US OPEN

August 30, 2001

Jan Michael Gambill

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Couldn't hit my serve, couldn't hit my forehand.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Yeah. Normally, I think I could hit those two shots fairly well.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No. It's not surgery. It's not necessary for surgery. I have an MRI tomorrow. See exactly what we're dealing with. It's inflammation of the nerves in there, of the tendons. It's causing a lot of pain in my arm, so... Nothing I can do about it.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: It hurt a lot in practice. You know, I thought maybe I could get -- the sports creams and stuff on it would help it. It's just too painful. Not worth staying out there and playing like an idiot.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: With any nerve problem, I think it's something that's not the same every day. But it's been getting worse every day instead of better. You know, I did everything I possibly could for it last week, took the whole week off, didn't play the week before, all in preparation for what turned out to be pretty much nothing. But I tried everything I could.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Right now, I don't give a shit. What I care about is my arm. If I'm picked by, you know, the captain, then I'll make every effort I can to get well by then. If not, then I'll be home.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, we'll see. You know, I don't know. Dealing with injury is difficult at best. This thing hurts. Obviously, if I can't play the US Open, if it's in the same condition as it is now in two weeks, I won't be playing Davis Cup.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Not really, you know. I've had some unfortunate losses here. You know, two years ago cramping, last year just a tough loss against Johansson, he played better than I did that day. Here, this is the most unfortunate of all, not being able to play the match the way you expected to play, especially when I thought I was having a pretty good summer, playing good tennis.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Absolutely not. The only thing that puts it into perspective is when I play a match and I don't have an injury and I play like crap, then you have to wonder. That's the only time. My dad says, "Gee, you have an injury right now. It's just unfortunate. You're going to get injuries." When you play other matches and you don't have an injury, you play a bad match, that's something you have to look into. No, I'm not worried about my future. I'll be fine. It's just going to take some time. I didn't have it before the tournament.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I'll do the MRI tomorrow with a hospital here. I'll be home the next day.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: It's always fun to say that when they're not doing well. Had they won, you guys would be all excited about it. Andy is going to win, he's going to do well. I think American tennis is doing just fine. We're having a lot of good wins. I look at the positive. I know the press likes to look at the negative of the we have good players winning good matches. These guys are going to be tougher and tougher. We're going to be solid. I'm not worried about it.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, I think I started out great. Had some trouble on the clay court, certainly confidence trouble. I had some tough losses on the grass court. Played decent this summer. This injury has really hampered me quite a bit. Three tournaments where I really could have made a dent I think in each of them. That's just unfortunate. I seem to have some kind of injury each year that hampers me in some way. That's just the way life is. I love playing tennis. I love what I do. I'm not going to be negative about it. I still think I could have a good fall and end up well this year.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: It doesn't take a genius to see that, see I'm disappointed. Obviously, yes.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: When you ask a question like that, you just have to look at it logically. Guys are getting older. It happens every time. When those guys get older, they don't play as well. We have young guys that hopefully are going to step in there and play good tennis. I guess it's just sports. That's just how it is. For tennis, for some reason, reasons unknown to me, maybe it's the travel, maybe it's the extended way too long of a year we have that makes it so tennis players simply have a shorter career than guys playing baseball or basketball even. I'm not quite sure. It's still individuals.