Aussies around the Globe – Philippoussis found Stosur finished in Istanbul

Written by: Global Chick on 31st October 2011

Aussies around the Globe – Philippoussis found Stosur finished in Istanbul

Australia's former tennis player Mark Philippoussis returns the ball to Spain's Carlos Moya during the tournament of legends ATP Champions Tour 2011 in Bogota, Colombia, 22 May 2011. Philippoussis won 7-5, 6-7 (3), 10-5. EPA/Leonardo Munoz |

Former Wimbledon and US Open finalist Mark Philippoussis retired from professional tennis young. The extremely talented Australian managed to find himself in financial trouble in his homeland and ever since that was reported in the papers Philippoussis has not been seen.

This week “Scud” turned up in China for the ATP Champions Tour event Chengdu Open. He started off the tournament losing to French Open Champion Carlos Moya. The following day Philippoussis was defeated by the very handsome Swede Thomas Enqvist who possesses one of the world’s best groundstrokes. “Flip’s” third match was against the very popular Thai player Paradorn Srichaphan which he won 6-3 6-1.

Up until this week Scud has been ranked number one on the Champions tour ranking. Carlos Moya took over as the number one after claiming the title in China on the weekend. The fallen Australian star is now ranked number two.

Philippoussis now 34-years-old suffered many injuries throughout his career. He reached a career high of number eight in the world. His Australian fans would love to see him at the Australian Open Seniors event at the end of January – lets hope Mark gets on that plane and returns home to Melbourne for the Aussie Summer Swing.

US Open Champion Sam Stosur went to Istanbul for the season-ending WTA Championships last week. Queensland’s own tennis darling “Sammy” was halted by Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals in three sets. For her semi-final spot in Istanbul Stosur earned a cool US$345 000 for her efforts. Sam’s ranking will now be No. 6 in the world. A vacation for a couple of weeks is next before Stosur starts to prepare for the Aussie Summer. She will kick off 2012 at the Brisbane International.

Sam Stosur will encounter some big names in Brisbane. Already confirmed for the 2012 women’s singles event are, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams.

In the Brisbane’s men’s singles draw only Australia’s number one player Bernard Tomic has confirmed participation.

Australia was very spoilt a couple of years ago with plenty of singles and doubles players at the top of the rankings. 2011 has been a fairly disappointing year for Australia especially for the doubles players. Last week there were five Australian’s in the Top 100. The highest ranked doubles player was Queenslander Paul Hanley at No. 46 followed by former Wimbledon Champion Stephen Huss at No. 77. Carsten Ball has had success on the Challenger Circuit with Chris Guccione lately and that takes him to No. 81. At No. 90 is Matthew Ebden followed by retired doubles specialist Ashley Fisher at No. 96.

The World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide will make some player announcement on Thursday this week. Can’t wait to hear who will be playing in next year’s event.

The AAMI Classic at Kooyong have two spots remaining for their event. So far six world class players have been signed up. This fabulous exhibition event is only 71 days away.

Topics: Philippoussis, Sam Stosur