Philippoussis kicks off 2016 with a bang
April 23, 2016
Mark Philippoussis made his 2016 PowerShares Series debut Friday night beating Andy Roddick and Jim Courier back-to-back to win the Champions Showdown Memphis title at the Landers Center in Southaven, Miss.
Philippoussis upset Roddick 7-5 in the opening one-set semifinal match, becoming only the second player to ever beat Roddick on the PowerShares Series. He then beat Courier 6-3 in the one-set championship match to win his fifth career title on the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players.
“I had good rhythm,” said Phillippoussis of his winning evening. “I was connecting on my groundstrokes and the serve was there. I had a lot of fun out there.”
Philippoussis won the first and final PowerShares Series titles in 2015, beating Andre Agassi in the final of Salt Lake City in the opening event of the Series, then capped the season in Vancouver in the Series finale, defeating Pete Sampras in the final. He also won titles in 2010 in Boston and Surprise, Arizona.
His semifinal upset of Roddick was described by some observers as the best on the Series in a long time, maybe ever, as two of the fastest servers in the history of tennis exchanged blistering serves and rocket forehands in a display of tennis reminiscent of their ATP World Tour days. Roddick took an early 3-1 lead but Philippoussis was able rally back from 3-3. Philippoussis saved two break points at 4-4 with a service winner and an ace before holding and eventually breaking Roddick’s serve to close out the upset victory.
Philippoussis joins James Blake as the only players to defeating Roddick on the PowerShares Series, Blake beating Roddick in the semifinals of Houston in 2014 and last year in the semifinals of Boston and Cincinnati.
To advance to the final, Courier defeated John McEnroe 6-4.
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 2016 PowerShares Series schedule with player fields are listed below and ticket, schedule and player information can be found at PowerSharesSeries.com;
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. The year before in 2014, McEnroe won the points title for the first time in the nine-year history of Champions Series tennis by winning events in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Nashville and Charlotte.
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InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $4 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to InsideOutSE.com or powersharesseries.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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