Rusedski pleased despite going out

Embattled Greg Rusedski bowed out of the adidas International in Sydney today, losing in three sets to Australian Davis Cup hero Mark Philippoussis.

The British No2 bounced back from a set down to force the decider, breaking the Wimbledon finalist twice, but Philippoussis held his nerve to secure a quarter-final place with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 win.

He now meets French Open finalist Martin Verkerk, while the British No2 must turn his attention to next week's Australian Open.

Rusedski will enjoy a few days out of the limelight after de c iding last week to announce he had failed a drugs test and launched an aggressive defence.

The revelation meant his focus was not solely on his tennis as he consulted lawyers and was hounded by an international media pack.

The initial storm has abated but against Philippoussis the demands on his powers of concentrat ion were far greater. He worked his way back into the match impressively after losing the first setbut could not close out the win.

"That was my fourth match this year," he said. "Given everything that is going on at the moment I am extremely pleased with the performance.

"This week I have really been able to put the drugs issue aside and focus on my tennis and hopefully I'll be able to do the same in Melbourne."

Blustery conditions had made life tricky for players earlier on in the day and in gloomy conditions, organisers turned on the centre court floodlights.

The pair, behind huge serves, rattled through the opening games but it was the Australian who found his rhythm quickly and Rusedski could not force the pace from the net as he did against Chela. He missed simple volleys and was picked off at will.

Philippoussis landed the crucial break for a 5-3 lead, capitalising on Rusedski's determination to come into the net with three clinical passing shots.

Rusedski continued to look jittery in the opening game of the second set, wasting an open court by skying a certain winner off the frame of his racket.

He held serve, then clung on to take a 2-1 lead after Philippoussis had forced him to deuce with a backhand pass.

Then, all of a sudden, the match seemed to turn on its head. Philippoussis thought he had served an ace, but it was called out and his concentration fell apart.

A double fault and two unforced errors handed Rusedski three break points and the under-pressure Brit pulled out a cross-court backhand pass of his own to move ahead.

Rusedski's serve-volley game was still misfiring, but he held on and then broke Philippoussis to love again before serving out the set.

Philippoussis's second-set service statistics were woeful, with a 31 per cent success rate, and he slowed down his pace in the opening game of the deciding set and held.

Rusedski won two break points with the scores tied at 4-4, only for Philippoussis to wind that serve back up again as the Australian fired down an ace and an unreturnable serve.

Rusedski was forced to hold his serve to save the match, and he failed with Philippoussis forcing two match points with a series of backhands.

Rusedski did maintain his composure to save both but cracked at the third time of asking.