Saturday, Jul 05, 2003
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Tennis
By Nirmal Shekar
Mark Philippoussis of Australia makes an acrobatic return in his encounter against France's Sebastien Grosjean. `The Scud' won in straight sets to advance to his second Grand Slam final. — AP
On Friday, in the 117th Wimbledon championships, Mark Philippoussis might have had no qualms about taking his shirt off. But, then, metaphorically speaking, it was another kind of clothing that the giant Australian cast off like a sorry skin — the under-achiever reputation that he has been carrying like excess baggage for so long. As he rode his classic serve and volley game — one without the monotony and baseline preoccupation of the current generation — into the final, past an overmatched Sebastien Grosjean of France with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-3 semifinal victory in an hour and 55 minutes, the new and improved version, Philippoussis Mark II, had finally arrived on the big stage. Philippoussis will play the fourth seed from Switzerland, Roger Federer in Sunday's final, the first for both. Federer handed out a good and proper hiding as well as a lesson in grass court tennis to the tournament favourite Andy Roddick of the United States, beating the American 7-6 (7-6), 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 43 minutes.
Remarkable turnaround
Five years after making his first Grand Slam final at the age of 21 at the U.S. Open — where he lost to his countryman Pat Rafter — and a little over two years after he found himself in a wheelchair following a serious knee problem which threatened to abort his career, Philippoussis, at No. 48 the lowest ranked player in today's semifinals, now finds himself within a match victory of realising the dream of a lifetime. Four years ago, Philippoussis played grass court tennis with bingo with all the numbers in his pocket to make the quarterfinals here. Facing Pete Sampras, the Aussie won the first set and then his knee gave up early in the second.
Switzerland's Roger Federer acknowledges the crowd's cheers after beating Andy Roddick of the United States in the men's singles semifinal at Wimbledon on Friday. — AFP
There started a long battle with his knees and three operations followed. On his return to the Tour, for a long time Philippoussis needed pain killing injections before stepping in to play his matches. The pain is gone; but the memories still haunt the 26-year old from Melbourne who is perhaps the most gifted active serve and volleyer in the game. "Feels like I was in a wheelchair yesterday,'' said Philippoussis after giving himself the chance to become only the third unseeded champion here. Boris Becker was the first unseeded champion in 1985 and he was followed by Goran Ivanisevic two years ago. When Philippoussis played in his first tournament of the year, the Tata Open in Chennai last January, few who watched him might have believed that the Australian had it in him to challenge for the Wimbledon title later in the season. After struggling through the first round, Philippoussis was outplayed by Rainer Schuettler of Germany in the second, the Australian winning just three games in two sets. Following that, he had just one good run, making the final at Scottsdale where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt. In the event, for the gifted Aussie, this has been nothing short of a fairytale fortnight so far as he has cut a colourful swath through the draw with his whirlwind serves and Houdini-esque manoeuvres at the net. How much Philippoussis wants this title was evident in the previous match against Alexander Popp when, in the 13th game of the decider yesterday, down a breakpoint, he came up with the shot of the tournament. Popp hit a superb forehand pass up the line and even took his eye away from the ball, sure in his mind that it was a winner. Philippoussis, stranded on the right half of the court, flung himself across for a breathtaking dive volley winner. Today, against a rather subdued Grosjean — whose fires had perhaps burned down to their last embers following the emotionally charged match against Tim Henman — Philippoussis could afford to play well within himself. Yet, for a man to whom mental edge has always proved elusive for the most part of his career, Philippoussis's one-pointed focus was at once admirable and, from his point of view, rewarding. Even if he did not have to perform at full throttle and with patented dare devil aggression, as he did in beating Andre Agassi and then coming back from two sets down against Popp, this afternoon the Aussie continued to serve rocks and took control of the net with tremendous confidence, volleying the best he has so far in the tournament. Grosjean was very much a wilted version of the man who outplayed Henman. Yet, on occasion today, the Frenchman brought off some superb winners on both flanks. In the 12th game of the first set, Grosjean fought off two setpoints on serve to earn himself a tiebreak. A Philippoussis double fault gave the Frenchman a chance as he was up 3-2. But the man called `Flip' turned the tables on his opponent, winning five points in a row to wrap up the set. As a contest, the match ended there. Philippoussis broke Grosjean in the first and ninth games of the second set and then, after fighting off a breakpoint on his own serve in the seventh game of the third, got the crucial break in the next game. In the other semifinal, Federer was right on top from the moment he hit a forehand pass up the line to take the first set tiebreak. Serving, volleying and returning as well as he might have wanted to, he stretched his domination of Roddick to four straight matches. The American lost serve in the second game of the second set and then twice in the third as Federer mixed things up wonderfully well — blocked returns, slices, clever dinks...what have you. Federer, who hit 17 aces, faced just two breakpoints on his serve in the entire match, both in the second set. And Roddick failed to convert either of them. This is the first time in 21 years that both the men's semifinals have ended in three sets. In 1982, both Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe had made their way through to the final in straight sets. Meanwhile, even as Philippoussis stretched his dream run into the final on the centre court, a huge lob away, on the No.1 court, Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi, seeded one in the doubles event, were locked in battle with Leander Paes and David Rikl, the fifth seeds. Two men who won three Grand Slam titles together, and their first Wimbledon here four years ago, apart from recording several heroic victories in each other's company in Davis Cup, are now rather used to standing across the net from each other. And both Bhupathi and Paes are matured and professional enough to treat these contests as nothing more than a tennis match, although at the semifinal stage of a Grand Slam, the stakes are indeed rather high. If there is a bit of an overkill in the media about flying sparks and the players' desire to prove a point to each other, then so be it. Today, the match promised a lot but as a contest lasted only three sets before Bhupathi and Mirnyi pulled away for a 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 victory. They will play Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge in the final. The decisive points in the first set came late in the tiebreak as Bhupathi volleyed long behind his serve and then Paes came up with a typical poach at the net. The top seeds took the second on a break of Paes's serve in the ninth game and the moment Rikl netted a low volley to give the third set tie-break to Bhupathi and Mirnyi the match was as good as over. Revenge is a word this writer would hate to use in sport, especially in a context that involves two countrymen. But, for the record, Paes and Rikl stopped Bhupathi and Mirnyi in the quarterfinals of the French Open and the winners today must have been rather pleased with the result. Late on Thursday evening, around 1.30 a.m. IST on Friday, Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova raced past Peter Luczak and Christina Wheeler from Australia 6-4, 6-2 to make the mixed doubles quarterfinals. The results (prefix denotes seeding): Men's singles (semifinals): 4-Roger Federer (Sui) bt 5-Andy Roddick (U.S.) 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 6-3; Mark Philippoussis (Aus) bt 13-Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-3. Men's singles (quarterfinals): Mark Philippoussis (Aus) bt Alexander Popp (Ger) 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 8-6. Women's singles (semifinals): 4-Venus Williams (U.S.) bt 2-Kim Clijsters (Bel) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Men's doubles (semifinals): 4-Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) & Todd Woodbridge (Aus) bt Jonathan Erlich & Andy Ram (Isr) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1; 1-Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Max Mirnyi (Blr) bt 5-Leander Paes (Ind) & David Rikl (Cze) 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.
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