Scud fails to pay debt as house passed in

FORMER tennis ace Mark Philippoussis had a setback yesterday in his fight to pay more than $1.3 million in debts when his Melbourne home failed to sell at auction.The five-bedroom Williamstown townhouse attracted only three bids and was passed in at $775,000 after being listed for sale at $950,000-plus.Selling agent Wayne Elly said he hoped the property would sell within the next few days. Philippoussis, the former No. 8 ranked player in the world, earned more than $8 million on the tennis circuit. But he has not been able to play professionally since 2006 because of injury. He bought the house when he was 18, mainly for his mum, Rossana. He was forced to put it on the market after a finance company launched legal action against him in May when he failed to meet the mortgage repayments of more than $10,000 a month.Pepper Home Loans filed a writ in the Supreme Court seeking $1,313,351.96, plus interest of about $14,000 a week, costs and possession of the house.Philippoussis, who did not attend the auction, decided to sell to avoid having it seized after using it as security for an investment loan in February last year.Pepper Home Loans' chief operating officer, David Holmes, told The Sun-Herald he would discuss the Scud's outstanding debts with him this week after the auction.Philippoussis has vowed to fight his way out of debt.