Although in the collective imagination the life of an athlete is very simple and everything is luxury and fortune, there is a dark side that is not known and that is not the same in all cases. Probably, anyone could think that a tennis player who was in the top 10, played two Grand Slam finals, won the Davis Cup and obtained a Masters 1000 is saved for life, but that is not the case and The case of Mark Philippoussis demonstrates this.
Born in Australia in 1976, Mark Philippoussis first played professional tennis in 1994. Success did not take long to arrive and by 1996 he had already won his first ATP title, in 1997 he won three more titles – on different surfaces -, in 1998 he played his first Grand Slam final and continued adding victories. 1999 was a great year for him both individually and collectively as he was decisive in Australia winning the Davis Cup, he won both of his singles in the final against France. In that year he also won his only Masters 1000, it was in Indian Wells against Carlos Moyá.
A stunning start to the millennium
He started 2000 by making the last 16 at the Australian Open and winning his seventh ATP title, and he also remained in the top 10 of the rankings. The following years were in the same vein, with good results, titles and a good ranking: 2003 was even one of his best years, as he won the Davis Cup again and also played the Wimbledon final against Roger Federer in what was His Majesty’s first Grand Slam title. In 20024 and 2005, Philippousis did not win any titles, although he did win one in 2006, a crucial year for his career that would mark the beginning of the debacle.
From having everything to asking for food
In 2006, when Philippoussis was barely 30 years old, a dark period began in his life. Injuries appeared, he moved away from the world of tennis, where he had won 7 million dollars in prizes and surely some more in advertising, but in three years he lost everything and he even confessed that he ended up asking his friends for money to buy him food.
In 2021, Mark Philippoussis was part of the reality show SAS Australia and when asked about the most embarrassing period of his life, the former tennis player said: “I was away for several months. I couldn’t afford much, to be honest. I had to ask my friends to buy me food. For several days in a row, my family and I would eat pasta with cabbage, which ended up being one of my favorite meals. But my mom would tell me ‘poor people’s food’ Because it’s very simple, it’s just cabbage with some spices and pasta.”
He added: “I felt very ashamed. I was in a dark place and had depression. There is no greater pain than seeing my loved ones suffer because of my actions. My family is my world, my priority. The most important thing to me. My parents gave up their dreams for me and my responsibility was to take care of them. And the good thing was that for a long time I was able to do that and they didn’t have to work again. But then the injuries came and everything stopped.”
Bad decisions
Philippoussis said he once bought a car for one day to avoid taking a taxi, and then sold it, and that he once owned fifteen motorcycles. He also went into detail about what led him to make bad decisions: “When you are an athlete, they always tell you, ‘Save for a rainy day,’ but you don’t want to think about that. You think you are weak if you feel like you could get hurt and would have to have something to fall back on. It’s a sign of weakness. You can’t think like that because you have to keep looking forward.”
The reinvention of Philippousis and the return to the ring with two greats
After going through financial difficulties, and even losing the family home, when he managed to recover from his injuries, he returned to play some exhibition matches and re-entered the world of tennis, which he continues to do to this day. It is not unusual to see him in some tournaments and he even worked with two more than outstanding tennis players: Aryna Sabalenka and Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom she coached in 2023 when the Greek had a crisis with his father.
In 2022, Sabalenka had problems with her serve and before the Australian Open she contacted Mark Philippoussis to help her in that regard. This is how the Belarusian recounted it at the time: “After the first matches of the year, I was very worried and I contacted Mark. He wrote to me and told me that he could help me at the end of the day and come to the court to practice. We went and I served a lot, he gave me good advice about my game and what I had to focus on when I had problems with my serve.”.
