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Right at home Gimelstob upsets Philippoussis, advances in L.A.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Call him the king of the night at UCLA. Justin Gimelstob upset second-seeded Mark Philippoussis 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) Thursday night in a sloppy matchup of hard servers in the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Gimelstob, a former NCAA doubles champion at UCLA, likes to call the Los Angeles Tennis Center his home. He proved an inhospitable host by stunning Andre Agassi in 1997 and Patrick Rafter in 1998 in night matches. Philippoussis became his latest victim after a two-hour, 15-minute struggle. Gimelstob served 15 aces to 13 by Philippoussis, but committed 10 double faults to one for the Australian. Both players sprayed shots all over the court, and neither managed a service break in the final set. Gimelstob won on the second match point with his second consecutive smash, giving him his first career win over Philippoussis in three meetings. Gimelstob will play Paul Goldstein in Friday's quarterfinals. Other matches feature Frenchmen Lionel Roux and No. 8 Arnaud Clement, No. 5 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa and No. 4 Michael Chang, and No. 6 Jan-Michael Gambill against Jason Stoltenberg of Australia. Gambill is used to having the biggest serve on court. Unless he's playing Laurence Tieleman. Tieleman boomed 16 aces -- twice as many as Gambill -- and had Gambill scrambling in the first set before the American settled down for a 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory. "I didn't know he could serve that well," said Gambill, who broke Tieleman twice in the second set. "He kept serving aces and I was bewildered a little bit." Gambill and Clement are the lone seeds remaining in the top half of a draw decimated by the withdrawals of eight players and the default of No. 3 Marcelo Rios. "I know who I'm going to play next and that's all I care about," Gambill said. "If I win, I'll look at the draw again." In other matches, Goldstein defeated Alex O'Brien 6-4, 6-2 in a pairing of former Stanford players and Stoltenberg beat Goichi Motomura of Japan 6-1, 6-2. Motomura had benefited from the default of Rios in the first set of their first-round match Wednesday night. Rios, who got tossed for verbally abusing the chair umpire, was fined $5,000 by the ATP Tour on Thursday in addition to losing his $3,500 in prize money and free hotel room. Gambill said he was more bothered by jet lag Thursday than he was in his earlier matches. He arrived here Monday after losing two Davis Cup matches in Spain, where the Americans were drubbed 5-0. Tieleman, a Belgian serve-and-volleyer, took a 2-0 lead in the first-set tiebreaker before Gambill won the final seven points. Tieleman failed on both of his break chances in the match. "I played tough and he wasn't able to break me," Gambill said. "I need to come out and serve a little better." Gambill doesn't harbor any bad memories from the third-worst loss by the United States in the 101-year history of Davis Cup. He's eager to play again next year, although his patriotism doesn't extend to the Sydney Olympics. Gambill has decided not to make himself available for the Olympics, which run Sept. 15-Oct. 1. Instead, he's sticking to his schedule of tournaments in Europe and Asia. "It's too late in my schedule to add another two-week event," he said. "For the first time in my career, I have a real shot to make a move. I have tons of events coming up."
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