DUESSELDORF, May 21: Revitalised Mark Philippoussis staged his third recovery of a turnaround week Friday, saving two match points to defeat Mariano Zabaleta and keep Australia's hopes for a final alive at the 2.1-million-euros World Team Championships.

The Scud, who came to the clay of the Rochues club carrying an eight-match loss streak stretching back to January, continued his tennis rebirth as he stormed to a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.

His victory threw the last Blue group tie into a deciding doubles rubber after Gaston Gaudio gave the 2002 South American holders an early lead by beating Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5).

In two previous matches, Philippoussis also lost the first set before engineering a turnaround, a sharp contrast to his dreadful results of the past four months.

Australia is bidding for a third final in the past six editions of the elite French Open tune-up event. Winner of the tie will face holder Chile, already qualified for the Saturday trophy match.

Philippoussis improved to a 3-0 record this week and made it 3-0 over Zabaleta with his storming performance. The world number 18 saved a pair match points in the tenth game of the final through Zabaleta errors, then broke the shaky South American for 6-5 before serving out victory a game later after two hour, 15 minutes.

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