THE SCOOP, JUNE 25

Gambill, Hingis check out: Bad head and bad back send seeds flying

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

WIMBLEDON, JUNE 25 - Unlike the old Court 1, Court 18 at the All England Club does not have the distinction of being a black hole for seeds, but it is a "Show Court," and on Monday, it opened up like a tomb for No. 12 seed Jan-Michael Gambill, whose dream of taking home the Championship disappeared into eternity when he played a nervous, error-strewn match against countryman Chris Woodruff and lost in five.

Entering the match, the odds were good that Gambill would avenge his 2001 Aussie Open first round loss to Woodruff, considering that the Distinguished Gentleman from Tennessee had been sputtering as of late, winning only one match in his last six tournaments coming into the event. But Gambill was completely out of sorts from the first toss of the ball, having trouble getting his feet moving, being indecisive on his volleys, not showing an understanding of the transition game and never getting a consistent read on his opponent's serve. Jan-Michael complained to himself, to the umpire and to his family and friends. "Every volley you hit is a drop volley," he yelled at himself after one point where Woodruff punished a half-volley floater.

His father and coach Chuck was completely disgusted during the match, holding his head in his hands, swearing and imploring his son to "loosen up." Here are some of of Chuck's nuggets: "C'mon, put on your poker face. ""He's got a terrible second serve! Crush it!" "Don't think! There's nothing in your mind."

Chuck was right to try to get his 23-year-old son to take a deep breath and forget all of his troubles, because Jan-Michael played as if he was cursed. Without question, Woodruff played a smart match, stretching out Gambill as much as possible in baseline rallies and playing bump and run (the American version of chip-charge) off Gambill's second serve. But Woodruff did not have to play the match of his life to triumph, he only had to hang in there until Gambill sef-destructed.

"I'd like to break every racquet in my bag," Gambill said. "That would make me feel better. But I'm not going to do that….I played a horrible match. This is one of the most devastating losses I've ever had. This is as bad as it gets."

The Washingtonian added that despite playing well in grass events leading up to Wimbledon and working hard on grass court drills, his feet felt like "size 25s out there. " Gambill said that it wasn't the spector of Woodruff that made him nervous -- although he admitted he was outplayed -- it was the long grind of the European swing that got to him. "I think I lost all my confidence on clay," he said. "If I had to do it again, I would cut every single clay court tournament out of my schedule and just play grass….It's just too long. It's almost two and half months of tennis. I wish the schedules were reversed so Wimbledon was earlier and I could take away some of the clay court events. That's not how it is. I'll have to get tougher."

For a player who came into 2001 hoping to crack the top-10, Gambill has all but thrown away his year now. The only chance he has of ending the year an elite player is tear up the summer hard court circuit and make a major impact at the U.S. Open. As he said, losing in the first round of the first three Slams will be hard to get over.

"That's horrible," he said. "I feel like I'm a better player than this."

HOW GOOD IS HINGIS ANYMORE?
Martina Hingis' straight-set loss to Virginia Ruano-Pascual on of all places, Court 1, wasn't exactly stunning when you consider that the Swiss' back was so sore that she has almost no practice coming into the match and her lateral movement was seriously impeded. It's not like the Mighty Mouse can serve her way to victory, like Sampras did with a bum shim last year. When your running forward behind 65-mph second serves, your only hope is that your opponent siezes up because the occasion is too much for her. But Ruano-Pascual is a smart, fairy conservative player who is not prone to ridiculous errors and did show some fine nerves in winning the Roland Garros doubles title with Paola Suarez two weeks ago. All she had to do was to keep the ball low and deep, move Hingis side to side as much as possible and wait for the former Wimby champ to commit an error. She executed the strategy perfectly and now No.1 Hingis has gone 10 Slams without a title.

Give Hingis credit. She showed up, sucked it up and at least tried to play, which is more than can be said about Guga Kuerten, who may be resting his sore groin on a long board somewhere right now on the Southern Brazil coast. But the cheeky all-courter seems to have lost her killer instinct and that in-your-face cockiness that made her the world's most feared player in 1998. Moreover, she seems to have lost some of her desire, which is a sad state of affairs for a player who needs to retool her game in order to stand up to the game's big hitters. Hingis is going to be off for five weeks now and in that time she needs to get back in shape, keep working on smacking her serve and forehands harder and design a way that she can come into net more. If not, she may has well take her No. 1 ranking and go into hiding in the Swiss Alps, because she will not do serious damage at Flushing Meadows with her game as fragile as it has been the past few months.