Having lost the first set, with his serve suddenly misfiring and having received a warning after tossing his racquet seemingly harmlessly towards his bag, Philippoussis found himself trailing 2-4 in the second set against the 108th-ranked Belgian Xavier Malisse and, given he has never come back from two sets down, was in deep trouble.

But this time, the seventh seed dug deep and suddenly found the mark with his first serve. Reeling off seven consecutive games, he clinched the next two sets. While his 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win will probably not have the top seeds trembling, it at least demonstrated an increased instinct for survival.

The code violation for racquet abuse seemed to lift Philippoussis.

As Philippoussis started churning out the aces and choosing his shots more carefully, Malisse became rattled, losing the second set by spraying a simple forehand well wide. The Belgian had a chance to go up a break in the fourth set, but the Australian got the decisive break at 3-3, then survived two more break points in the final game, coming up with five more aces in the final game to clinch the match.

``It was a tough match to start,'' said Philippoussis.

``It feels good when you are down a set and a break and come back and win, it gives you that extra impetus. This is Wimbledon. I'm pumped up and I'm enjoying it.''

Philippoussis will now play another Australian Mark Woodforde, one of the last of the grasscourt specialists, who gave French Open semi-finalist Dominik Hrbaty a lesson on how to play on the green stuff. The talented Slovak has not survived the first round here in two previous attempts.

Nothing is straightforward with Andrew Ilie, and typically his 7-6 (15-13), 7-5, 6-7 (10-12), 6-1 victory over South African Wayne Ferreira involved a number of twists.

Less fortunate among the Australian contingent was Scott Draper, who became the first victim of defending champion and No.1 seed Pete Sampras.

The left-handed Draper was considered by some a potentially difficult draw for Sampras, but the American's emphatic 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory took just one hour 28minutes and underlined the good form he had shown in winning the Queen's Club tournament.