AUSTRALIAN tennis coach Nick Philippoussis has suffered a massive stroke in a US jail and will likely never face trial on charges for the alleged sexual assault of two young girls he trained in California.

A San Diego judge was told on Thursday, local time, 68-year-old Philippoussis, the father of former world top 10 Australian player Mark Philippoussis, is catatonic after a stroke and has been hospitalised for weeks and is not expected to recover.

Philippoussis has been in custody since his shock arrest in July for allegedly sexually abusing the two nine-year-old girls, but with his health so dire Judge Michael Washington agreed to lift the $US9.2 million bail (A$11.7m) and set a hearing in June to check his condition.
In July Philippoussis’s lawyers did not oppose bail, saying it was commensurate with such grave charges — and they said he could not raise it anyway.

Philippoussis’s son, Mark, 40, the former tennis star, who like his father lives in San Diego, was in court to support his father but made no comment to the media.

Deputy District Attorney Garret Wong said the numerous alleged assaults took place over a year and were regarded as extremely serious.

“I think what’s most concerning is the defendant being in a position of trust, and it’s probably any parent’s worst nightmare of having someone in that position of trust, a teacher, a coach, an instructor and then to violate that trust repeatedly over this amount of time, yeah, it’s serious,” he said after the brief arraignment.

The assaults are alleged to have occurred at the Fairbanks Ranch Tennis Club, at Philippoussis’s home and his vehicle.

Mr Wong declined to comment on how the complaints came to light or how long the investigation had been running.

But police said separately that they believed Philippoussis was unaware of the investigation until he was arrested.

They said they had put strategies in place to stop him “taking a Qantas flight home” had he become aware they were moving on him.

Each of the 14 counts carries a 15-years-to-life sentence range. The most serious are counts one and two, which allege “Oral copulation/sexual penetration with a child ten years old or younger”.

The remaining 12 counts, all described as a “Lewd act upon a child”, carry additional special allegations, meaning they were committed against more than one victim.

“Adding that all up, the maximum exposure is 210 years to life,” Mr Wong said.