US OPEN

August 30, 2000

Jan Michael Gambill

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jan-Michael, please.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: End of the first set.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, actually I was thinking -- to tell you the truth, I was thinking of Jim Courier out there...(inaudible). I was just trying to focus on better tennis and somehow get Mardy out of his zone that he was in. He was playing unbelievable tennis, really great tennis. I'll tell you what, I'm excited to see another youngster is playing that good. I didn't play that bad of tennis out there really, and he dominated a lot of those points. It took everything I had to win the match and stay out there the whole time.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That was on his serve that I missed that gimme.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That was on his serve.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That would have been 15-40. That would have been 15-40 had I made that shot on his serve. So that would have been definitely an advantage, but I still won that game.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Was I nervous?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No, I mean I thought that, you know, after he beat me in the second set there I thought that, "Well, now I have nothing to lose. I'm just going to go out there and try and make it as long a match as I can and concentrate and focus on making more returns, making him have to hit a few more balls," which worked out in my favor. When I did well, he made more errors. He didn't make too many errors, and I had to capitalize when he did. Every time I had break chances, I won them. I kept serving hard. I kept serving hard, throwing in spin serves, throwing him off, throwing second serves to his forehand. He just didn't miss returns on that backhand today. Just didn't miss them. He was making me play every ball. You got to hand it to Mardy for playing some great tennis. You know, I just stayed out there and kept trying.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No, my knee doesn't hurt at all.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I couldn't bend because I was cramping.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I mean I was cramping. In the fifth set it was to the point where had I gone crazy with a, you know, pumping myself up, run too much, bent too far, I would have cramped and I would have been out of the event.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, obviously. Absolutely concerned about it.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I am hydrating myself properly. I am loading on the hydration. My body just cramps in the humidity. It's unfortunate. But I grew up in a real dry place, Spokane's a real dry place. We have hotter summers than here, but it's very, very dry. I need to get acclimated to the humidity a little bit more. I think I can play fine in the humidity, but it takes a little more time for me. And those tough matches right away kill me. Even last week against Moya I was cramping a little bit in the third set there, which led me to believe I knew I was going to have to do something different coming in here, try to load up on fluids. We're doing everything we can. We're going to try different supplements tomorrow to maybe help that.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Just different supplements. Trying to replace fluids and electrolytes and minerals quicker, you know. Anything that will, you know, get it in there quicker is something that I'll try.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No. What I have is just a sodium loss. I lose sodium quicker than a lot of the guys out there. I put a lot of energy into all of my strokes, so it kind of ebbs out and just happens. So it's not something I can really control physically without maybe some addition of some other stuff. So we're going to try, you know, something. Hopefully it will help.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: (Laughing.) I wasn't thinking about that. I got to concentrate on our -- we have men's doubles first tomorrow. And then mixed doubles with Martina after that. So am I a lucky guy to play with Martina? Absolutely. She's a great doubles player. Couldn't have a better female doubles player on the court I don't think.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I'm excited, man. I'm excited to go out and play against him. First of all, I didn't know if I was going to even get through this match at all; Mardy's playing great tennis. I'm excited to still be in the tournament. I love playing Mark Philippoussis; we have good matches.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I don't know why I match up well with him. The matches I've won are all real close. We have hard-fought matches. Go out there, it's great tennis, the fans get into it, it's hopefully fun to watch me put on a good show and play some great tennis out there. I've come out on top the last couple times. He's playing well, he's serving huge, his usual, and his ground strokes are better and better. He works on those a lot. It's going to be a tough match. I think I can go out there and play great.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: What I like is the challenge of trying to return his serve. I love going out there and playing against a big server because you're not supposed to return it. So when you do, it surprises them. I just love having a chance at it, you know. If he aces me, great, great serve. If he doesn't, maybe I made him play one more ball and maybe he misses it.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No, Martina and I haven't practiced yet.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: We'll just go in and give it our all.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No. 7 seed.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: It is, it is. We played -- decided to play mixed doubles just really to go out and have fun. Martina and I are friends. We get along well. I think it will be a great time out there; it really will. There's not a lot of pressure.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Goals? Our goal is to go out there and, you know, obviously to play that match as good as we can. If we get past that one, then work on the next one. I never look ahead. I haven't even looked at the draw. I haven't even looked at the singles draws. I just go out there and play the next match, focus on what I need to focus on. It doesn't help to look ahead for me. It just doesn't get you anywhere. It really doesn't. You can say, "I'll play him if I get this far," but you have to get that far. It's not easy. You got to look at the next match.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Mardy Fish has all the strokes. He has all the shots. He's hitting shots from the baseline that other guys on the Tour simply aren't hitting. They're not passing me like that. You know, I'm a pretty decent volleyer now. I am reading where balls are going. He was hitting these angles that were just unheard of. That's just too good. I think that he's going to be a great player. I think that we're going to be fine. I think we have some really good up-and-coming players in the U.S., with Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick. We're going to be better off than everybody thinks.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Mardy's definitely a thinker. I think he can come up with different strategies. He tried a few out there on me. I was -- like I said, I was lucky to get through that. I think he has a great backhand. He plays well when the guys come to the net. Like I said, he has a very good forehand as well. Andy Roddick has a little bigger serve and likes to play that forehand. He's more of a rallier on the backhand, gets around and hits that forehand big, which he does as well. The only thing Mardy needs to work on is improving his first-serve speed just a little bit. But just a little bit. He was hitting it pretty hard out there today. He seems to miss some of those long. That comes with just being young.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, tell you what, we're gonna find out 'cause I'm still in all three, and I'm looking forward to playing tomorrow. I don't think that I'll ever cramp in a doubles match. That's just not going to happen because they're not long enough and you're not playing as much tennis, running as much. The only problem for me ever is the singles. The singles is number one, of course. It's always been number one. But I thought that playing three events here would be fun. After this I have some time off, and so, you know, I feel like I can go out here and give it my all.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, I feel like I really improved my serve. I think I placed it very well. Like I said, I was hitting some of the second serves to his forehand, try to throw him off a little bit. Also started increasing the speed of my ground strokes. I said, "I'm gonna go out there, hit the ball a lot harder than I have been, try not to let him control the points." (Inaudible) Ad court, a lot of aces, lot of success over there. In the deuce court, he was moving it around to both sides. I definitely served better and played smarter in those last two sets.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: They will be a lot shorter.

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