“At that point, it was funny - they were already asking those questions of, ‘Who’s going to be next?’ ’’ Gambill said last night before his Boston Lobsters met St. Louis in a World Team Tennis match at the Ferncroft Country Club. “It was me. Then after me, it was Roddick, Blake, Fish, guys like that.’’
Gambill peaked at No. 14 in the world rankings in 2001, when he won the second of his three ATP titles. His best finish at a Grand Slam tournament was a berth in the quarterfinals of the 2000 Wimbledon.
Gambill, 34, has continued to play tennis at various levels over the past decade, competing regularly on the ATP tour through 2005 and playing seven seasons of WTT (including the past four with the Lobsters). But injuries curtailed his success at the world-class level.
“You always feel like you could have had a better career,’’ Gambill said. “Injuries really held me back. For the last six or seven years, I have had shin problems. For two years, I couldn’t play at all because I had a bad shoulder injury.
“That was depressing, and that sort of ruined my ATP career.’’
But tour wins aren’t the only way to measure a player’s career.
“The way I look at it, has someone reached their potential?’’ Lobsters coach Bud Schultz said. “How hard did they work? How hard did they compete? What did they give of themselves to be the best they could possibly be?
“At the end of the day, Jan-Michael can look in the mirror and say, ‘I reached my potential. I didn’t take shortcuts. I didn’t bail at any point in time.’ In that sense, I think he’s had a tremendous career.’’
Gambill said he has found a home in WTT, and realized that what he enjoys most is the competition.
“It allows me to once again compete at the higher level,’’ Gambill said. “Most of the guys that are playing full-time didn’t have the career that I did. But you still play all the marquee guys, [and I am] seeing my friends and the guys I played against all those years.
“As long as I can still compete, I’ll be out there.’’
