Mark Philippoussis made his 2016 PowerShares Series debut Friday night beating Andy Roddick and Jim Courier back-to-back to win the Champions Showdown Memphis title at the Landers Center in Southaven, Miss.
Philippoussis upset Roddick 7-5 in the opening one-set semifinal match, becoming only the second player to ever beat Roddick on the PowerShares Series. He then beat Courier 6-3 in the one-set championship match to win his fifth career title on the North American tennis circuit for champion tennis players.
“I had good rhythm,” said Phillippoussis of his winning evening. “I was connecting on my groundstrokes and the serve was there. I had a lot of fun out there.”
Philippoussis won the first and final PowerShares Series titles in 2015, beating Andre Agassi in the final of Salt Lake City in the opening event of the Series, then capped the season in Vancouver in the Series finale, defeating Pete Sampras in the final. He also won titles in 2010 in Boston and Surprise, Arizona.
His semifinal upset of Roddick was described by some observers as the best on the Series in a long time, maybe ever, as two of the fastest servers in the history of tennis exchanged blistering serves and rocket forehands in a display of tennis reminiscent of their ATP World Tour days. Roddick took an early 3-1 lead but Philippoussis was able rally back from 3-3. Philippoussis saved two break points at 4-4 with a service winner and an ace before holding and eventually breaking Roddick’s serve to close out the upset victory.
Philippoussis joins James Blake as the only players to defeating Roddick on the PowerShares Series, Blake beating Roddick in the semifinals of Houston in 2014 and last year in the semifinals of Boston and Cincinnati.
To advance to the final, Courier defeated John McEnroe 6-4.
Each PowerShares Series event features two one-set semifinal matches and a one-set championship match and, for the second straight year, players make their own line calls with assistance of electronic line-calling.
The remaining 2016 PowerShares Series schedule with player fields are listed below and ticket, schedule and player information can be found at www.PowerSharesSeries.com;
April 23 Tulsa (BOK Center) – John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mark Philippoussis
July 17 Newport, R.I. (International Tennis Hall of Fame) – Andy Roddick, James Blake, Marat Safin, + 1 TBA
August 21 Winston-Salem, N.C. (Wake Forest University) – Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, James Blake, Mardy Fish
August 25, 26 New Haven (Yale University) – Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, James Blake, Mardy Fish
November 4 Portland, Oregon (Moda Center) – Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, Mardy Fish and TBA
November 5 Denver (1stBank Center) – Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, James Blake and TBA
December 1 Orlando (Amway Arena) – Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, James Blake
December 3 New York (Barclays Center) – Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, James Blake
In 2015, Andy Roddick won the PowerShares Series points title in his second year of competing on the series with 1,600 points. Roddick won a record eight events Los Angeles, Lincoln, Chicago, Austin, Little Rock, Dallas, Richmond and Minneapolis. Blake finished second in the points rankings with 1,200 points, winning events in Boston and Cincinnati. Mark Philippoussis finished in third with 1,100 points, winning titles in Salt Lake City and Vancouver. The year before in 2014, McEnroe won the points title for the first time in the nine-year history of Champions Series tennis by winning events in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Nashville and Charlotte.
ABOUT INSIDEOUT SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $4 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or www.powersharesseries.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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Horizon Media, Inc. is the largest and fastest growing privately held media services agency in the world. The company was founded in 1989, is headquartered in New York and has offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chicago. Horizon Media was chosen as 2011 Independent Media Agency of the Year by Mediapost, 2010 U.S. Media Agency of the Year by Adweek, Brandweek, and Mediaweek as well as by Ad Age and as one of the world’s ten most innovative marketing and advertising companies by Fast Company in 2011. In 2012, Bill Koenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder, was honored by Advertising Age as Industry Executive of the Year. Most recently, in 2014, Bill Koenigsberg was named 4As Chair of the Board and is the first person from a media agency to hold this prestigious position in the 100 year history of the 4As, the marketing industry’s leading trade association. The company’s mission is “To create the most meaningful brand connections within the lives of people everywhere.” By delivering on this mission through a holistic approach to brand marketing, Horizon Media has become one of the largest and fastest-growing media agencies in the industry, with estimated billings of over $5.3 billion and over 1,200 employees. The company is also a founding member of Columbus Media International, a multi-national partnership of independent media agencies. For more information, please visit horizonmedia.com.
ABOUT INVESCO POWERSHARES
Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC is leading the Intelligent ETF Revolution® through its lineup of more than 140 domestic and international exchange-traded funds, which seek to outperform traditional benchmark indexes while providing advisors and investors access to an innovative array of focused investment opportunities. With franchise assets of nearly $100 billion as of October 2, 2015, PowerShares ETFs trade on both US stock exchanges. For more information, please visit us at invescopowershares.com or follow us on Twitter @PowerShares.
ABOUT POWERSHARES QQQ
PowerShares QQQ™, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on the NASDAQ-100 Index®, is one of the largest and most traded ETFs in the world. Under most circumstances, QQQ will consist of all of the stocks in the index which includes 100 of the largest domestic and international nonfinancial companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market based on market capitalization.
