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Twelve months ago Mark Philippoussis would have been uncertain of even making the team for this match, but now he finds himself as the top ranked Australian player. Opposing him for Spain is former French Open champion, Carlos Moya.

2003 has been a much better year for the hard serving Aussie, raising him to ninth in the champions race. The highlight was reaching the final at Wimbledon, as the world finally saw the destructive tennis that this man can produce, and on a regular basis during the fortnight. In September, he won his only title of the year on the hard courts in Shanghai and did so without dropping a set. Since then however he has won only twice in three tournaments, and in both the last two, in Paris and Madrid, not a single win has been registered.

However, the big advantage he holds against Moya is that the Spaniard has not played a competitive match on grass for two and a half years. Clay is his domain, and the last two times he has played Philippoussis has been at the French open. Unsurprisingly he has won both, and in straight sets, but the Aussie has won all three encounters on hard courts. Never before have they played on grass.

Despite Philippoussis’s fine year, Moya has had an even better one, and is seventh in the champions race. Three titles have gone his way, as well as three finals and in total ten quarter finals during 2003.

Many were surprised that he was included in the singles, as the big serving youngster Feliciano Lopez has a game which should be more suited to grass. However the captain Jordi Arrese has decided to go with experience.

On the specialist surface we struggle to see how Moya will cope with the fast serve and volley game of his opponent, and even with odds as long as 5/2 are not tempted to have a bet. The best price on Philippoussis are 2/5.

johnny.oshea@readaBet.com

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