U.S. Might Want to Take a Gambill

Jan-Michael Gambill 1, James Blake 1.

On the surface, it might have looked like a Davis Cup playoff between closely matched opponents. Gambill evened his record against Blake, winning, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the Pacific Life Open Tuesday night at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

But with Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick willing to play on grass against Spain next month in the quarterfinals, U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe is turning his attention to the doubles. Blake helped himself by playing with Todd Martin in San Jose and Memphis, Tenn., and Mardy Fish here. Fish and Blake won a rare doubles point against Slovakia in the first round in February.

Gambill, who appeared out of the picture, has put himself back in contention for consideration. He started 2002 by going 0-3, then went to Hawaii to clear his psyche. After the break, he lost only three of 13 matches, reaching the semifinals in three consecutive tournaments.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not really concerned about Davis Cup right now,” Gambill said. “I really have to focus on myself and keeping myself healthy and healed up. I’m certainly not worrying about it. What I’m excited about is that I’m injury-free now. Having four months of injuries is very difficult, very hard on my psyche.

“Knowing I could have finished last year top 15--if I just had a couple of good results--was very difficult for me to deal with. I’m just excited to be on the court. I’m really enjoying myself out there, fighting as hard as I can.”

Gambill turned it around against Blake, a wild-card entrant, despite losing the first set and needing treatment before the second set on his sore right shoulder, a persistent problem, which caused him to miss five weeks after the U.S. Open last year. The desert has been a place for Gambill to excel, considering he reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells last year, defeating top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten in the third round.

“I had a game plan out there,” said Gambill, who will play Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic in the second round. “I stuck to it the whole match. A lot of times I’ll go out in my matches, serve big, hit big groundstrokes, hope the guy hits shorts balls I can come in on.... You know, he started making errors when I was attacking his serve.”

Blake defeated Gambill a couple of weeks ago on his way to the final in Memphis, winning, 6-4, 7-6 (8). Here, Blake felt he relaxed too much after the first set, attempting to hit winners too early in the point.

“He obviously improved to put more pressure on me,” Blake said. “I didn’t respond with my same game plan. I changed and tried to do too much. The guys out here are too good to do that against.”

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