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Beware the Scud serve, Grosjean warns
Sebastien Grosjean sent out a warning to Mark Philippoussis's opponent in the Wimbledon final after being handed a drubbing by the hard-hitting Australian on Friday.
Sebastien Grosjean sent out a warning to Mark Philippoussis's opponent in the Wimbledon final after being handed a drubbing by the hard-hitting Australian on Friday.
"If he's serving big, the other guy will have a difficult task to break," said the Frenchman, who earned just two break points during his 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 6-3 semi-final defeat.
Philippoussis, nicknamed Scud for his fearsome serve, has fired 164 aces on his way to his first Wimbledon final, where he will face either American fifth seed Andy Roddick or Swiss fourth seed Roger Federer.
Grosjean dashed British hopes of a first home-grown champion since 1936 when he despatched Tim Henman in the quarter-finals, but he simply did not possess the weapons to take on the Philippoussis serve.
"I played well against Tim but Mark served better than Tim and it was difficult to return his serves," said Grosjean.
"Mark just served big today and it was tough for me to return.
"I only had two break points ... so it was tough for me to stay in the match.
"I was leading 3-2 in the tiebreak but lost five points in a row and after that the match turned as I didn't serve very well and lost a lot of points on my serve."
