Gambill and Gimelstob

[dryeagle]

Whatever happened to these guys? Gimelstob is ranked 157 and Gambill is 89. Both these guys use to be able to give Sampras some problems at Wimbledon. Gimelstob was probably at one time a top 50 and Gambill was top 20. Did these guys run into some personal problems off the court?

[Fee]

I can answer both of those questions for you...

Gimelstob broke a bone in his foot (the left I believe) last October while playing a Challenger in England. He had to have surgery on it in November, was in a cast for a while, then a walking cast. During that time he did some work for the Tennis Channel, which I don't have, but I've read and heard that he was pretty good at it (most of the time). He was at Indian Wells working for TTC and did one or two light workouts on the practice court while he was there. His first tournament back was the Tallahassee Challenger (won a match, lost a match) and this past Saturday he won the Singles and Doubles on grass at the Forest Hills Challenger. He flew straight to England and won his first round match in the Qualifying tournament on Monday. I believe he will also enter the Doubles draw there with Scott Humphries.

Jan-Michael had a horrible season last year after winning the title at Delray Beach in March and his ranking dropped to the upper 50's, low 60's. He finished off the year pretty well until he injured his back in a match against Paradorn at the Madrid Masters. He was doing okay this season (3 QF's in row late Feb/early Mar) but he failed to defend finalist points at Doha and could not defend his title at Delray. That combined loss of points is what put him in the 80's where he is right now. Because he had such a horrible summer last year, he has very few points to defend so he should move up. If that's not enough of an answer for you, feel free to check out my website for him .

Hope that didn't bore you too much.

[CrazyDiamond]

Fiona

Not boring at all,in fact it's a pleasure to meet such a knowledgable Tennis lady.

BTW Justin just won his 2nd Round Qualies,as did my nephew.......so one more round to go.......GODwilling.
And one more Doubles Round to win as well......Im praying.

The most amazing story to me is Brian Vahaly.
The guy has hardly won a match this year.....he's tumbled out of the Top 100......he's in serious trouble with his ranking........tough luck he's having.

[dryeagle]

Gimelstob better qualify for Wimby, with that 3rd rounder from last year burning off he could drop out of the top 200.

As for Gambill, I think its time for him to drop down to Challenger Events and regain some confidence ala Vince Spadea. I see that he had a horrible summer last year and has lost his last 10 matches on clay. I don't mean to dog the guy, because I think he has big time talent - I saw him live at the US Open in 2002 and he absolutely destroyed Carlos Moya.

[Fee]

Actually, I'm not that knowledgeable about tennis in general, just a few of the players that I have some type of contact with . I spoke to Gimel in San Jose, again at IW, and heard from him before he headed to England. I forgot that he had played a few rounds at Wimbly last year, I hope he gets a decent draw so he can hold on to those points.

As for JanMike playing Challengers... he won't do it until he's forced to, I guess because of some type of stubborn pride. He absolutely hates clay and I had hoped that he would skip it completely and play some some of the Challengers in the US to pick up some points, but he chose not to. Instead, he tried to qualify for Monte Carlo, lost at Barcelona, lost at St. Poelten and lost at RG. In some ways I admire his courage to take on the surface instead of avoiding it like so many of the grinders avoid grass, but it wasn't the most practical decision.

Bryan has had the absolute worst luck this year with the draw and he lost about 100 places in one week when he couldn't defend his QF points at Indian Wells. He's moved to Houston to train under the sponsorship of the Westside Tennis Club and the McIngvales and that should help him out, but it may take a while to see results from that. Then again, some people thought he was a nice guy with mediocre talent anyway. I don't know enough about him to argue either way.

Pleased to see both Bob Bryan and Gimel win today. Hope they can both make the main draw.

[FulhamFan]

I hope Gambill gets better. Gimelstob can get bent.

[dryeagle]

Fiona, you seem to be a very positive person and know your stuff when it comes to these players. You should be working for the ATP or WTA.

[Fee]

Well, that's kind of you to say. Justin and JanMike are both friends of some sort, so its easy to speak fairly and factually of them (I hope).

I don't follow the WTA much, so can't tell you anything about that tour (although I do miss Kim very much). I admit that I am an addicted tennis fan, who probably spends far too much time on tennis messageboards. From what I've heard about the ATP, I'd be insane to work in that chaos, especially since I'm a woman and I would probably defend the players' position too much for their liking.

[dryeagle]

I spend too much time on tennis message boards myself.

Well, Gimelstob was beaten in qualifying, so his ranking will tumble. Gambill drew Mirnyi in the 1st round, someone I think he can beat though, and could get to the 3rd round where he could play Grosjean. If he can find the same level where he beat Hewitt a few years back, he could get through that one as well.