Seventh Heaven! Gambill Does Serious Number Colbert Star Knocks Out Seventh-Seeded Hewitt At Wimbledon

FOR THE RECORD: June 29, 2000: Incorrect photo: The tennis player at the top of Wednesday’s Spokesman-Review was misidentifed as Jan-Michael Gambill.

It has taken two years for Jan-Michael Gambill to shed his frivolous image as chief Trekkie on the ATP Tour.

But he is, apparently, finally ready to move to higher ground. No need to beam him anywhere.

His warp-speed game, perfectly tailored for fast services, was more than enough to blow young tennis genius Lleyton Hewitt, the No. 7 seed, out of Wimbledon on Tuesday in a shocking first-round upset.

“I knew I was playing Lleyton since last week and I was getting pretty pumped for it the whole time,” said Gambill, of Colbert, after slamming 38 unreturned services, including 15 aces, in a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 win.

He still has the six Jaguar motor cars, some of them vintage. There are some toys you can’t give up. And he still is a Trekkie deep inside. But he’s not talking Capt. Kirk anymore. He’s not streaking his hair. He’s not playing the male version of Anna Kournikova with his beach-boy looks.

At age 23 and after waffling around too long as an occasionally good player, it’s all about tennis and nothing else for Gambill now.

“I’ve been in Europe for a long time, over two months, and in the past that’s hurt me,” he said. “In the past, I’ve been ready to go home. I’d lose a match and say, `Doesn’t matter because I’m going to be happy to go home for a while.’ “Not this time. I’ve had a great trip in Europe. I’ve had some better results. I’m not looking forward to going home.”

Day 2 saw No. 2 seed Andre Agassi and No. 8 Tim Henman stumble out of the gate before collecting themselves to win in four sets. Agassi put down 19-year-old qualifier Taylor Dent of Newport Beach - Dent retiring in the fourth set with a knee injury. Henman collected himself to defeat Paradorn Scrichaphan of Thailand.

Also through the second round: No. 3 Magnus Norman, the French Open runner-up; No. 4 Gustavo Kuerten, who beat Norman at Roland Garros; No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov; No. 10 Mark Philippoussis, who announced that he’s selling his home near Miami Beach and moving back to Australia to get super serious about his tennis future; No. 12 Patrick Rafter; and No. 15 Marat Safin.

Nicolas Kiefer, the 13th seed, lost to fellow German Tommy Haas.

On the women’s side, sixth-seeded Monica Seles also had first-set problems but kept her composure, bided her time and beat Karina Habsudova in the home stretch 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. “It was just a tough match. Thank goodness I served well, because my returns were nowhere in sight,” said Seles.

Defending champion Lindsay Davenport, the No. 2 seed, was first on Centre Court, but she never completed two sets. She was leading doubles teammate and good friend Corina Morariu 6-3, 1-0 when Morariu, unable to get a grip on the greasy surface, did the splits trying to reverse direction for a ball and, as she fell, braced herself with her left hand. She seriously injured her elbow and had to retire. There is no fracture, but she’ll have an MRI today.

Into the second round with Davenport are No. 3 Mary Pierce, No. 4 Conchita Martinez, No. 9 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and No. 12 Amanda Coetzer. Julie Halard-Decugis, the No. 14 seed was upset by Kristee Boogert. Dominique Van Roost, the No. 16 seed who has beaten Davenport twice on grass this summer, was upset by Jennifer Capriati.

There were two other particularly significant matches involving un-seeded players. Todd Martin, continuing his comeback from an ankle injury suffered in a basketball game four months ago, served brilliantly to beat Fredrik Jonsson. Jonsson could get only 42 percent of Martin’s serves back into play. On Thursday, Martin plays Agassi.

Also, Goran Ivanisevic, his career in rapid retreat, lost to Arnaud Clement. Ivanisevic has three times been a Wimbledon finalist.

Top-seeded Pete Sampras, going for a seventh Wimbledon title and fourth championship in a row, is back on court today against Karol Kucera, but there are a lot of eyes roaming ahead already to the final Sunday, wondering if Sampras will be playing Philippoussis.

The 6-foot-4 Aussie recently showed the same kind of maturity Gambill is exhibiting by hooking up with Boris Becker and Becker’s old coach, Mike DePalmer, and he said that he’s got some toys of his own to put away.

“If you want to be a champion, you have to be a champion 24 hours a day,” said Philippoussis. He’s selling his million-dollar house, getting out of the party atmosphere and backing off the pedal of his Ferrari.

“I’m 23 and I could tell you I’ve had at least 16 cars. I’ve had everything you could possibly have. Now I’m a little sick of it, which is good, which is a phase I went through. I got it out of my system. I’m ready to concentrate on my tennis.”

A year ago, Philippoussis was out-playing Sampras in the quarters when he went down with torn cartilage in his knee. He looks hungrier than ever for the Grand Slams everyone has predicted for him.

Whether Gambill gets there depends on consistency, and right now he seems to be in one of those good stretches. A week ago, he reached the semis of the grass court warmup at Nottingham. Today, he plays Fabrice Santoro, the sly little Frenchman, for a spot in the third round.

Hewitt paid his respects. “He just served bombs the whole time. It wasn’t until the second or third service game of the second set where I actually got my chance.”

They were at 5-5 in the third when Gambill broke for the last time. Hewitt double-faulted, then stroked a backhand long on break point.

Gambill took the balls and prepared to serve for the match. “Yeah, there were definitely some nerves,” he said, bouncing the ball eight times before slugging a service winner into the ad corner to end it.

“It’s about time I really come out and continue to play well. I’ve been sidelined for various reasons,” Gambill said. “Injuries and confidence problems. But I can play well against these guys and I can beat them. I need to play more matches like this.

“What this match proves is that I can, against a top guy, play a mentally tough match for three straight sets and, if I have to, go further.”

He did not, however, say he could go where no man has ever gone before. Those days of talking Star Trek are over.

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Wimbledon Today’s featured matches: Men: Jan-Michael Gambill, United States, vs. Fabrice Santoro, France; Pete Sampras (1), United States, vs. Karol Kucera, Slovakia; Magnus Norman (3), Sweden, vs. Olivier Rochus, Belgium; Richard Krajicek (11), Netherlands, vs. Wayne Ferreira, South Africa; Women: Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Yi Jing-Qian, China; Ai Sugiyama, Japan, vs. Venus Williams (5), United States; Anna Kournikova, Russia, vs. Anne-Gaelle Sidot, France.