http://championships.wimbledon.org/
Philippoussis Wins Serving Duel

Mike Donovan

Monday, June 24, 2002

Mark Philippoussis won the battle of the big servers
when he overcame Julien Boutter, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2,
in the opening round on Court 13 today.

He cranked up his serve to see off the Frenchman in
the opening set. Boutter, world ranked 50 to
Philippoussis' 104, gave him a taste of his own
medicine in the second before the player nicknamed
'The Scud', because of his 125mph serves, eventually
eased through.

The Australian, like last year's champion Goran
Ivanisevic, is a wild card. But Philippoussis hasn't
thought about emulating Croat Ivanisevic just yet, he
is just glad to be back on court at The Championships.

The 25-year-old has been troubled by injury since knee
trouble forced him to defaults against Pete Sampras in
the quarter-finals three years ago and came back to
make the last eight 12 months later but then he was
sidelined again.

In all he has had three lots of surgery and it had
taught him perspective.

He said: "When I had my third surgery I was in a
wheelchair for two months. So now I'm taking nothing
for granted. When I was young I never thought about
anything going wrong. Now I take each day as it comes.

"I never think too far ahead. For a Grand Slam, I'm
still going to try."