agassi simply waited for the bad ball.
As luck would have it, two came along in succession when Philippoussis next served, and the set was gone.
A double-fault in the eighth game of the second set was all that came between them. Once again it was Philippoussis who faltered. Agassi broke then served out to take a two-set lead.
Philippoussis said: "I feel I can hold my head up high. There was nothing to be ashamed of in the way I played. There were two breaks out there, and
that cost me the match. Simple."
The second, another double-fault in the third game of the third set, proved equally costly. Agassi, serving 20mph slower on average, put precision
before power and for the third match in succession left the court without surrendering his serve. "I lost it six times in one match against Todd Martin, but since that have not felt the threat of a return. I've relaxed a bit and started to serve better as a result," said Agassi.
The No.2 seed will play Pat Rafter in tomorrow's semi-final and must be favoured to progress.
After the year he has had, Agassi is unlikely to let slip as good an opportunity as this to reach yet another grand slam final.
His Australian triumph against Pete Sampras might have been the prelude to a year even more profitable than the last, but form tailed off dramatically, leaving Agassi short of confidence coming into Wimbledon.
Not a problem now, of course. "Coming off a 12-month period where I was in the final of every Grand Slam, winning three of them, is not easy to live up to," he said.
"My goal since Australia was to raise my game at the most important times of year. But you have to realise it doesn't always work out as planned. I was somewhat against the wall coming into this event.
"I said all along if I can get through the first week I can start bringing out different parts of my game. Today I managed that. I just needed to win some matches."
Two more and he will be a Wimbledon champion for the second time.
Philippoussis Acting His Age
By FILIP BONDY
Daily News Sports Writer
WIMBLEDON
If this had been the old Philippoussis, the wave-running,
Ferrari-revving Miami Mark, then surely he would not be
on Centre Court today booming his 134-mph serves at
Andre Agassi in the featured Wimbledon quarterfinal.
Miami Mark would have faded badly in his
five-hour, five-set marathon against Sjeng
Schalken in the third round or else in his
five-set match against hometown favorite Tim
Henman during the Round of 16.
Instead, after altering his self-image and
placing his South Beach home up for sale,
Mark Philippoussis did something that he
never before felt was necessary. At age 23,
this 6-4 giant began to practice hard with a
new coach, Mike DePalmer, and to consult with a new mentor,
Boris Becker, for inspiration.
"If you want to be a champion, you have to be a champion 24
hours a day," DePalmer told Philippoussis. "You've got to live like
a champion, think like a champion, talk like a champion."
And so Philippoussis did. Philippoussis tried to be a role model,
too, the way Becker told him. He has been working so hard, in
fact, he no longer has the energy for the dalliances of youth.
"It's not that I've been doing anything terribly bad. It's that I
haven't been giving myself the opportunity to to show my full
potential," Philippoussis said. "I have a lot of stuff in my head
which I'm trying to clear out. I want to be with my family and
friends. Start concentrating."
As he prepares to move back to Australia, to be spoiled rotten by
his doting parents whenever he is not on a court, Philippoussis has
been mowing down competitors here at Wimbledon with a serve
bordering on the indestructible, with 132 aces and counting.
Today against Agassi, that great weapon receives its ultimate test.
Nobody serves like Philippoussis. Nobody returns like Agassi. It
is a classic match of puncher and boxer, of ballistic missile and
anti-missile system.
"I have to be prepared to watch myself hit a lot of volleys from my
toes," Philippoussis said. "He's the best returner in the game.
Definitely one of the best passing shots in the game, also."
Last year, Philippoussis was up a set and apparently on his way to
a victory over Pete Sampras in a Wimbledon quarterfinal when he
tore cartilage in his left knee during a seemingly conventional rally.
"I was in a zone," Philippoussis said ruefully.
He worked his way back from that, rededicated himself, always
able to rely on a serve that eradicated most opponents with
minimal effort. Other players, understandably, were terribly
envious.
"I would like to know what it feels like to hit a 128-mile second
serve down set point, like Philippoussis," Agassi said. "But I
wouldn't change it. I like the fact that my dynamics of play matches
up pretty well against baseliners and big power hitters. It brings
out a lot of elements that the game of tennis has to offer."
Agassi had his own fright here in the second round, when he came
back from two breaks down in the fifth set against Todd Martin.
Since that effort, however, his path to this match has been far
easier than that of Philippoussis.
The American says he is growing stronger and is only now starting
to hit the ball with the confidence and authority he enjoyed leading
up to his grueling Davis Cup appearance in Zimbabwe.
Usually, Agassi requires a set or so to adjust his radar against the
biggest servers. Then he starts blocking back returns and
groundstrokes in astounding fashion, nearly every shot a
half-volley, a short hop.
"The strongest point is my ability to take the ball early, a strike
zone that goes from my ankles to above my head," Agassi said.
"Wherever the ball is, I'm taking a cut at it. I use that strength to
break people down and get to people. That sometimes means
returning well. That sometimes means controlling a point and
breaking somebody down physically or playing aggressive tennis
real close to the lines."
The big, brooding Philippoussis will force Agassi into odd
contortions again, into poses born more from desperation than
from Zen preparedness. Agassi has been here, done that, beating
ace-master Goran Ivanisevic in the 1992 Wimbledon final.
Agassi can defeat Philippoussis today. It's just that it would have
been a lot easier last year, when the Aussie was still acting like
Miami Mark, the good-time Charlie.