TENNIS: Former US Open finalist Mark Philippoussis eased through his second-round match yesterday to book a quarter-final clash with American Todd Martin in the Australian men's hardcourt championship in Adelaide.
Philippoussis (25), continued his impressive return from knee surgery with a comfortable 6-0 6-3 victory over Dutch fifth-seed Sjeng Schalken, the world number 26.
Martin (31), who beat former world number one Pete Sampras in the first round, overcame France's Michael Llodra 7-5 6-4.
Philippoussis, whose ranking has slipped outside the top 100, said he was 10 kilograms lighter than when he last played in Australia almost two years ago. The big-serving Australian hit 12 aces.
"I put in the work before I got here and that's the difference," Philippoussis said. "When you have worked hard and when you have put in the hours, you know you're going to play well."
Philippoussis, who lives in the US, said he expected Martin to be a difficult opponent. "Any short balls, Todd is going to come in. He's going to come in on most of his serves and it's going to be an extremely tough match, but that's what I want."
Martin said anyone playing against Philippoussis had to be wary of his serve. "Against Mark, I pretty much do what everybody else does, try to get out of the way of his serve and take it from there," the American said. "I return well, I think, but obviously Mark serves it as well as anyone, that will be the most obvious challenge for me."
In other second-round matches yesterday, Croatia's eighth-seed Ivan Ljubicic beat Chile's Nicolas Massu 7-6 7-5 while Morocco's fourth-seed Hicham Arazi defeated Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 0-6 6-2.
Quarter-final action today will include a clash between Britons Tim Henman, the number one seed, and Greg Rusedski, the sixth seed. Third-seeded Swede Thomas Enqvist will take on Spain's Alberto Martin.
Henman currently leads the series 3-2 courtesy of a 6-2 7-6 victory at this event last year. He went 1-0 up when winning in the Czech Republic in 1996 before Rusedski edged ahead with wins in Austria and Germany in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
