Sport in general tends to have peaks. Of those that leads to glory and of those that makes you kiss the canvas. He even makes many protagonists go through both in a few years and this is the case of Mark Philippoussis, glory in the ’90s when he shared the circuit with Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and many others.
Due to a string of bad economic decisions, probably plus the same amount of injuries that led him to fall into a deep depression and live extreme situations, the Australian went through unimaginable situations for an elite athlete.
On a television show in your country, SAS Australian Channel 7, He expressed part of that ordeal that occupied the darkest page of his life, between 2006 and 2009.
“When you are an elite athlete, the last thing you think about is that you can have financial problems. I lived spending well above my means and with the peace of mind that I was fulfilling my dream. I saw how my parents sacrificed their lives in order to give me the opportunity to dedicate myself to tennis, and once I got it, all I wanted was to reward them. Despite the injuries, I only thought that I would get ahead and regain the good state of my accounts “, argues the one who was finalist at the US Open 1998 and Wimbledon 2003, as well as number 8 in the world.
“When I had not competed for a few months (he underwent surgery six times), I realized that I could not allow myself to continue like this. I ended up eating pasta with cabbage for seven days, it was the only way to survive with what I had, and I saw myself forced to ask some friends for money. I was very ashamed of what was happening to me and I went into a deep depression, “he added.
“It was difficult to spend three years paying bills without receiving money from sports awards. Luckily, my family supported me at all times and I was able to get out of that bad streak “, argued a Philippoussis who was not well managed and paid for it. Because as the song says, Nothing is forever.
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