Born: 07/11/76 Nationality: Australian Seeded: 18 World ranking: 18 French Open best: 4th round (2000, 1997) Recent record: 2003: 2nd round 2002: 2nd round 2001: N/A

The Australian, who made an astonishing comeback from a career-threatening back injury last year, went four months without winning a match after reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open in January.

He received criticism in his home country, notably from Pat Cash, for the manner of that straight sets defeat to Hicham Arazi and went on to lose both his singles matches as the Aussies' defence of their Davis Cup crown ended in the first round against Sweden.

It was a sharp reverse of fortunes for Philippoussis after his brave five-set win over Juan Carlos Ferrero sealed the Davis Cup win against Spain last November.

It provided a fairytale ending to a stunning year for the 1998 US Open finalist, who rediscovered his huge serve as he made it to the final at Wimbledon before running into a man inspired in Roger Federer.

He went on to collect his 10th career title in Shanghai and was unlucky to miss out on the end-of-season Masters Cup.

The main question mark over Philippoussis remains his fragile fitness - and his state of mind.

Former coach Peter McNamara recently hinted that Philippoussis' poor form this year might be down to the media attention surrounding his relationship with Australian singer and former soap star Delta Goodrem.