Sampras Listed as Beneficiary of Philippoussis Knee Injury

The ramifications of Mark Philippoussis’ wounded knee went beyond his retirement in the second set against top-seeded Pete Sampras on Friday in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Hours after Philippoussis hobbled away on crutches, tests revealed torn cartilage in his left knee, and he will be out for at least four weeks, meaning he will miss Australia’s Davis Cup match against the United States in Boston later this month.

That was the biggest development on the men’s side here on a day in which fourth-seeded Andre Agassi, sixth-seeded Tim Henman of Great Britain and second-seeded Patrick Rafter of Australia all won their quarterfinal matches. Agassi defeated Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, and Henman beat Cedric Pioline of France, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

In today’s semifinals, Sampras will play Henman, and Rafter will meet Agassi.

Sampras appeared to be in for a long afternoon, Philippoussis having won the first set, 6-4. But the Australian hurt his knee in the third game of the second set while hitting a routine passing shot.

“I landed OK, but I heard a click and I grabbed it,” he said. “I thought nothing of it until he hit his serve and then when I sort of jumped forward, my knee just gave way and I heard a huge click.”

He was matter-of-fact about the mishap.

“I’ve got my health.” he said. “I’m not dying or anything. So there’s plenty of worse things that can happen.”

Rafter, who defeated eighth-seeded Todd Martin, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), said that youngster Lleyton Hewitt could easily step in for Philippoussis in Davis Cup play.

“I think competitively over the last few months Lleyton’s been one of the most form players running around, and on those hard courts, it’s going to be quite slow,” Rafter said. “[Sampras] is not going to want to play Lleyton straight up, and Lleyton is going to run him around and he’s a great little competitor. I think he definitely has a chance.”

Earlier, Martin had said he would give up his Davis Cup singles spot to Sampras, if Sampras wants to play, saying he wanted the best team possible on the court.

“I would volunteer,” he said. “I think Pete should be playing singles. I don’t know if Pete thinks that. I don’t know if [captain Tom Gullikson] thinks that, and I don’t know if Jim [Courier] thinks that.

” . . . You know, I don’t necessarily feel like I’m the one that should not be playing. That’s how I feel.”

Said Rafter, “[Courier’s] not going to stand down, I don’t think. If I was Jim I wouldn’t stand down either. There’s no way. And if I was Todd I wouldn’t stand down. But Todd has a different outlook on that too.”

The winner of the Rafter-Agassi semifinal will become the new No. 1 when the next ATP rankings are released. Even if Sampras defends his title, he cannot stay No. 1. Either Rafter or Agassi will be the fourth player to be No. 1 this year.

Agassi and Rafter have played eight times and Agassi leads the series, 5-3. Their lone meeting on grass was in 1993 at Wimbledon in the third round and Agassi won in four sets.

Agassi joked about playing Rafter, saying, “It’s a little distracting playing someone with a ponytail.”

Sampras has not lost to Henman in five matches, including last year’s Wimbledon semifinals. He also recently beat him in three sets in winning a Wimbledon warmup tournament.

“[Henman] knows he played well enough to beat me and he didn’t,” Sampras said. “He got a little unlucky there. But he’s come close. I don’t know how much of an edge I have. It’s not going to be an easy match.”