Australia 3 1 Spain

Home-town Hero Philippoussis Wins Cup for Australia
The title of Davis Cup Champion Nation 2003 is Australia's.

Mark Philippoussis had tears streaming down his face and everywhere he looked in the Rod Laver Arena it was the same. The people who mattered most to him, his father Nick, his captain John Fitzgerald, his teammates, they were all overflowing with emotion. His father in particular was just so proud as he wiped his eyes time and again.

Mark Philippoussis had won the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas for Australia. He had given the nation this magnificent trophy, this fantastic team competition, for the 28th time. He had struck the overhead winner against Juan Carlos Ferrero that sealed the win in three hours 13 minutes 75 63 16 26 60.

It was a roller coaster ride that stunned everyone and even Philippoussis, playing a Davis Cup tie for only the second time in front of his home town crowd, was lost for words. He could not explain how he won that fifth set as he was wracked with pain in his right shoulder.

"To be quite honest I don't know what happened in the fifth," said Philippoussis who also played the winning match for Australia the last time they won the Davis Cup, back in 1999 in Nice. "I just came out there, I went to the bathroom, the guys were saying 'one more set, one more set'. I was just thinking I don't care how bad your pec (shoulder) is, just put everything into this last set.

"I don't know how, especially 60 in the fifth set. I honestly don't know. I just thought the serve ... give it everything and then when I was returning I thought just chip and charge and come in on everything. If he passes you, too good. I was just going to come at anything. I don't know."

Philippoussis started the match in a far better manner than on the first day when he admitted he had been throwing up before the match against Carlos Moya because of nerves. This time he was positive and aggressive form the word go. He saved break points in the first game of the match and then broke Ferrero in the 12th game to claim the set with a forehand cross court volley winner.

The Australia punched the air with both fists and kept the momentum going and once again broke Ferrero, in the eighth game when the Spaniard netted a backhand and a game later the set belonged to Australia when Ferrero sent a return wide.

Australia was a set away from glory. But Ferrero is not a Grand Slam champion and one of the three best players in the world for nothing. When he broke Philippoussis in the second game of the third set after seven break points, the match began to turn. The Spaniard was growing in confidence and he was pressuring Philippoussis whose service percentage was dwindling.

The third set fell to Spain and then the fourth. At that stage both players required treatment. Philippoussis took a bathroom break but then needed intense treatment on his right shoulder, while Ferrero was getting his thighs massaged in the hot conditions. And then the radical change came.

"I don't think my mentality changed at all," said Ferrero. "I feel that I played pretty much the same in the third and fourth set, as well as the first and second set. I tried just as hard in the fifth. (My) arm was playing up, the serves weren't as good, there was a lot of pressure on me from the start. Although he was having problems with the shoulder, I think he played just as well.

"I wasn't thinking anything special. I was thinking I have to steal, in the same way as the third and fourth sets and try to break his serves. I tried to keep fighting and keep going until I win the match, but finally it was impossible."

Philippoussis said the shoulder problem could be a tear and he will be having an MRI to determine the problem but he is living through the discomfort as he floats on cloud nine.

He said the crowd played a huge part in the match. It is what Davis Cup is all about, especially playing at home. This was a special victory. Every one of the team members scored a win.

"It's a special moment I guess for me," said Lleyton Hewitt who didn't have to play the final dead rubber which was abandoned. "Personally I probably haven't had the greatest years that I have had over the last two years before. I guess I sacrificed a lot of things to play Davis Cup and to play well in Davis Cup ties.

"There's no better feeling than holding that trophy up. For me the whole team did it, it was a team effort this whole weekend and everyone stood up for what they believed in."