Australian Mark Philippoussis on Monday pounded world number one Andre Agassi into submission at Wimbledon, beating him 6-3, 2-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 with a barrage of aces to reach the quarter-finals.

The 26-year-old banged down 46 aces, equalling the championship record for a match, to overcome the American, who had been bidding for his ninth grand slam title and his second at Wimbledon.

In a see-saw match of high drama, Philippoussis took advantage of 33-year-old Agassi's slow start, breaking his serve in the sixth game of the fourth set after an agonising five break points.

Agassi, who last won the title in 1992, regrouped and produced some of his finest returns, signature two-handed backhand passes and whipping forehands to take the second set with two breaks of serve.

Buoyed by a packed number one court crowd, which had waited patiently for a rain shower to pass when the players had completed just two games, Agassi stuck with Philippoussis in the third set, winning it 7-4 in the tiebreak with a stinging return.

But the 1.93-metre Philippoussis, nicknamed Scud by his compatriots, just kept the big serves coming.

On Agassi's serve he scrambled about the court, sometimes beating the master at his own baseline game most notably to break serve in the second game of the fourth set on a sixth break point.

Tension was palpable as the crowd attempted to lift their sentimental favourite Agassi in the final set, but he dropped serve in the seventh game and Philippoussis went in for the kill, finishing with a big serve after three hours 13 minutes.

It was only the second time in eight meetings that the Australian, who has suffered since 1999 with a left knee problem that has need three operations, had beaten Agassi.

Last time they met on grass, at Wimbledon in 2000, Agassi triumphed in three sets.

Because of his injury record, Philippoussis was unseeded in Wimbledon and had been tipped as a dangerous floater after reaching the final of the US Open in 1998 and three previous Wimbledon quarter-finals.

With his 46th ace he equalled Goran Ivanisevic's mark, set in 1997, and brought his total for four matches so far this Wimbledon to 119.

The last Australian left in the draw, Philippoussis now meets Alexander Popp of Germany in the last eight.

Wimbledon 2003