Rios Trips Gambill Surprise Semifinalist Tied Until Rain Delay, Loses In Straight Sets

Jan-Michael Gambill, the boy wonder who shocked the bald wonder, Andre Agassi, on Friday, received a large dose of comeuppance Saturday night from the brazen wonder, Marcelo Rios.

Rios is not known for his deferential attitude toward the big guns - much less a 126th-ranked rookie fresh from the boondocks of the satellite circuit - and he took advantage of Gambill’s obvious fatigue, which dulled the laser accuracy of his double-barreled ground strokes, in a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 semifinal victory in the Newsweek Champions Cup.

After downing a pair of icons and former No. 1’s, Agassi and Jim Courier, along with the Australian serving machine, Mark Philippoussis, to reach this match, the 20-year-old Gambill likened himself to a surfer poised on the crest of a perfect wave.

“But the wave came crashing down today,” said the former Mead High School star. “I don’t feel like I played a very good match; I feel like I let Agassi down. It’s not that I played horrible, at least I stayed with him, but he’s a very good player, gets to every ball, and makes you play a ton of shots.”

Just in case Petr Korda - who defeated Rios in the final of the Australian Open and celebrated with a series of in-your-face scissor kicks and cartwheels, then lost to him here in the quarterfinals - was watching, Rios did a little cartwheel after Saturday night’s victory. And that irked Gambill.

Gambill, who called the stunt unsportsmanlike but, considering Rios’ reputation, unsurprising, said: “Is he making fun of Korda? That’s kind of ridiculous.”

For his part, the seventh-seeded Rios hinted that he would trim the gymnastics from his routine from now on. “I don’t like it,” he said.

The showers that had delayed the final of the women’s Evert Cup returned at full tilt 39 minutes into this match, which began in sunshine and resumed, after a 2-hour stoppage, under a night sky. When play was halted, Rios had just saved a set point with a backhand winner and then sent matters to a tiebreaker by holding for a 6-6 first-set stalemate. Though Gambill felt less tired when the players returned to the court, it was not reflected in his play: Rios jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker, and after breaking Gambill at love in the fourth game of the second set, he ran away with the match.

In the final, Rios will face a fellow lefty, Greg Rusedski, and his super-sonic serve, the weapon that took him to the 1997 U.S. Open final. Saturday Rusedski set a record at 149 miles an hour with serves that proved virtually unreturnable for Thomas Muster, who capitulated, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, in just 59 minutes.

“I’m not a speed gun, but obviously it’s pretty fast,” Muster said.