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By Moin Salahuddin

Daily Bruin Staff

Four days after flying from Spain and the United States’ 5-0 loss to Spain in the Davis Cup semifinals, American Jan-Michael Gambill felt a little jet-lagged on the sun-scorched hardcourts of the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Gambill, the Mercedes-Benz Cup’s No. 6 seed, struggled early on in his match against Italian Laurence Tieleman. But three rare foot fault calls on Tieleman rattled him and vaulted Gambill to victory, 7-6(2), 6-2 in the featured afternoon match of the tournament on Thursday.

“I think I’m playing good tennis right now,” said Gambill.

After both players initially held serve in the pivotal first set, Tieleman used a strong first serve to push Gambill to a first set tiebreaker.

“He was serving bombs,” Gambill said. “He kept killing aces. I was impressed.”

With 13 aces leading into the tiebreaker, the 5-foot-11 Italian looked to have the edge against a beleaguered Gambill.

Tieleman broke first in the tiebreaker with a forehand winner just past Gambill’s outstretched arms to lead 1-0 in the race to seven points.

After an unforced error by Gambill, Tieleman double-faulted when he commited his third center foot fault of the match on his second serve.

“I have never seen that (call) in my seven years on tour,” Tieleman said.

That controversial call appeared to dishearten the Italian, but fueled new life into the American, who returned to his game plan of diving for returns.

“That double fault let me back into it,” said Gambill, who took the next five points to lead 5-2 in the tie breaker.

Two points from the first set, Gambill unleashed a 112 mph ace, one of eight he had in the match. He finished Tieleman off with a 120 mph rocket that Tieleman could not return.

“In the tiebreaker, I made sure I was there,” Gambill said of diving for returns. “That’s what wins tiebreakers.”

Continuing his momentum from the first set, Gambill came back in the second set and broke Tieleman to quickly go up 1-0.

The 23-year-old kept up the pressure and Tieleman wasn’t able to respond. Gambill prevailed in the second set 6-2.

After earning a berth into the quarterfinals of the tournament, Gambill dispelled any rumors that he would again represent the United States – this time in Sydney, Australia for the 2000 Olympics.

“It’s too late in my schedule to add another event,” he said. He was only notified one week ago that he could play since Pete Sampras would not.

With his already packed schedule, Gambill would only have one week off during the next four months if he did participate in the Olympics. But rather than risk burnout, he will wait until 2004 to compete.

“For the first time in my life, I can achieve my goal of being in the top-20,” he said.

Gambill did say that he will remain an integral part of the Davis Cup team, despite the United States’ losing performance in the semifinals one week ago.

“I’ll stick to the Davis Cup,” he said. “That’s something that I’ll always do.”

. . .

In other action, American Paul Goldstein defeated fellow compatriot Alex O’Brien 6-4, 6-2. Goldstein broke O’Brien twice in each set to advance to the quarterfinals.

After qualifier Goichi Motomura won by default over Chilean and No. 3 seed Marcelo Rios in the first round, Japan’s top-ranked player came back to face Australian Jason Stoltenberg. But things did not turn out as brightly for Motomura as he lost to Stoltenberg 6-2, 6-1.