4^th June, 2000

"Flip" can last the French Open trip

Mark Philippoussis’ performance at the Davis Cup final in December was seen as a sign of what might happen at the French Open. Six months on, Philippoussis gives every indication he can live up to that potential.

By beating Pete Sampras in the first round, then knocking over Paul Goldstein and Hicham Arazi – a very dangerous player – "Flip" is hitting top form at the right time in a tournament which already has lost the defending champion, Andre Agassi.

But it is still a big call to suggest Mark will win. There’s no doubt he’s capable of pulling it off, but there are so many things that can go wrong.

The same goes for Lleyton Hewitt, who was due to play overnight.

Both guys have a difficult draw, but that is the case for every Grand Slam tournament these days. There are very few easy draws and any player who gets through the first week of a Slam has to be playing well.

Mark and Lleyton are different types of players and they have the challenge in front of them, but there’s no reason why they can not still be in the tournament deep into the second week if they play their best. It will be tough, but anything is possible.

Defeat is never pleasant, but there are times when you can get positives form a loss.

The loss to Cedric Pioline at the French Open on Thursday left me disappointed, but I was encouraged with enough of what I did to feel as though it had not been a wasted exercise.

It’s no secret I’ve struggled on clay this season. In fact, I’ve struggled on hardcourt this year after the shoulder surgery. But the most important thing to come out of the Pioline match was that my shoulder held up really well..

There were glimpses of good form, so I can not be too down on myself. Test cricketers often talk about making bad runs or ugly runs. Brad Gilbert, Andre Agassi’s coach, wrote a book about his tennis called "Winning Ugly".

And as much as you always want to play your best, sometimes you just have to accept that there will be times when you struggle.

I knew coming into the French open that I had , realistically no chance of winning it. I was not being negative, it was simply an honest reflection of where my game was on clay.