MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS CONTINUES WINNING WAYS ON POWERSHARES TENNIS SERIES WITH TORONTO TITLE

Written by: Staff on 31st March 2017

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS CONTINUES WINNING WAYS ON POWERSHARES TENNIS SERIES WITH TORONTO TITLE |

Photo by @powersharestennis via Instagram.

Mark Philippoussis continued to show the fine form he exhibited in a near dominating season last year on the PowerShares Series by winning the opening event of the 2017 Series Thursday night at the RPIA Championships at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.

Philippoussis defeated John McEnroe 7-5 in the semifinals and Andy Roddick 7-6 (5) in the final to earn his tenth career title on the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players over the age of 30. Philippoussis and Roddick, known as two of the best servers in the history of tennis, did not lose serve in the final as Philippoussis earned his sixth win in the last eight matches against Roddick.

In 2016, Philippoussis lost only two matches while winning five events and winning the season-long points championship for the first time. He won titles in Memphis, Tulsa, Newport, R.I., Winston-Salem and New Haven with his only match losses coming against Roddick in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles.

“I was very happy with how I played last year and this year, I’m just as happy to be on the court and enjoying myself,” said the 40-year-old Philippoussis, who was the final-round victim of Roger Federer during the Swiss legend’s first of 18 major singles titles at Wimbledon 14 years ago.

To reach the Toronto final Thursday night, Philippoussis edged 58-year-old John McEnroe 7-5 while Roddick defeated his former U.S. Davis Cup teammate and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Mardy Fish 6-3.

Philippoussis earned 400 PowerShares ranking points with the tournament win to take the early lead in the 2017 PowerShares Series rankings. Roddick earned 200 points for finishing as runner-up while McEnroe and Fish both earned 100 points.

Each PowerShares Series event features two one-set semifinal matches and a one-set championship match and, for the second straight year, players make their own line calls with assistance of electronic line-calling.

The remaining PowerShares Series for this season schedule with player fields are listed below and ticket, schedule and player information can be found at www.PowerSharesSeries.com;

April 1 – Charleston, S.C. – John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Mark Philippoussis, James Blake

April 28 – Birmingham, Ala. – John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mardy Fish

May 17 – Chicago – John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mark Philippoussis

July 23 – Newport, RI – Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, James Blake, Mardy Fish

August 20 – Winston-Salem, N.C. – Andy Roddick, James Blake, Michael Chang, Mardy Fish

August 24-25 – New Haven, Conn. – John McEnroe, James Blake, Michael Chang, Mark Philippoussis

TBD – Lincoln, Neb. – TBD

TBD – Los Angeles, Calif. – TBD

TBD – Nashville, Tenn. – TBD

In 2016, Mark Philippoussis won the PowerShares Series points title with 1600 points and tournament titles in Memphis, Tulsa, Newport, Winston-Salem and New Haven. Roddick finished in second place, also earning 1600 points but losing the head-to-head tiebreaker with Philippoussis 5-2, while winning titles in Charleston, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Orlando. James Blake finished in third place with 1100 points and tournament titles in Chicago, Portland and Brooklyn.

In 2015, Andy Roddick won the PowerShares Series points title in his second year of competing on the series with 1,600 points. Roddick won a record eight events Los Angeles, Lincoln, Chicago, Austin, Little Rock, Dallas, Richmond and Minneapolis. Blake finished second in the points rankings with 1,200 points, winning events in Boston and Cincinnati. Mark Philippoussis finished in third with 1,100 points, winning titles in Salt Lake City and Vancouver.

Topics: Andy Roddick, John Mcenroe, Mark Philippoussis, PowerShares Series, Sports, Tennis News