Philippoussis Wastes Country’s Goodwill

The early Australian tournament award for player who “just doesn’t get it” goes to, surprisingly, an Australian.

His name is Mark Philippoussis, but to the hard-working, blue-collar, proud-of-their-tennis-heritage Aussie fans, it might as well be “Mud.”

Philippoussis, seeded No. 16 and finally starting to show some of the promise expected of him for years, stepped up to heroics for Australia in its Davis Cup title over France in early December. Patrick Rafter was injured and Philippoussis, who had previously treated Davis Cup responsibility with mostly a shrug, came through in the clutch, was carried off the court by his teammates and fans and became the local focal point for this Australian Open.

Then, with pictures of him on his countrymen’s shoulders playing in newspapers and TV continually, he stumbled badly. Earlier this month, in a team event called the Hopman Cup, he opted out of a match with what he called “sore shins.”

That left several thousand people who had purchased tickets holding the bag.

But the grumbles over that weren’t nearly as loud and long-lasting as those over Philippoussis’ withdrawal from the final match Saturday of an exhibition tournament called the Colonial Classic at Kuyoong stadium in Melbourne. He had ousted none other than Pete Sampras in the semifinals and those who had purchased tickets had won the lottery, or so they thought, when the matchup in the final for their local hero turned out to be Andre Agassi.

But when they showed up for the final, they were told there would be no final. Philippoussis had defaulted, citing a “stiff neck.” The next day, newspapers that had made him the cover of their extensive pre-printed special sections on the Australian Open had to lead their papers with huge headlines that said: TENNIS FARCE.

Despite his “stiff neck,” Philippoussis managed to take the court for his first-round match here and beat Noam Okun of Israel, 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2. Okun is ranked No. 186.

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Injury Report II: Carlos Moya of Spain, who rose to No. 1 during last year’s Newsweek Champions Cup at Indian Wells, withdrew from the Australian Open today, saying the back injury he has been fighting has not healed enough for him to endure the rigors of five-set Grand Slam matches.

“If this tournament were best-of-three set matches, maybe I would try to play,” Moya said.

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Some Dollars and Agassi Common Sense: An issue here, as it often is around the tour, is equal pay for male and female players. In the four Grand Slam events, only the U.S. Open pays women the same as men.

Agassi handled the question this way today:

“I think the entertainment value of men’s tennis versus women’s tennis is ultimately subjective, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who enjoy one more than the other. But we aren’t talking about right and wrong and we are not talking about laws. We are talking about money and we are talking about all of us being overpaid.”