US OPEN

August 27, 2003

Jan Michael Gambill

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, I think I executed pretty well today, knowing going in I needed to play the guy's backhand. I knew he was going to slice out of the corner a lot. I knew he doesn't have a very good first or second serve. The goal was to take it to him on every ball that I could. First set, there was a little bit of jitters. I haven't had a real good summer, haven't had a lot of good matches, unfortunately. I wanted to go out there, and number one, play the way I've always played my best tennis, that's hitting the ball hard and getting the first strike against the guy. That's what I was trying to do. I started out great, got up 2-0, had a little bit of a glitch. It was basically on serve the rest of the set. I pulled the tiebreaker out. I played a much better breaker than he did. From there on, I thought I executed pretty well. My footwork was better, less nerves in the feet. The thing that I did well in the first set, even though I missed balls, was kept hitting the ball hard, tried to find my spot where I started to gel. Sort of did the second and third.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Sure. A lot of times for a player it just takes that one match, you know, to start getting confidence rolling, start getting the strokes to feel good, all the things can come together. I've played a lot of close matches this summer. I've lost them. Had a tough time with that mentally. This is usually a time I play really good tennis and have some great results. You know, I take from this a lot of positive feedback for myself. Take it one match at a time.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: It stems back to the clay courts actually for me. When you go over and play on a surface where I pretty much know that I'm not, you know, going to beat the guys who are at the top on the clay, I struggle with it in a lot of different ways, even just being there. It's something I don't even want to be there, in Europe, playing those clay court events. You learn to lose. Unfortunately, you learn bad habits in that kind of a situation. It stems from that. Got to get through it. Got to bring myself out of it, you know. Hope to have a good rest of the year and start next year fresh. I still think I could do some damage here and the rest of the tournaments of the year. Next year cut that clay court season down, maybe just two events.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: No, it was nothing I wished had never happened. Those kinds of things are great when you have the press after you, hounding you, writing about you, it means you're doing good things.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: That's coming from somebody else's mouth, not mine. I can't control what anybody else says, nor do I wish to. I go out there and play tennis. Off the court I have a lot of different interests, maybe a lot more than some other players do. I'm not as singular-minded as some of the other players. That's been sort of a setback for me. That's something that can be changed.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Those are all pretty well documented. I have a life outside the game. I love being home. I love being at the beach. I love being with my friends, my girlfriend, doing things outside of tennis. When I'm at home or off the court, it's not something I think about. I like doing things in the water. I have a lake place. I do outdoorsy types of stuff. Building a house. I have a lot of interests.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: In Spokane, Washington, where I grew up.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, I want to get myself back in the Top 20. That's where I feel I can be. That's where I feel I belong, up with those guys, playing higher level tennis than I've been playing. Day in, day out, I'm not playing the kind of matches that I want to. I got to get the fire. I got to get the drive to really want to do that. Now that I feel like I'm pretty much injury-free, you know, I hurt myself last fall and I carried it all through the season, even winning Delray, making the finals in the Middle East, still had the injury. It's something that really set me back off the court, doing the extra things I need to do - such as running, jump rope, things that seem small but aren't, things that on the court make that bit of difference that , you know, on the big points, your feet are there when other guys' aren't. My feet haven't been there. I need to get that stuff done and work harder off the court.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Absolutely not, no.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Ripken. We've had a lot of athletes from Spokane. It's not a mecca. That's why I like it. It's the hard-working people in the city. I have a lot of family and friends there. My girlfriend's from there. It's a good place to be. Can't ask for much more than mountains surrounding your city with woods all over the place. My house is going to be right on the river. I'm looking forward to it.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: My shins, they still hurt from time to time, but not like they were, not every day. You know, it's been really about three weeks. I've actually been doing more stuff off the court, running a little bit. It just doesn't happen like magic. I mean, you can't do sprints one day, "I'm faster on the court all of a sudden, it's great." It takes two months, three months of that, then results start happening on the court.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I don't think it's loss of motivation. I think it's disappointment over -- it's just the wrong things happening, like playing the clay, being injured. You know, I still love the game, love to win, love to go out there and compete. That's the most important thing. There's no loss of motivation. I love this game. I just need to keep it day in and day out. Sometimes you let a match go, you say, "That's okay, next tournament, next week." That's not the right attitude.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: And Jeff Tarango. He's going to play his last event here. I mean, absolutely. Just like Pete said the other night, he doesn't think -- he's not going to say that he's the best player ever. I'm going to say it, I think he is. You know, it's the loss of a great champion. God, I don't think he could have had a better fairytale career, if you want to put it that way. The guy started, won his first tournament here, ended his career winning the tournament again here. He goes out a champion. I really approve of the way that he did that, for a guy who's one of the best athletes, period, in any sport I feel like. He could go back in and lose and lose and lose. They would say, "Why didn't he retire at The Open?" He came out here, proved everybody wrong, did it. It was a pretty neat thing they put on the other night for him. As for Michael, as well, he's done it a little bit different. But he has worked day in and day out. The guy loves the game. I don't think Michael would retire if he was winning a lot of matches right now. I got to know Michael fairly well, and I think he's a really good guy. His whole family have always supported him. He couldn't ask for much more. I wish him the best. He lives up in Seattle, Mercer Island near me. We used to hit once in a while.