Melbourne: Mark Philippoussis, fighting off a shoulder injury that nearly forced him to retire after the fourth set, gave Australia its 28th Davis Cup title today (Nov 30, 2003) by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 7-5 6-3 1-6 2-6 6-0.

The win gave Australia an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five final.

Philippoussis played strongly at first but then allowed Ferrero back into the match as the Australian ignored pain in his serving-side right shoulder. After the fourth set, when he received prolonged treatment on his shoulder, Philippoussis opened the decider to hold serve and then broke Ferrero to go up 2-0.

Holding his shoulder and wincing as he served, Philippoussis went up 3-0 in the next game and then broke Ferrero again in the fourth when the Spaniard's floating backhand went long. At that point, Philippoussis had hit 21 aces but had 16 double faults.

Philippoussis hit a hard overhand smash to finish the match, then dropped to the court while his teammates raced out to congratulate him.

"This is incredible," said Philippoussis. "At the end I was just completely numb. It felt like I wasn't playing, I was sort of watching from the side."

"I didn't know what was going on. Thank God those shots were going in."

Agencies