Home hero Philippoussis out
Moroccan Hicham Arazi put a dampener on the Australia Day celebrations Down Under with a straight-sets fourth round victory over home favourite Mark Philippoussis (pictured).
The number 10 seed crashed out 6-2 6-2 6-4 to leave Lleyton Hewitt the sole Australian hope in the tournament.
Philippoussis has never reached the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park and today was out of sorts from the off, making 38 unforced errors and failing to convert any of his 10 break point opportunities.
Arazi and his compatriot Younes El Aynaoui, who made such a stir here last year with his victory over Hewitt and epic clash with Andy Roddick, are the only Moroccans in the open era to have reached the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam.
Last year El Aynaoui went down 21-19 in the fifth set to Roddick and now Arazi will face Spanish third seed Juan Carlo Ferrero.
“They’ll be going crazy on Al-Jazeera right now,” said John McEnroe when interviewing Arazi on court after the match.
Arazi, who won both his singles rubbers in Morocco’s Davis Cup victory over Great Britain, apologised for disappointing the Australian crowd, but reminded them Hewitt’s clash with Roger Federer was still to come.
“You have still got tonight,” he said.
“I was very happy with the way I played today. The key was the returns. I was in a good day today.
“I have played him many times. It is always a good match. Today, unfortunately, he didn’t play his best tennis.”
No Moroccan has ever reached a Grand Slam semi-final and for Arazi to do so he will need to overcome Ferrero, who progressed after beating plucky Romanian Andre Pavel 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2.
