Mark has a tattoo on his upper right arm of Alexander the Great. The tattoo is a profile shot and is based on Alexander's likeness on a coin. Mark got the tattoo in 1999 to reflect his Greek heritage (his father is Greek, his mother Italian). Click here for a scan of the tattoo. In late 2000, the tattoo increased, in this photo you can see the flames/sun's rays that were added around the profile of Alexander. In late 2006 he went to the tattoo parlor and has added additional flames or scrollwork around the prior flames.

Mark has had a number of coaches in his career, but he is currently working only with his father and trainer Gil Reyes (Agassi's longtime fitness man). In the past he has been coached by Gavin Hopper (who also acted as trainer), Pat Cash (6/98 - 5/00), Mike de Palmer (7/00 to 12/01), Andrew Florent (03/05 - 11/05), and Archie Adams (12/05 - 05/06) and Peter McNammaera (06/06 - 11/06). Mark has also worked with Peter previously: 01/02-03/03, and time as a teenager. Pat helped bring Mark the necessary motivation to get him to his first quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon and Mike brought in Boris Becker (Mark's idol) to help boost him for the grass court and hard court season that year. He also worked in 2004 with John McEnroe on a part-time basis. In addition throughout most of his career his father Nick has also been very active in coaching his son.

Mark earned the nickname 'The Scud' early in his career because the strongest part of his game was his serve. A Scud was a type of missile commonly used in 1991 Operation Desert Storm. While the nickname was originally intended to be a compliment toward his power, some sportswriters later used it to describe the erratic nature of that serve as Scud missiles were known for both their power and their problems in hitting a target accurately. Mark's fastest serve on record is 142mph!.

It seems that Mark is the kind of player that just cries out for sportswriters to coin nicknames for. The most common one besides 'Scud' is 'Flip' - a somewhat obvious shortening of the last name. 'Flipper' is most often heard on U.S. television when Patrick McEnroe is commentating (he coined it and it's a favorite of his). In 2003 Mark also picked up 'Poo' or 'The Poo' and he's gone on record as hoping that one dies an early death (and this webmaster agrees - *ugh* what a nickname!)

Mark currently has twelve career singles titles, with the most recent being the Hall of Fame Championships in July of 2006. He also has one Hopman Cup title teamed up with Dokic, and took part in the winning Davis cup team in 1999. Mark has also been instrumental in winning the Davis Cup twice, 1999 and 2003. In both cases, it was Mark's second match that secured the Cup for Australia. In 2003 he was crowned a hero for playing on despite a nasty shoulder injury midway through the match.

Mark's best appearances at a Grand Slam was two finals. The first was at the 1998 US Open when he made it to the final against defending champion Patrick Rafter. The second wasat Wimbledon in 2003 when he played Roger Federer.

Head-to-head stats are now available on this site - under the Stats section!

Interestly, the player whom Mark has played the most matches against is Pete Sampras. The two have met an astonishing 12 times and given this is Sampras we're talking about here, Mark holds a very impressive 5-7 record against him.

Mark is represented by International Management Group (IMG) where his agent is Brian Cooney.

Fans wishing to write to Mark can send letters to him via IMG at either of the following addresses:

Mark has indeed played doubles, and with a variety of partners and a total of six career titles. However, doubles is more of a side-line for him in recent years, a way to get in some good court time at the events. Mark's longest partnership was with Patrick Rafter in 1997.

Mark's left knee injuries have been so severe over the years that he's lucky to still be playing the sport. Below is a timeline of what's happened to that knee and who's worked on it.

07/02/99: Mark's first knee problems. In the quarterfinals of Wimbledon against Sampras he came down awkwardly on his left knee and was forced to retire. An MRI determined it was a cartilage tear and he underwent arthroscopic surgery in New York on July 6th. The surgery required trimming a small twist in the lateral meniscus that had doubled over in his knee joint. He returned to play in Jan 2000.

12/27/00: While practicing Mark felt knee pain and an MRI determined that he had a slight tea+r in the lateral meniscus. This was a further tearing that first occurred at Wimbledon last year. He underwent surgery in Melbourne on the 28th which was performed by Dr. Julian Feller.

03/30/01: While in play at the Ericsson Open Mark once again injured his left knee and tore more cartilage, though in a different area. Mark's surgery was done in Miami by Dr. Harlan Selesnick (website: jockdoconline.com. He returned to play in September. During the surgery they drilled a hole in the bone in his knee and most of the cartilege in his left knee was removed. As a result in order for his knees to take the stress of tennis he must have three injections synthetic cartilege injected in his knee every six months. This last surgery required Mark to spend three months in a wheelchair and the doctors initially told him he would never play tennis again.

08/22/02: In the second round of the US Open Mark tried a Sampras-like overhead jump but sort of forgot he had to land and hyper-extended the knee and had to retire. An MRI determined it was a bone bruise which kept him off the tour for several months.

Currently Mark uses a Head Prestige Classic 600 Mid racquet and Babolat VS Natural Team Gut 17 String. Previously he has used a variety of Dunlop racquets.

There are a number of excellent tennis magazines out there. Australian Tennis is probably the best one for lots of Mark news as they put a heavy focus on national players. Tennis Magazine is good for some nice profiles and is heavy on the how-to for players, while Tennis Match is less how-to and more like the People magazine of tennis.

Unfortunately there are few commercial videos of tennis matches available. Wimbledon does offer some classic matches and Mark is shown in a few highlights but no full matches. I have a personal collection of some of his recent matches that I can copy for those interested in seeing them. Click here for the full list.