’What an idiot’: Mark Philippoussis reveals ‘ridiculous’ lifestyle

Australian tennis icon Mark Philippoussis has revealed the “ridiculous” lifestyle he enjoyed at the height of his professional career.

Mark Philippoussis enjoyed splashing out on the finer things in life during his career but now he looks back and thinks: “Why?”

The Aussie tennis icon achieved some seriously impressive feats on the court but lived a different lifestyle to the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter.

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While Hewitt was obsessed with tennis all the time, Philippoussis embraced the importance of switching off and liked getting away from the grind of the professional tour whenever he could.

During Monday night’s episode of SAS Australia, Philippoussis was pulled aside by one of the directing staff who questioned why he lacks aggression — leading the 44-year-old to open up on the distractions and feelings of emptiness he experienced while playing tennis at the top level.

In 2003 Philippoussis reached the Wimbledon final, won the Davis Cup with Australia and achieved a career-best world rankings of No. 8. Yet somehow, he didn’t have a clothing contract.

Rather than use that as motivation to climb even higher, the competitive flame died out.

“After my third knee surgery … I was in a wheelchair for three months and crutches for a couple of months and they said I’ll never play professional tennis again,” Philippoussis said.

“That drove me – I came back and had my strongest year.

“I just had the best year. I just won Davis Cup for the second time – how can I not have a clothing contract?

“My thought was, ‘F**k you’. But instead of saying, ‘F**k you’, I went the opposite and my passion withered. I just felt beaten up.

“And I knew what it’d take and I thought, ‘Do I wanna be there again?’ And I didn’t.”

Mark Philippoussis speaking on SAS Australia. Photo: Channel 7.

When the desire dimmed, Philippoussis tried to fill the void in other ways.

“I was (buying new) cars because I would get bored. Or I’d watch this new movie Bad Boys (and see) they got the new Porsche turbo, and you’d call up your agent to find me the new Porsche turbo,” he said. “That’s how ridiculous it was.

“So, the prize money doesn’t make you happier but it ends up becoming the new norm.

“Sometimes now I just shake my head and laugh and think, ‘What an idiot’.”

Philippoussis opened up on his lavish spending habits in a podcast with sportscaster Mark Howard last year, where the unashamed revhead said he would go through a new car as often as some people mow their lawn, owning everything from Mercedes to Bentleys, as well as “numerous Lamborghinis and a bunch of Ferraris”. Not to mention about 15 motorbikes.

“I would get bored. I’m not exaggerating when I say I would easily go through one car a month and just change it,” Philippoussis told The Howie Games.

“I never kept it because it never made me happy, I was just bored.”

Then there was the time Philippoussis paid $100,000 on a whim for a brand new Dodge Viper because he didn’t want to get a taxi home, only to sell it the very next day — which he admitted was a “messed up story”.

“You can laugh, because it’s ridiculous,” Philippoussis said.

This is a hummer Philippoussis used to own. Source: Supplied.

Fancy cars were a favourite toy.

After being encouraged to rediscover his aggression on SAS and channel it into something meaningful, Philippoussis took action. As all the celebrity contestants were pitted against each other in boxing matches, the tennis star left musician Pete Murray a little worse for wear.

He knocked Murray to the ground with a powerful punch and the singer-songwriter had to pull out with a dislocated elbow.