A defiant Mark Philippoussis refused to concede his troubled career was nearing an end after suffering yet another injury during his straight-sets second-round loss to Marat Safin at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
"I know what I can do," he said. "I know my best tennis is ahead of me. It's as simple as that. I know I've proven it to myself here. The eagerness is back. I'm just going to get stronger."
The mercurial 28-year-old had hoped after his first round win that Wimbledon might be the launching pad for a revival in his troubled career, but his hopes were snuffed out by Safin and a ligament injury in his right leg.
However, despite the 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 loss, Philippoussis remained confident he could regain the form that saw him reach the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open and rise to No.8 in the world in 1999.
"Everything's going fine. Everything's positive. Nothing's negative. I'm not going to go jump off a bridge anywhere," he said.
"I'm going to go back and work hard. This is nothing. I'm going to get over it. There's only more positive things to come," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I'm going to go back and work hard. This is nothing. I'm going to get over it. There's only more positive things to come," he said.
{{/usCountry}}The Melburnian, whose ranking had slumped to 188 following injuries and personal problems in the past couple of years, also refused to blame the injury for his loss.
"It came up after my first round match. It was an hour after walking around. I didn't think much of it at all. Yesterday, it was painful, today, I just thought 'I'll tape it, I'll play through it'," he said.
"Of course, it's nothing to do with the injury. It's as simple as that. At 5-4, I had 0-40 (and an) opportunity to win that first set with set points and didn't take them."