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PACIFIC LIFE OPEN


March 12, 2002


Jan Michael Gambill


INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

Q. How did you manage to turn things around?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Well, first of all, I'm so excited about my new socks. I have to say that right here. I don't know if anybody noticed, but I'm not wearing completely black socks anymore. What do you think? I am so pumped. I think I had a game plan out there. I stuck to it the whole match. That's something I'm very excited about. A lot of times I'll go out in my matches, serve big, hit big groundstrokes, hope the guy hits short balls I can come in on. We had an actual game plan we worked on. It's great when that works out. Started to get on him a little bit. You know, he started making errors where I was attacking his second serve. You know, I feel pretty good about it.

Q. The treatment on your shoulder, precautionary type thing?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: To tell you the truth, my shoulder hurts just slightly, very, very, very little. I wanted to get as much heat cream on there as I could. I don't know if I had enough out there. You get out there, your pores open up, it's good to get a little bit on there. That helped stabilize my arm.

Q. How has it been the last couple days?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Actually, it hasn't been hurting at all till today just a little bit. I know I've been playing a lot of matches. I know I'm going to have to take some time off after the Nasdaq-100. You know, knowing those things, I need to schedule myself intelligently.

Q. Do you think this puts you in good stead for Davis Cup?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: To tell you the truth, I'm not really concerned about Davis Cup right now. I really have to focus on myself and keeping myself healthy and healed up. That's really what I'm focusing on.

Q. Does it almost help in a sense, taking it off the plate, being one less thing to worry about?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I'm certainly not worrying about it. What I'm excited about is that I'm injury-free right now. You know, 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 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. That's really all that's on my mind.

Q. How much did Hawaii play a part in it all?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: Hawaii is my favorite place to be. Right now I'm looking at buying a house over there. Any time I can get over there, I'm there. That's where I like to spend my off time. I'd like to live there a lot of the time. I train there and I vacation there. It's my place. It's very relaxing for me.

Q. Can you talk about your success here, when you had the wildcard, had a good run, beat Guga when he was No. 1. Is there a special feeling when you come here?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: There is a very special feeling. You know, I love coming here and playing. I love Palm Springs. My family used to have a place here where we used to actually train. You know, it's just a place I really enjoy coming, really enjoy myself here. The air, the ball is quick, it favors me a little bit on the groundies and serve.

Q. Do you think about the first time you came here, at this tournament?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I think about it a lot. That was a turning point in my career, you know. You know, winning against those statures of players was something that showed me I could be one of the top players and stay with them. Of course, I think about it, yeah. Of course, that was at a different venue. But this new venue is fantastic, as well.

Q. What's the deal with the black socks?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: These are the new clima-cool socks. They're actually more comfortable and pretty cool looking. I think this is the new deal. There's a little black on here, quite a bit of black, so I'm stoked on these. I'm going to keep these.

Q. Last year you criticized the tournament because they give the wildcard not to the junior players, the American junior players. This year they gave it to Martin and Chang, not to others like Ginepri. What do you think about it?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: This year at least we have all Americans that are taking the wildcards. You know, I have nothing to say. I think both Chang and Martin deserved the wildcards. They've certainly earned it. They've certainly played some fantastic tennis in the past. You know, I think it was -- didn't Mardy Fish qualify here?

Q. Yes.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: He's been getting some wildcards which I think he's deserved. I think it's good for him to qualify once in a while. It's the path that I took, the path that Andy took. I'm glad to see Mardy qualified. How did James get in?

Q. Wildcard.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: He certainly earned the wildcard. I think it was very intelligent wildcards this year. Ginepri, did he get one of the quallies?

Q. Lost last round of the quallies.

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I think that, you know, you can only give so many wildcards to so many people. I think, you know, they made the right choices this time.

Q. Your last match against James, can you talk about the difference? Obviously, it was indoors, but the difference between that and today?

JAN-MICHAEL GAMBILL: I made less errors. I was a little bit smarter. I had a better game plan which I executed a lot better. That's pretty much it.

End of FastScripts….

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