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Another top name!
Jan-Michael Gambill named as a wild card
Jan-Michael Gambill has been named as the 2nd wild card for this year's Challenger. Quite amazing to have both Jan-Michael and Mark interested in our event the same year. It happens in Challengers where a big name will need to get some playing time, but pretty rare to have 2 come to the same event. Jan-Michael is another very accomplished player, he's beaten all the greats and he is American, so he has spent lots of time around the greats who also were American (Sampras, Agassi, Courier). Really has to have some great perspective playing tennis in the same timeframe as those guys.
Jan-Michael's highest ranking was #14 in June of 2001. Jan-Michael's highlights include:
-Turned pro in 1996
-3 career singles titles, 4 runner-ups including the Miami Masters Series in 2001, beating Lleyton Hewitt and losing to Andre Agassi
-5 doubles titles including Masters Series Hamburg 2002
-Reached 3rd round or better 5 times in Grand Slams, 3 times at US Open and 2 times at Wimbledon, best result was quarterfinals of Wimbledon in '00 beating #7 seed Lleyton Hewitt and #8 seed Thomas Enqvist before losing to eventual champ Pete Sampras
-In start of 2001, reached quarterfinals in 7 of first 8 tournaments with 22-8 record
-Has beaten nine former #1s including Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, as well as current #1 Roger Federer
-Selected as one of People magazine's "50 Most beautiful people in the world 2000"
-Finished 2000 as 4th ranked American behind Sampras, Agassi, and Chang
Jan-Michael injured his shoulder in October of 2005 that hindered his playing for 7 months. His activity this year includes one appearance in a Challenger main draw where he retired, World Team Tennis this summer, and his current tournament, the ATP event in Washington, DC, where he'll play Janko Tipsarevic in his first match.
Jan-Michael Gambill compared to Mark Philippoussis (our 1st wild card selection):
4-1 against Mark including wins at the US Open, Masters Series Indian Wells and Miami; 4 of the 5 matches went the distance and all of those deciding sets had 1 break of serve or a tie break
When asked about coming to Binghamton, Jan-Michael said "I'm just trying to get as many matches as I can. Really trying to get back in shape and test my arm. You know 7 months is a long time. The dBI Tennis Challenger happens to be a good event that's close and it's a good opportunity for me."
On expectations as far as hopes for the US Open and plans to play in that: "I don't have any really. Just taking it one day at a time. Just looking to get matches and some good practice and playing time. See how the shoulder does just one day at a time."
Laurie Bowen, Tournament Director, comments: "To have Jan-Michael commit to our event is fantastic. We've never had a draw where we get 2 players with such accomplishments (Jan-Michael and Mark Philippoussis). Jan-Michael has had a great career and has played alongside some tough competition in American tennis with Sampras, Courier, and Agassi. We are very fortunate to have this kind of talent interested in playing our event."
