Mark Philippoussis is regaining his health, but his former coach says his career is in critical condition.

The 24-year-old Philippoussis made a triumphant return from knee surgery on Sunday as he won the Kroger St. Jude tournament title in Memphis. The awesomely gifted Australian is widely regarded as one of the most talented players who has yet to win a Grand Slam title. Pat Cash, who coached Philippoussis to the U.S. Open final in 1998, says this year will be critical for Philippoussis' career.

"It's absolutely do or die this year for Mark," said Cash. "Mark is basically a very lazy person so he needs to be in great shape to play well. Toward the end of the time I was working with him, we saw the work effort just deteriorated. Mark is probably the most talented player I've seen aside from John McEnroe. No doubt about it. He can get away with being out of shape at small tournaments because of his talent, but you get caught at Grand Slams where you really need to be in great shape."

Cash addressed the condition of the game and questioned the priorities of some of today's top players who bypass Davis Cup play in order to cash in on guaranteed appearance fees at smaller tournaments.

"I can't understand their priorities," Cash said. "I think they've got their priorities reversed. No offense to tournaments in Memphis or San Jose, but why would you want to go play those tournaments instead of playing for your country? The bottom line is Davis Cup is incredibly tough.

They've got to consider Davis Cup as part of the schedule and certainly the ATP should count it as part of the schedule. They don't have the passion we had. We wanted to play for our country. That was the most important thing for us. The difference between eras is that we played because we were passionate about Davis Cup and now what they (some of today's players) are interested in is a paycheck and it shows doesn't it?"

While Cash is critical of players, he attributes their apathetic attitude to national tennis associations who treat players as disposable objects.

"People say tennis today is boring and there are no passionate players and I'm not surprised because they're just playing for a paycheck," Cash said. "In a way, I can't blame the players because I see what tennis associations do to their players. They throw them away when they're

finished. That happened to me with my tennis association. They want you to play Davis Cup and when you're finished they throw you away. A guy like Mark Philippoussis says: 'I see what you did to Cash at the end of his career. You didn't give him wild cards and didn't treat him well. So why should I play for you?' Tennis associations have got a lot to answer for."