Australia's Mark Philippoussis set up a fourth-round meeting at Wimbledon with world No.1 Andre Agassi after a forceful third round win.

Philippoussis overpowered the Czech 35th seed Radek Stepanek 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 7-6 (8-6) to enter the second week at Wimbledon for the fifth time.

The world No.48 was the only Australian left in the singles after Alicia Molik lost her third round match to third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-4 6-4.

Philippoussis only converted one of 13 break points for the match but showed great fight to come from 4-0 and 4-1 behind in both tie breakers.

He plays Agassi on Monday after the second seed had an equally tough four set win over Younes El Ayanuoi.

"If anything, I would say it was a gutsy win," Philippoussis said.

"I think I played good at times. I just fought out hard and just kept on fighting and came through."

He made the worst possible start when two double faults in the opening game of the match handed Stepanek a break which he couldn't retrieve despite pushing the Czech's serve and holding break point.

He squandered six break points in the tense second set before recovering to clinch the tie breaker and take control of the match.

The tension got to Philippoussis when he was given a code violation for an audible obscenity when Stepanek held serve to force the set into a tie breaker which matched the preceding 12 games for pressure.

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