last updated 1/2/03
December 31, 2002: While Mark wasn't at the top of his game, for his first match out he did show some flashes of brilliance that give hope for the upcoming season. He defeated Kohlman 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
December 30, 2002: The Tata Open begins today and Mark should have his first match tomorrow. In singles he's up against qualifier Kohlmann which should be a nice warmup. He's also playing doubles again this year, in India with Justin Gimelstob. However they're in for a bit of a rough ride facing the number one seeds of Bhupathi and Woodbridge in their first match. A couple more articles added.
December 28, 2002: Mark is safely in India and practicing for the upcoming Tata Open. Several articles added including a rather lengthy one based on an interview with Peter McNamara.
December 23, 2002: Mark's in commercials! Look for a Pacific Life Insurance commercial featuring Philippoussis and Hass playing a bit of underwater tennis to be airing this season. And there's even a reason for the lack of pre-season press - it seems that Mark has decided to grant no media interviews until he gets back from India, instead choosing to focus his time on gym workouts and hitting sessions.
December 20, 2002: Mark made his first appearance on the outdoor courts at Melbourne Park, and it's reported that he is looking incredibly fit. He's bulked up a bit in the upper body and so far seems to be hitting with both excellent power and precision. His first tournament of the season is the Tata Open in India starting December 30th, followed by the Kooyang Classic and then the Australian Open starting January 13th. Good Luck Mark!
December 18, 2002: Oh what a difference a year can make! The news from down-under today has Todd Woodbridge wanting a shot a teaming up with Mark for doubles in Davis Cup. First it was Hewitt, now Woodbridge - Mark seems to be the player everyone wants right now. A few articles and a nice photo from practice added.
December 16, 2002: Mark has been practicing at the Australian Open training camp and specifically having hitting sessions with some of Australia's up and coming young mens players. The hope is to give the younger players some experience and helpful tips to march up the rankings. Reports say that Mark is moving well and that his serve is of course booming!
December 10, 2002: It's just about time for the season to start up, and Mark arrived safely in Australia on Thursday where he'll continue training before heading to India for the Tata Open. According to reports, he's feeling fine and the last MRI cleared him of any lose cartilage in the knee - definitely a good sign. Also it seems that Mark and Lleyton have mended their fences and will be teaming up for doubles duty against Great Britian in Davis Cup.
December 9, 2002: The latest news on Mark is that he's resting up for the season's start at the end of the month. Also Australia has chosen slow clay for the Davis Cup match against Great Britian. Philippoussis has said he will play Davis Cup again this year provided that his knee is still holding up well after the Australian Open.
October 29, 2002: There's one new article talking about Newk's new autobiography which says some rather negative things about Mark's attitude, especially with regard to Davis Cup.
October 22, 2002: Following the Tata Open in India, Mark will continue his Australian Open warm-up at the Kooyong Classic in January. He's made peace with tournament organizer Stubbs (who vowed to never have Mark back after he withdrew from the 2000 final) and will be the lone Australian at the event. Two articles added.
October 15, 2002: A press release in India announced that Mark is confirmed to play in the Tata Open that starts December 30th in Chennai, India.
October 10, 2002: An article from The Age today provides some updates on Mark's recovery. He has completed his move from Florida to San Diego and has begun some light training. On doctor's advice he is skipping the rest of the season (the European Indoor circuit) to rest the knee and built it's strength back up. His plans are to play in at least one warm-up for the Australian Open but no word as to which one it will be.
September 30, 2002: There's still no official date set for Mark's return to the tour. Mark's coach, Peter McNamara, has taken on additional responsibilites to promote the Australian Open brand while Mark recovers. There are ten ATP tour events remaining this year, and so far Mark is not entered in any of them.
September 24, 2002: Not much in the way of news, but Fitzgerald was quoted several Davis Cup related articles saying that Mark had made himself available for Davis Cup next season. Also buried in one news piece was the stat that Mark holds the all-time record for aces in a three-set match with 44, achieved back in 1995 at Kuala Lumpur.
September 17, 2002: With Mark still recuperating, it's been an empty news month, but it did provide time to catch-up on the numbers. Mark's doubles stats for 1996 are now up on the Stats page.
September 6, 2002: The word from Florida is that the healing is progressing nicely. Although he is expected to be off-tour for two months, Mark has not withdrawn his entry for Lyon starting October 7th.
August 30, 2002: Two small injury wrap-up articles added. Also while I have not gotten my issue to confirm this, Mark should be on the cover of the September issue of Tennis Australia.
August 29, 2002: The results of the MRI bring both some good and some bad news. The good is that Mark's knee woes are not related to the previous ones that required all the surgery. It is a relatively lessor injury - he hyper-extended his knee falling and now has a small bone bruise. The bad news is the forecast is for being off the tour for two months. Thankfully following a week or so of no activity he will be able to resume light training so the two months off won't be completely lost. Sixteen articles added.
Augus6t 28, 2002: Mark returned to Miami immediately following his match yesterday and provided the swelling has gone down on his knee, he will be having an MRI done today. He opted to return to Miami for the MRI in order to consult with the surgeon who performed the last major knee operation in March of 2001. This update 17 articles and 9 photos added.
August 27, 2002: Today was not a good day for Mark. Initial reports from New York indicated that Mark was looking leaner and more focussed that he's been in months. He was playing well and leading 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 3-6; when at 2-2 (15-30) in the fourth he jumped up for a Sampras-like overhead, decided to let the ball go and sort of forgot he had to focus on landing. When he came down he hyper-extended that troublesome left knee! The trainer was called out and Mark continued with the match, but his movement was much more tentative and at 3-5 he retired. We're ahead of the news cycle, but should have more details tomorrow. Also making the news today, Mark has put his DelRay, Florida home up for sale and will be moving to a surfing community outside of San Diego, Califorinia where he can better focus on only tennis and surfing.
August 22, 2002: The draw for the US Open was done today and Mark fares reasonably well landing in the bottom quarter. His first match will be against the 24th seed Schalken. The other top seeds in his quarter are: Safin (2), Nabaldian (16), Grosjean (10), and Ferraro (7). See the full draw here. Also this update, more doubles stats (1998, 1999, 2001 2002) added to the stats page.
August 21, 2002: Five new articles about Davis Cup added. Also I am slowly entering in all of Mark's doubles stats, breaking them down by both year and partner. So far 1994 and 1995 are finished.
August 20, 2002: The Australian Davis Cup squad was announced early this morning and once again Mark has returned to the team. He will join Hewitt, Arthurs, Woodbridge and Draper for the match against India in September. Ten articles added.
August 13, 2002: It was another early round loss for Mark, this time the first round of the RCA Championships. He lost 6-7 (2-7), 6-7 (4-7) to Schuettler bringing his season tie-break record to 7-14. Four new articles added.
August 12, 2002: This week Mark can be found at the RCA Championships in Indianapolis. His first match is tonight against Schuettler. Ray Giubilo has also sent us 10 fantastic new photos from this season!
August 8, 2002: Unfortunately it wasn't the outcome Mark wanted as he lost 6-7 (7-9), 2-6 to Krajicek in Cincinnati. One article added.
August 7, 2002: The main event at the Masters Series in Cincinnati is underway and Mark took a first round win over Santoro 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. Next up Mark will go for some Wimbledon revenge against Krajicek. Site Correction: The match score for the qualifying match against Etlis should have been 6-4, 6-1.
August 5, 2002: Thanks go to Magali for emailing me with the tip that Mark didn't receive a wildcard for Toronto which is why he was not playing. He will however be in Cincinnati this week as he went through the Qualifying round. Qual-1 was a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Witten, and Qual-2 was a 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 win over Etlis. Mark's first round match in the main draw will be against Santoro.
August 2, 2002: The Australian press reports that Mark has signed on for the Australia-India Davis Cup match in Australia Sept 20-22nd provided that he is fit and without problem following the US Open (post-Open is when Mark has another round of knee shots scheduled). Two articles added. On other news, I haven't been able to find anything that mentions why Mark is not at the ATP Masters event in Toronto this week. It's an event he's done before and there's no word about injury or withdrawl, so it's a bit of a mystery.
July 29, 2002: I've finally tracked down the results from Mark's World Team Tennis matches with the Philadelphia Freedoms, but don't expect me to explain them as I still have no idea just how they score them! On July 23rd against the NY Buzz, Mark won his singles match against Bower 5-1, in doubles he and Stark defeated Bhupathi & Bower 5-4(2) and with Steck lost in mixed doubles to Bhupathi & de Villiers 5-3. On July 25 against the Delaware Smash, Mark won his singles match against Goldstein 5-4(5-4), in doubles he and Stark defeated Goldstein & Humphries 5-4(5-2), and in mixed doubles he and Steck defeated Humphries & Reeves 5-3.
July 25, 2002: A new gallery is now open that features the magazine covers that Mark has appeared on.
July 22, 2002: The debut of the newly designed website! Things have been slightly rearranged for easier navigation and the biggest section receiving new material were the Photos, Stats and FAQs pages!
July 5, 2002: Wrap up from the Krajicek match: articles, photos, and an interview.
July 3, 2002: Unfortunately for Mark, his Wimbledon road is over. With the rain playing havoc with his fourth round match, the critical point was the first game of the fifth set, hours later than re-scheduled due to more rain on Wed. Mark was just a little slow coming out and it allowed Krajicek to break him in that first game. Another game and a half and there was another rain delay. With play abandoned for all but their matches, the rest of the fifth set was finally played in encroaching darkness. Each player held serve and Mark played some excellent points, but that first game told the story and the fifth set ended in a 4-6 loss. Final score for the match: 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (5-7) 4-6. Kudos however go to Mark for playing some of his best tennis so far this year!
July 2, 2002: After a dry week one, the rain has finally come to Wimbledon, and after several interruptions, play was finally abandoned for the day. Mark's match against Krajicek was suspended at 2 sets each. The score so far: 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (5-7). It's been a relatively close match and the one break of serve came in the second set. A few misc. articles and photos added this update.
June 28, 2002: After a bit of a sluggish start, Mark found his rhthym and defeated Kiefer 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Next up is former champion Richard Krajicek. Several articles and photos added.
June 27, 2002: A few more wrap-up articles from the Enqvist match added. Also a general site cleanup with broken links removed from several pages.
June 26pm, 2002: Match wrap-up: Ten articles, four photos and one interview added.
June 26, 2002: In just under two hours, Mark sent 14th seed Enqvist packing 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. While his first serve was a little erratic, Mark did manage to pound out 30 aces!
June 25, 2002: Eight articles, three photos and one interview from the match against Boutter added.
June 24, 2002: The first Wimbledon hurdle was passed by Mark today as he defeated Boutter 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Mark posted some impressive numbers winning 92% of his first serves and hitting 18 aces. In round two Mark will face Thomas Enqvist the 14th seed. Several articles and photos added including several nice Aussie press articles that are rather lengthy and seem to be from a recent press conference.
June 18, 2002: The draw has been announced for Wimbledon and Mark
is in the bottom half along with both Agassi (possible meeting in Round 4) and Sampras (possible meeting in Semis). His first match will be against Julien Boutter of France.
June 14, 2002: Article wrap-up from Queens. There's a nice article from the Syndney Morning Herald that speaks of Mark's build to Wimbledon. Also as final preparation, Mark will play an exhibition at the Stoke Park Club west of London next week where he will be guaranteed at least three matches.
June 13, 2002: It was a close match for Mark today against Ferreira but unfortunately was one he lost in a third set tiebreak. Final score was 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-7 (5-7). On the positive side, these last two matches have been longer battles and Mark's gotten some good time in the grass. Rusedski was quotes in today's article on Mark being one of the ten best shots at Wimbledon this year. Yesterday's doubles match was also a loss 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-7 (5-7).
June 12, 2002: Wrap up from the Rusedski match, five photos and nineteen articles added. Also it seems Mark is playing doubles at Queens as well. He is partnered up with Ceedric Pioline and their first match is later today against Gimelstob & Shimada.
June 11, 2002 - CORRECTION: Obviously your webmaster cannot read the tiny print of the Queens live scoreboard, as I got the third set wrong. Mark has in fact won the Rusedski match 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5). My apologies for any confusion!
June 11, 2002: It was a battle of the serves between two players who are both trying to regain their former rankings. It took 3 tie-breaks, but Mark lost 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (5-7). Lots of news articles about the Wimbledon wildcard added.
June 10, 2002: Queens Club is underway and so far Mark seems to have adjusted to the grass with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Martin Lee. Next up is Rusedski who had a bye through to the second round. The other good news of the day is that Mark was granted a Wildcard for entry into Wimbledon. (His ranking currently excludes him from making the main draw).
May 31, 2002: Article wrap-up from the Moya match yesterday. In the post-match press conference Mark seemed upbeat about the match and that he didn't crumble but Moya was just tough on clay. He is off to London to begin preparing for the grass court season which will start for him at the Stella Artois tournment at Queen's Club.
May 30, 2002: Article and photo wrap-up, most from the press-conference after the first round match against Varlet.
May 29, 2002: In a nearly 3 hour match, Mark was defeated by Moya in the 2nd round. After an unbalanced first set, Mark took the next to to tie-breaks, 2-6, 6-7 (7-9), 6-7 (9-11). The numbers tell the tale though, with Mark having 84 unforced errors to 55 winners.
May 29, 2002: Mark's match against Valet was the first time Mark has come from two sets down to win. It was also reported that some of his early season problems were from aggravating his knee while snowboarding and failing to lose much o the weight he'd put on while laid up. He's now tossed the snowboarding gear and dropped back to trim 90kg. He's also gone back to a style of racket he used several years ago. Mark will face Moya later today in the second round. Six articles and two photos added.
May 28, 2002: It was shaping up to look like a miserable Paris for Mark when his first round match against qualifier Varlet was suspended on Monday night with Mark trailing 1-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 1-3. Very little was going right for Mark, but today a new day dawned and Mark finished off the match 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 to advance to the next round. Hopefully the shock of almost making another quick tournament exit will help keep his game up for the next round. We're ahead of the main news cycle so only two articles and one photo linked.
May 13, 2002: The clay is just not being kind to Mark as he lost 4-6, 4-6 to Chela in the first round of the Hamburg Masters Series.
May 9, 2002: It's another early exit for Mark, who lost 4-6, 2-6 yesterday to Novak in the Rome tournament.
May 7, 2002: May is off to a good start with Mark having a relatively painless win over Spadea 6-2, 6-2 at the Masters Series in Rome.
April 30, 2002: Five articles about the BMW Open added with most quoting Mark: "I hit a lot of wrong shots, a lot of stupid shots." He has opted to enter both the Rome and Hamburg Masters events to get more time on the clay before Rolland Garros.
April 29, 2002: It was another disappointing outing for Philippoussis today, losing to Boutter 5-7, 6-7 (4-7) in the first round of the BMW Open.
April 19, 2002: Details on Mark's play with the Philadelphia Freedoms are now available. He is joining the team for the second week of play and will be playing in their matches on July 23rd and 25th. See their website at http://www.philadelphiafreedoms.com/ for more info.
April 18, 2002: It seems that Mark will be playing World Team Tennis this year. He will be playing for the Philadelphia Freedoms. World Team Tennis is a reborn version of the league for professional players started by Billy Jean King. They play in July-Aug, with the tournament championships to be held Aug. 24 at the USTA National Tennis Center in New York.
April 16, 2002 Mark is just not having the kind of season he wants. He went out in the first round of Monte Carlo toay 4-6, 4-6 against Grosjean.
March 24, 2002: Five articles on Marks match yesterday
March 23, 2002: After time off for a weakened knee, one match of play wasn't enough to prepare Mark for a match against the raw power of Safin. The numbers show it wasn't a clean match for either, but Mark's game slipped in the second set and 14 unforced errors to Safin's 0 told the story. We're ahead of the new cycle so there are no additions this update.
March 22, 2002: It may not have been the prettiest of matches, but it got the job done and Mark advanced 7-5 4-6 6-3 over Pioline which sets him up for a second round matchup against Safin. Mark did post some good numbers though, winning 83% of his first serve with 24 aces and a top speed of 136mph. He also provides a few details on his knee problems. It seems that every six months he has to have a series of 3 injections to get synthetic cartilage into his knee and it means no play for 3 weeks. And this will be a career long occurrance. Seven articles and two photos added.
March 19, 2002: Finally, a bit of news to report. Tennis Austalia has an article that details Mark's current status. He'll start play tomorrow in Miami against Pioline. Following Miami, Mark's next entered event is the Monte Carlo Masters Series on April 15th.
March 18, 2002: The missing Mark. It's been two weeks since my last update, and oddly in those two weeks there has not been one single mention of Mark in any of the news sites. He was supposed to play at Indian Wells last week but was then missing from the draw when it started with no formal announcement made of why. It's my guess the knee injury was still bothering him. Mark is scheduled to play the Nasdaq-100 Open (formerly known as the Ericsson Open) in Miami this week. Hopefully he'll be there and playing well!
March 4, 2002: The injury demon strikes again. Mark had been given a wildcard to the International Tennis Championships in Delray Beach (formerly known as the Citrix Championships) but had to withdraw due to injury. No specifics on what the injury is, only that it's to his left knee (the same one he underwent several surgeries on last year).
February 27, 2002: Where's Mark? Mark was supposed to be playing in San Jose this week, but was mysteriously gone from the draw. After much hunting I finally came across a one-liner from Tennis Australia that read: "Mark Philippoussis is taking a break this week, withdrawing from the ATP
tournament in San Jose with a shoulder injury."
February 20, 2002: Yesterday was just not a good day for Mark. In the Kroger St. Jude, which has been kind to Mark in the past, he was eliminated in the first round by Bjorkman 6-7 (6-8), 6-7 (1-7). Two small articles added.
January 28, 2002: Not exactly the best news for an update, but it happened so... it seems that Mark was booked for speeding while down in Australia. The positive out of the articles is that Mark is due to return to the States next week to continue preparations for the hardcourt season.
January 16, 2002: Unfortunately the last Aussie has left the men's field. Mark lost to Rusedski 6-7 (7-9), 3-6, 4-6. Mark was leading 5-3 in the opening set and looked on fire, but at 5-5 he called for the trainer to look deal with a strained quad muscle in his left leg (his left quad has not quite returned to the same level of power as his right). Also because of how the Aussie Open website uses dynamic databases for their navigation, linking to individual items there isn't easy - I encourage everyone to check out Mark's bio page there for photos, video, stats, interviews and more. Next up is the US hardcourt season where Mark will start with matches in Memphis and San Jose
In something of an amusing sidenote, it seems that Mark has developed a new nickname with the Aussie fans, and over the two matches, shouts of 'Go Poo!' could be heard. Hopefully that's one nickname that will not last!
January 15, 2002: With the loss of Hewitt in his first round match, Mark is now the lone Australian left in the mens field. His match against Rusedski is set for 1/16 at 11am Australian time. A few articles and photos added.
January 14, 2002: Mark is off with a bang! In his opening night match Mark dispatched Blanco 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with 28 aces and 3 double faults. A rather nice way to start off this slam I'd say! The AusOpen website also has a new rather nifty feature this year - a map-like breakdown on serves. They're tricky to find, but if you look to Results, then click on the Match Statistics for the specific match, then View Detailed Serve Statistics it will launch an applet that lets you see where on the court (one of 6 positions) the different serves (fastest, slowest, aces, etc.) went. If you're big on stats it's incredibly interesting! Mark's next match is against Greg Rusedski. Six articles and two photos added.
January 12, 2002: Fascinating article in The Age where Mark and coach McNamara talk about how Mark should win Wimbledon this year. Mark plays his match again Blanco tomorrow on the opening day at the Aussie Open. A few articles and photos added.
January 11, 2002: The draw for the 2002 Australian Open has been announced, and Mark will play Blanco in his first round matchup. The two have not previously played. You can see the complete draw here. It seems that Mark played an exhibition at Kooyang yesterday against Fromberg, winning 6-3, 7-5. The Fox Sports article indicates that it was a recent development and that it wasn't advertised in order to avoid the press, and that it was a mending fences effort on Mark's behalf. On a light-hearted note: The article also mentions that Mark's got personalized plates on one of his 4WD's - namely "Flip 7." Anyone want to bet that this is his 7th vehicle down-under? TO answer the questions I've gotten as to Mark's current hairstyle - yes Mark has gone back to wearing it longer and held back with a bandana - the shorter look in some recent newspapers are just not current pictures.
January 9, 2002: There seems to be a bit of confusion down-under about the North Balwyn exhibition. The event was organized by Octagon, Mark's former agents (in November he switched back to IMG),allegedly to help Mark get some more play since he can no longer do the Kooyang Classic. But according to Mark's dad, Mark never confirmed for that event and they event questioned why he was being advertised. Four articles about the matter added - The Age is the best one.
January 8, 2002: Some all around site updates: new articles, new bios, new links all added. The 2001 articles were moved down to their own page in the older archive section. Also I've found 3 new tennis news websites and so I will be delving into their archives this month and adding whatever I can find.
January 6, 2002: Philippoussis lost the AAPT final to Henman 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6 with the untimely breakdown of his serve including three critical double faults at break points. The outcome may not have been desired, but the new matured Philippoussis showed fresh desire and kept fighting throughout the match, but between his serve problems and Henman serving at an impressive 74% he wasn't able to win the match. But a run to the finals is a wonderful start for the new season, and now Mark will have a bit of time off to prepare for the Australian Open. Five photos and twelve articles added to the archives.
January 5, 2001: In another impressive display of tennis, Mark needed only 70 minutes to dispatch Arazi 6-4, 6-1. His new training and mental focus seems to be paying off, as when his serve dropped a bit he pulled back and waited for the right shot from the baseline instead of just trying to power through. He's now into the finals where he'll play (ironically enough) doubles partner Henman. Henman and Philippoussis lost their semi-final doubles match against Black/Ullyett 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (4-7).
January 4, 2002: Could this really turn out to be the beginning of a new Philippoussis? Mark dispatched Martin 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. After having some troubles in the first set Mark settled down and went on to win the match with 18 aces backed up with some impressive ground strokes. Next up is a bit of a test - namely the always dangerous Arazi who's given Mark trouble in the past and their head-to-head is tied 2-2.
January 3, 2002: It was over almost before it started, in an impressive display of his new fitness, it took Mark less than an hour to dispatch Schalken 6-0, 6-3. Next up is a quarter-final match against Todd Martin. Amusingly, Martin had this to day about their upcoming match: "Against Mark, I pretty much do what everybody else does, try to get out of the way of his serve and take it from there." Later in the day Philippoussis and Henman advanced in doubles against Prinosil/Tarango 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. It was also a busy news cycle - twelve articles and several photos!
January 2, 2002: Mark finished his match against Boutter today to seal a 6-3, 6-4 victory and advance to the second round. New articles and one photo added.
January 1, 2002: Mark's first singles match of the new season was today and he started out impressively leading Boutter 6-3, 1-0 before the match was suspended by rain.
December 31, 2001: It seems that Mark is back to playing doubles again! At the AAPT he's teamed up with Briton Tim Henman and they won their opening match against Kreitzmann/Vanhoudt 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Mark will begin his singles run tomorrow against Boutter. Be sure to read the Herald Sun article "Reborn Scud hard to fault" - Mark talks about having a renewed passion for the game and training thanks to time spent training with Sampras in L.A. before Christmas. And best of all he says that his knee has been inflamation free for some weeks now! Go Mark!
