Philippoussis: Does He Deserve A Wildcard Into The Australian Open
It was reported over on Tennisnews that Lleyton Hewitt is supporting Mark Philippoussis and hopes that Tennis Australia provide the 31 year old an opportunity to head back to his home grand slam.
I probably take a different view on this whole situation because I am Australia and I have long been watch the trials and tribulations of Flip. I still think Philippoussis has something to offer the game of tennis and im sure he will be playing on either the pro circuit or senior circuit for a long time to come, but Tennis Australia have very strict guidelines on providing wildcards (they have to be earned). Since Philippoussis has not played a pro match since January last year he cant be shown to have earn a wildcard, therefore he will have to head to Melbourne in December and play in the wildcard tournament in which is only for a selected few Australian players and they compete with the winner obtaining a wildcard into the Australian Open maindraw and the remainder will have to battle it out through qualies.
Philippoussis has weapons in his game that on any given day can scare any player in the world, so come January make sure you watch out!
October 17th, 2007 at 6:07 am
I am a long time supporter of Mark and hopefully after he plays the seniors event this week he proves his determination by playing a couple of challengers before the year ends. If Mark can string some wins together on the challenger tour after 10 months out then that should be enough for Tennis Australia.
I only agree Mark should not be automatically given a WC if he doesn’t play any challenger events over the next 2 months…there are about 4 in the US that he could play. If for whatever silly reason he doesn’t committ to the challengers then he should be forced to play for a WC.