For love of game, Gimelstob says goodbye UCLA, hello pro

Sunday, July 28, 1996

Catching opportunity while young main factor in decision to move
forwardBy Mark J. Dittmer

Summer Bruin Senior Staff

Justin Gimelstob will play in the Infiniti Open this week at the
Los Angeles Tennis Center, where not long ago Gimelstob was a
regular. It was as recently as two months ago, back when the tennis
courts here were green, when Gimelstob played on them regularly for
the UCLA men’s tennis team. And now he returns here two months
later; not to get an early start training for next season, but
rather to jump start his professional career.

Gimelstob played his final match for UCLA just two months ago in
Athens, Ga., home of the NCAA Championships. The tournament is one
he’ll remember for a while.

Gimelstob strode into Athens as the owner of the nation’s No. 1
collegiate singles ranking and doubles ranking (with partner Srdjan
Muskatirovic). He was also the leader of the nation’s No. 1 team,
the undefeated Bruins. In what was a nearly perfect season for
Gimelstob, Athens could have provided the perfect ending.

But on May 21, Gimelstob’s stay in Athens was ruined. The Bruins
had reached the NCAA finals where they encountered Stanford, a team
they’d beaten three times in three tries during the season. One
match away from their first national championship since 1984, the
Bruins caved in, letting it all slip away.

Justin Gimelstob could only be stunned. He won his doubles
match, but he could not even finish his singles match, as Stanford
swept No. 3 through No. 6 singles, making his match
meaningless.

"I had a tough time dealing with that," Gimelstob says. "It hurt
me so much because we’re the best team, and I cared so much about
the guys. We’re so close that it’s tough to deal with. The next day
in singles I was barely there, and my partner (Muskatirovic) pulled
us through the doubles. It was hard for me to be there. I wanted to
go home."

Gimelstob lost in the first round of the singles tournament that
next day, later saying that the team championship was the only
thing that had been important to him. Doubles was a different
story: he and Muskatirovic are now the NCAA champions in
doubles.

"It (the doubles title) was really important to my partner, so I
had to pull it together," Gimelstob says.

That was Gimelstob’s stay in Athens. Except that more was going
on. As his roller coaster tournament in Athens made its dives and
its climbs, Justin Gimelstob had a decision to make.

* * *

Many tennis players of Gimelstob’s age and ability join the
professional tour straight out of high school. Other highly
publicized players don’t even wait for high school to end.
Gimelstob, though, wanted to go to school.

Justin Gimelstob had improvements to make on the court in
college, that he wanted to make before he went professional. He had
work to do to improve the mental aspect of his game.

Gimelstob let his temper get out of hand too often during his
freshman season, and he felt that he needed to learn to be more
professional. But those improvements have now been made. After a
freshman season during which he compiled an 18-7 record, mostly at
the No. 3 singles position, Gimelstob has improved dramatically. He
played the entire 1996 season in the No. 1 position, and lost just
one match all year.

Then there are academics at school which are important to
Gimelstob; at UCLA he twice finished quarters with a 4.0
grade-point average and brought home a 3.8 this last spring.

And he enjoyed all of those things college is supposed to
be.

"I didn’t have to practice; I didn’t have to always work out,"
Gimelstob explains. "Billy (Martin, UCLA men’s tennis coach) has 10
other guys on the team, so you learn how to do things for yourself
­ to be responsible, to be independent, to prioritize."

But the professional tour was beckoning the whole time, and
Gimelstob was listening.

"There’s a lesser sense of urgency with school (than with
tennis) because I can always come back to school," he says. "With
tennis, the window of opportunity is a lot smaller."

Indeed, tennis players are over-the-hill at younger ages than
almost any other athletes. Stefan Edberg, for example, is on his
farewell tour this year at the age of 30. And he has not been
nearly as effective over the last two years as he was in his
prime.

For Gimelstob, the decision of when to turn pro was an attempt
at balancing all of the important factors. He wanted to excel in
tennis on the professional tour, and time was wasting as he stayed
in college.

At the same time, he wanted to be mature enough to handle
himself on the professional tour as a person, and as a player.
Academics he could always come back to later.

After improving as much as he did in his sophomore year,
Gimelstob was just about ready to go professional. His team was
undefeated, and he was ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles. He’d
accomplished everything there was to accomplish on the college
level. Except maybe one thing.

"The NCAA Championship is really important to my career,"
Gimelstob said before the tournament in Athens. "We’ve prepared and
worked as hard as we could to accomplish a goal. It’s as important
as any other tournament that I will play."

* * *

Justin Gimelstob’s singles match then was interrupted by the
news that the meet was over, that Stanford had won, that Stanford
was the NCAA champion, and that UCLA’s undefeated season was over.
And Gimelstob had some things to think about.

"After we lost the team tournament, he said some things while he
was still feeling a lot of emotion from the loss about staying here
for another year," Martin said. "But I think it’s the best thing
for him to go out there and do it (go professional)."

But Gimelstob was no longer certain. At this point he had
accomplished everything there was to accomplish in college except
for winning an NCAA championship. And he thought of going back for
one more year, to get that championship.

"I talked to my family, my friends, my coach Billy; basically to
anybody that I could get to talk to me about it (the decision),"
Gimelstob says. "In the end they all pushed me in the same
direction."

And so for about one day, Gimelstob sat in the doorway between
rooms, looking at the promise of a professional career in the room
ahead, but looking back at one goal that got away by the smallest
of margins. It is like a firefly, darting around, all that’s left
in the room of collegiate tennis.

Justin Gimelstob decided that he had to move forward, that he
had to put that missed goal behind him. By the end of the day on
which he lost in the first round of the individual singles
tournament, which meant very little to him, he had decided to move
on.

So now he is taking his first steps into what he hopes will be a
fulfilling professional career. The firefly buzzes behind him, and
he is trying to look forward.