Australia's Davis Cup hero loves him mum "to death", counts Julio Inglesis Jnr as a close mate and lives in a $2million Miami mansion with his dad while he waits for the perfect woman to come along. And when his tennis career is over, he plans to try his hand in acting.

Mark's bedroom is wild. Animal prints predominate and he shares his lair with a menagerie of stuffed toys, a lion and a family of tigers. "I've got this thing about tigers," he explains. "I'd love to have a real one here too if I could." Mark had is mucle-man cartoon drawn at fun park.

If 1998 was an annus hirribilis for tennis star Mark Philippoussis, aka The Scud, 1999 was the reverse. With his father, Nick Philippoussis, fully recovered from Hodgkin's disease and the injuries that forced Mark to had Pete Sampras the game at the US Open (error: Wimbledon) behind him, Mark is playing better that ever. Being part of the victorious Davis Cup team and winning the final deciding match for Australia was an incredible high for hin. "But I don't think that I really understood how big it was and how much it meant to everyone, until I got home to my family and realised there was a ticker tape parade in Melbourne, and civic receptions," Mark confesses.

Proud of his focus and concentration in the match, he says his play showed real maturity. "I see the win as the start of something good." I also think it is the day my tennis career really started. At least that's the way I see it".

At 23, The Scud is proving that he is not just a power player with the fastest serve in the world, but becoming a master tactitian and strategist. Heir apparent to Patrick Rafter and Pete Sampras, with whom Mark shares a Greek heritage as well as towering heigh (he's 195 cm) and a formidable serve, The Scud was once called moody and difficult. This year, he is finally letting the world see the real man - a friendly, laid-back, genuine nice guy who smiles easily, loves to laugh and has found a-home-away-from-home in his new $2 million-plus house on Palm Island in Maimi, Florida. Just before he flew to Australia to see his mother and sister, Mark took The Australian Women's Weekly team on a tour of his mansion.

"As soon as I saw this place, I fell in love with it," he says. "I walked in and knew instantly this is where I wanted to be."

For Mark and his father, Nick, the house is ideal. One of the seven bedrooms is now converted to a weights room and another into a computer room. Mark sleeps in the master bedroom upstairs while his father has the master bedroom downstairs. The remaining bedrooms are guest rooms.

The house has a casual Mediterranean feel. Next to the kitchen is a sun-filled breakfast room. Through another door is a formal dining room with crystal chandeliers, carved gilded chairs and seating for 12. For Mark, the appeal of the house is its proximity to water and to Miami Airport, which he uses so frequently when the tennis tour begins.

While he misses Australia, he feels at home in Florida. The Woodies (Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge) live in Orlando, an hour-and-a-half away. Fred Stolle has his club 40 minutes to the south. John Newcombe has his base an hour or so's flight away in Texax. Pat Rafter is only a few hour's flying distance away, with an apartment in Bermuda. More importantly, Mark has found a string of friends on Palm Island and at nearby South Beach. Julio Iglesias Jnr is one of his mates and most afternoons when Mark is in Florida, you'll find the two wake-boarding off the jetty or in South Beach snatching some sushi before heading home to watch a movie and later taking off for the clubs.

"On tour it is pretty much going from city to city, hotel room to hotel room. It can be pretty tough and pretty lonely. That's when you miss your mates."

With his new house there is not only space for his friends to stay, but room behind the garage that houses his collection of motorbikes to build another one for his six cars. "When we build that, I'll get a movie room put on top".

Movies, he says, are a passion. "A few years ago, Anthony Quin wanted me to play his son in a movie and I really wanted to do it, but then the schedule changed amd the dates conflicted with the tour so I had to pull out."

When his tennis career is over, however, film is something he says he would like to explore. "What I'd really like is romantic roles - sort of comedy with a love story …. Films that make you feel good."

And is he a romantic? "Yeah, I suppose I am. I'm not too good on the flower thing, but if I'm with a girl I'll do anything for her. That's how it was with Melanie [Maudran, a French model]. We were together three-and-a-half-years, but with her career and with me travelling all the time we hardly saw each other. She's started an acting career in Paris now, so I can't bring her to tournaments like I used to, but we talk on the phone and we're great friends still. I care about her a lot." He grins. "I guess she's still my sort-of-girlfriend."

What about the tabloid reports that he was dating Brazilian supermodel Luciana Morad, who made headlines when she had Mick Jagger's baby last July?

He rolls his eyes. "That was just one of those press stories. I was at the model agency party in New York and she said something to me and I leaned over to hear what it was. The photographers snapped us and suddenly everyone was saying we were an item. All I said to here was, 'Excuse me'".

Fame for Mark has been a tough lesson, but he has grown up and is proud that he is coping better not just with the rigours of being one of the world's top-seeded players but with the pressures of celebrity on and off the court. "It's very hard when you think people are reading about you and don't think you are a nice person, so now I don't read what they write. That way I can't get upset. The people who matter to me know what's true and what isn't."

While he has no steady girlfriend at present, Mark does have very clear ideas of the sort of girl he hopes to marry. "She'll be a girl who is happy to be herself, one who doesn't care what other people think or say and does what makes her happy. She'll wear clothes she likes, not what's in fashion, and she won’t be always fixing here make-up or her hair. She'll be a tomboy, not scared to have a bit of a wrestle or get dirty if she goes fishing. I'll probably never find the perfect girl, but just some of those qualities will be enough."

"I would love to have a wife and kids and intend to work as hard as I can now so that I won't have to travel when I settle down. I don't want to miss my kids growing up. I want to be there for their first tooth, first words, everything."

Family to Mark is all important. Although his father, Nick, and mother, Rossana are legally seperated, the family remains close. "I love my mother to death" he tells us. "I miss her so much. Next year I hope she'll move here for a while. We've very alike. She's shy too. I've learned to deal with cameras and stuff but I was amazed that she'd talk on television after we won the Davis Cup. She's beautiful, my mother. And you should see my sister, Anna Maria, with kids. She's got such a way with them. She works as a teacher in Melbourne. "I love America and living here, but I love Australia, too, and the hardest thing about being in the US is being without my family."