MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
W
hen the United
States Davis Cup
team swings into
action in Mexico next week,
the top-ranked American
player will be there.
The top-ranked American is
. . . one of the old pros like
Jimmy Connors or John
McEnroe, right?
Wrong, wrong.
Then, it's one of the young
stars — Andre Agassi, or
Michael Chang?
Sorry, wrong again.
The top-ranked American,
No. 3 in the Association of
Tennis Professionals (ATP)
world rankings, is Brad
Gilbert.
Though not nearly as
famous as the other four —
primarily because he's never
reached the final of a Grand
Slam event — the 1985 World
Maccabiah champ earned his
ranking by winning five tour-
naments last year, including
the prestigious ATP Cham-
pionships in Cincinnati last
August.
The ATP victory capped
Gilbert's greatest tennis per-
formance to date, a string of
17 consecutive match vic-
48
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1990
ost
There's just one thing missing from tennis
pro Brad Gilbert's title collection.
tories, including three
straight tournament cham-
pionships.
Gilbert, who competed
against Jimmy Connors in a
recent Detroit-area exhibi-
tion, had won his two Davis
Cup singles matches in the
United States' loss to West
Germany last July and was
runnerup the next week in
the Sovran Bank Classic in-
Washington, D.C., before
beginning his unbeaten
streak on Aug. 1.
He defeated Richard
Schmidt in two sets in the
opening match of the Volvo
International tournament in
Stratton, Vt. Five matches
later, Gilbert beat Jim Pugh
to win the title. One week
later, Gilbert polished off
Jason Stoltenberg in straight
sets to capture the Swiss
Army Knife open in Liv-
ingston, N.J.
To prove his streak was no
fluke, Gilbert finished with
wins over three of the world's
top 10 players at the ATP. He
downed Chang, the 1989
French Open champion, in
the quarterfinals; topped
Wimbledon and U.S. Open
Champ Boris Becker in the
semis, then edged former
Wimbledon victor Stefan
Edberg, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, in the
final.
The foundation for Gilbert's
hot summer, he says, was
built the previous winter. "I
worked really hard in the off-
season, in December and
January, to get ready for
1989. And then I got off to a
good start."
By last March, Gilbert had
reached two finals. At Mem-
phis, he won the U.S. Indoor
Championships for the third
time in four years and placed
second in the World Cham-
pionship Tennis finals, held in
Dallas.
"If you get off to a good
start, you feel like you can
win a lot of matches, even
when you're not playing that
well," Gilbert says. "But if
you get behind the eight-ball,
you don't play so well. You
start pressing and you get in-
to trouble.
During his five-week sum-
mer hot streak, Gilbert's
record was 23-1; his world-
ranking rose from 15th to
9th; he passed the $2 million-
mark in career earnings and
also celebrated his 28th
birthday.
All of this led directly to the
U.S. Open in New York. Un-
fortunately, Gilbert's chief
career frustration — lack of
success in grand slam events
— continued. Gilbert became
ill with a stomach virus on
the morning of his opening
match and lost.
Furthermore, Gilbert also
lost his opening match at
Wimbledon last summer, in
five sets to John Fitzgerald.
Wimbledon and the U.S.
Open, Gilbert says, are "going
to be the big focus for my 1990
season."
Gilbert began turning up
for the coming season at The
Palace of Auburn Hills on
Jan. 10, when he substituted
for the injured Michael
Chang in an exhibition match
against old pro Connors.
Gilbert lost, 6-2, 7-6.
The Palace crowd cheered
loudest for the venerable Con-
nors. Gilbert, in his first-ever
area appearance, played in-
consistently, with Connors
easily winning the first set.
In the second set, Gilbert's
serves found the lines and he
scored five aces. His overall