TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 30, 2001

Jan Michael Gambill

THE MODERATOR: Jan-Michael will be appearing in his first tennis Masters series final of his career. And attempt to become the 6th American to win this tournament in the 17-year history.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That does sound real great. Just being out here and being in this tournament in the first place, having a little bit of problems with my arm is incredible. I am in the finals of The Ericcson Open. I mean, coming to this tournament when I was little-- when I was still in juniors, when it was the Lipton event, you know, I would watch these guys out here play and I think. "Maybe one day I will be able to play in that center court there." Now I will be playing in the center court in the finals. That is quite a feat. I am pretty excited.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: (Laughs) Well, I have been playing some good tennis in the past, but I haven't been able to put it together; tournament by tournament. And keep on going and the start of this year say Australian Open, I played some pretty damn good tennis-- played good in event that I have played giving myself the opportunity to win. Finally giving myself those opportunities, I am starting to take some of them coming back from some tough matches, matchpoints down and being down a break here and there, and just being more confident and having fun with it, letting the crowd get involved. All those things help me. It has been a great ride. So, I am hoping to go out and give it one more great match in the final.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I don't think that Lleyton would have any trouble giving me credit. I certainly have never. There will trouble giving him credit in the past. I have a lot of respect for him. For what he said on that shot, absolutely 100% was a pretty lucky ball. He was sort of silly to hit back to my forehand, don't know why he did. That I wouldn't ever hit it that way. But, you know, I took a big swing at it, crushed that ball right by him. I had not done that, it would have been 15-40, however, at 30-All and then at 30-40 I played two pretty damn good points. I broke him. As for what he said about that first match against Ilie, pretty untrue. There was no bad call. I don't think even-- I don't think -- certainly Ilie didn't gripe. That was just a hard fought match and I was the better guy that day. He didn't have what it took on those matchpoints to beat me. That is fine with me.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Absolutely not lucky. I mean, I have the confidence on those big points to play good tennis. At no time in any of the matchpoints did something happen with a line call in any of those matches. I mean, it is-- it is unfortunate for the other guy, but -- and it is fortunate for me, but I dug down instead of getting lucky. There was no let cord that won me the match. It was just hard fought tennis and sometimes that wins you matches and that is why I played better in playing better and better. As for the match today, I mean, with that one shot I was lucky. That one shot.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, I can say that Wimbledon for me is the most important tournament and it became that actually last year, I always wanted to win the US Open the most. I mean, I am American through and through and the American tournaments besides Wimbledon are the most important events to me. But after I played in Center Court I found out why that tournament is so special and why that court is the most special court of all, simply of all. And to be there and to be in the quarterfinals to play the king of Wimbledon and to play him tough, you know, is something. And that did help me a lot. I went out against Lleyton first round. I really played great tennis and carried through, had some good wins; made it to the quarterfinals there and battled hard against Pete and that definitely helped me a lot. But playing solid this start of this year really jump-started my game even more. I am moving better at the baseline, hitting volleys 500% better than I did in the past. I think I am surprising a lot of those guys out there with the versatility I have in my game these days. I can win when I am not serving well. Because I haven't been serving especially well. I don't think I served especially well today. But I had the backup game to get it done.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: (Laughs) well, it is actually very hard to describe. It is very hard to describe the feeling but the tradition that they have out there, you know, the way that they open the new cans of balls spread them out, the Royal Box, having to go out and bow, the locker room that you sit in before you go out to the court with all the history that it has, just being grass, that is where the game came from and, you know, it is just spectacular. It isn't the biggest court, but it is the best.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I'd love to have an All-American final, tell you the truth. I'd love to the play the guy that I looked up to for a long, long time, Andre Agassi. And I'd love to see him out there against me and on the other side of the court in my first Masters Series final. Sure, he is playing great tennis this year, but so is Pat Rafter. He is a great guy, and we have actually never played. It would be kind of fun to play him. But I'd like to see the Americans do well.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I'd like to think that I am not the only player that is the future of tennis. I think Andy certainly proved that at this event, but I know that I am playing pretty well. I think I can get even better and better. I'd love for that for people to go out there being cheering for two Americans. But that is going to be a tough match tomorrow. I think obviously the better man will win. But I don't know - what is that match stats in the past with Andre and Pat? Who has won more ---

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I know Rafter beat him at Wimbledon last year.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: So --

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That is, you know, close enough.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: When I started I really just wanted -- my whole goal was to really do things in the match that I worked so hard on in practice. I have been working so hard getting some feel at the net; even some feel from the baseline, hitting some dropshots, you know, working myself, my toss, getting it in the right spot, doing, you know, getting faster. I think my movement at the baseline today was very good. I ran down a lot of his shots and made him hit a lot more balls than I have in the past. Really just I had fundamental goals. I didn't have a number of them. Always in my mind is I want to be a Top-10 player. I mean, I don't think there is a player out here who wouldn't say that they want to be in the Top-10. If they did say that, then they should quit tennis. I think that has got to be the goal of each person.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I always saw it as a possibility. I thought that I had the game and the power to do it. I just -- I never had the consistency in the past. I certainly didn't have-- didn't have a backup plan when things would go wrong on me. I started missing my groundies and my serve went off, my two weapons and I didn't have a third thing I could do. I couldn't come to the net and put some different pressure on the guy. Certainly playing doubles has helped a lot. Winning some doubles matches here and there and getting the confidence at the net, just working hard on not only having the right technique, but getting that feel has really giving me a more rounded game.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Yeah, the nice thing is when you feel like you have a well-rounded game and there is less pressure on you, I am less nervous on the court, maybe that is because I am having more fun. But I don't have to worry about hitting an ace on every ball. I don't have to win those points in two shots. I feel like I am in physically good shape, I can run for a long time out there and, you know, I have the shots to back myself up when I need to.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well this event comes at the end of a long streak for me. I have played, what, six weeks in a row and I am looking forward to just playing that next match. And then having two good weeks off. And maybe even three. So we will see. I'd like to have some time off and, you know, really regroup, take care of my arm, and -- but I feel like I can go out there against anybody in the world now and win. And in the past I felt look I could go out there against anybody in the world and play a good match and maybe win. And now I feel like I can -- it's a different feeling. It is a different level of confidence and I feel like my game has definitely come up a level. I have more ways to answer the question of what do you do out here.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I think that Andre and I have played in the past now 7 times that.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Certainly not for a Championship; not yet in the final. We have never played in a final. But I am not going to look at this as the final. I am going to go out and try and play the kind of match that I have been playing, enjoy myself and enjoy being in the final of the Ericsson Open. That is fantastic. It is once again, it is hard for me to believe that I am there and it has been a great couple of weeks so far. So I have nothing to lose out there, certainly, and it is just going to be nice. And don't think it is going to be Andre for sure because, he has got a tough match tomorrow.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: My volleys?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I would think that -- I would have think over the last year it is more of a 1000% improvement. The previous times I'd come to the net and think maybe I can make this ball and now I come to the net and I think you are going to have to pass me and do something special to get by me. I feel I have a lot better feel out there. It is just a different -- just like one day you wake up and some day I mean, all of a sudden you could do it, started to figure out my forehand volley has been pretty good but I'd had a weakness in that backhand side. I am moving better. I am anticipating what the guy is going to do better. I have learned a little bit just with my dad, you know, going over what can a guy do on this return, or this passing shot from where he is on the court and trying to cover, you know, the two-thirds that I can cover of the court, if you divide it into thirds you can only cover two-thirds. Try to play logically as well as, you know, doing the things the right way, and I am doing that better. But I have lot of room for improvement up there, but I feel like it is coming.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I need to improve everything the most. It is just -- it is never ending. If a player gets satisfied that is when he starts dropping in his ranking. I want to keep going up.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Yes, several times. And was lucky enough to get tickets to come out and watch some fun matches. I'd always wanted to watch Andre and Pete play and came out and I actually didn't have the opportunity to come to a lot of professional events when I was little. And we happened to have when I started playing Satellites up here, we came up for it, and even for some junior tournament, I probably came to the Lipton three, four times before I was able to play in it and first time playing in it I was pretty amazing, some nice memories from just watching before, and still, I mean, this tournament has a great feel. People have such a good time here. They really get into it. It is a lot like the US Open. Got a lot of yelling out there, and it is the kind of crowd that I love.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I was. Several of those -- two of those years at least I was playing the Florida Satellites up here, I think. There had to be a reason that I was here. We were just lucky. I didn't just fly over for the event. There was a reason I was in Florida, but we happened to come here quite a few times.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: He is not that much older than me. I feel like I have watched him all of my tennis life. Since I watched tennis players on TV, he has always been around, and I just admired the way he plays the game, how talented he is and his tenacity out on court and the way he finds ways to win, something I am learning to do. That takes -- people don't always just learn immediately how to do it. Lleyton is one of those guys that learned at a young age what to do under the big points where to hit the ball and, you know, what not to do. And it has taken me a while. You can be told a million times, I mean, don't do this, do this. But it just takes that match experience to get it done really and to learn for yourself.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I play pretty well against serve and volley in the past. Pat, I think a long with Tim Henman, probably the best at it right now in the world. I guess Richard Krajicek is up there. He comes in a lot when he is not injured, and, you know, what can I say, he is a great player. Playing against him is very difficult. Especially because he can come in on my serve. Most guys don't have that ability to be able to come in off my second serve and I think we probably try to a little bit. So I would go into that match knowing that I am going to have to, you know, hit a lot of passing shots, a lot of big balls on big points, he tries to do a lot of, you know, he just chips the ball comes in and that is tough. It is tough to play against a guy like that. I would hope that I would have the answers. You never know.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Yeah, I will watch a little bit tomorrow. I don't know if I will watch it in person but I have actually been enjoying myself in South Beach mid-days so I will be spending some of the time there and just relaxing.