Alan Trengrove

Australian Tennis Magazine

September 2000

Eight months ago, Mark Philippoussis was a national hero, carried triumphantly on the shoulders of his teammates around a tennis court in the south of France. He had just clinched the Davis Cup for Australia in a performance as brilliant as it was courageous. No country could have asked for more.

Now, he has been treated as a pariah by some members of the Australian team and by large sections of the media that heaped praise on him last December There has never been such a dramatic change in sentiment towards any Australian player.

Not surprisingly, Philippoussis has bowed to the wishes of Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, and ruled himself out of the cup final in Spain. Their undisguised animosity - based on a series of incidents, not merely on Mark's 11th hour withdrawal from the Brisbane semi-final would have made his participation virtually impracticable in any case.

This is a great pity.

First, Rafter's shoulder may still be troubling him at the time of the final.

Hewitt also may be injured.

Second, one or the other could suffer a sharp drop in form, whereas Philippoussis could be in the best form of his life.

Third, the inclusion of Philippoussis would give John Newcombe more options

in his captaincy. Under recent rule changes, Newcombe is able to discard one

of his first-choice singles players and use a fresh player on the third day. In view of Rafter's shoulder worries particularly on slow clay - such an advantage

would be doubly important.

Fourth, the Spaniards fear Philippoussis more than any other Australian. They saw what he did to the French and acknowledge the demoralizing effect of his power, which enables him to hit groundstroke winners even on clay. Tony Roche has suggested that clay may well be Philippoussis' best surface.

The best outcome of the mess is for Rafter and Hewitt to accept that Philippoussis was telling the truth when he said he was troubled by a sore knee after Wimbledon. Philippoussis is one of the heaviest men on the tour, and is obviously vulnerable to injury. He needs to be careful. He played in the first round tie against Switzerland with a knee injury, won the fifth and deciding

match but later missed two tournaments as a consequence of the injury.

The Scud was also, understandably, exhausted after Wimbledon. He played 249

games in five matches roughly equivalent to five five-set matches in a row. Rafter played only four more games in seven matches, four of which were simple three setters.

This isn't to say Scud is blameless. The manner of his withdrawal showed little consideration for his captain and team-mates. He should have informed

Newcombe of his doubts before he left Wimbledon and promised to turn up at

Brisbane to give the team support.

Perhaps the real culprit is the ITF for scheduling a Davis Cup semi-final within a week of the Wimbledon final. Both events require to much physical and nervous energy to be squeezed so closely together in time (yet, as it transpired, 13,000 km apart). That said, we should put past differences behind us. Our strongest team includes Mark Philippoussis.