THE SEOUL GAMES : Tennis : Gilbert, Mayotte Advance

SEOUL — Brad Gilbert of Pepperdine University moved into some fancy Olympic tennis circles here Monday.

Gilbert, the fifth-seeded player in men’s singles, won a quarterfinal match against Argentina’s Martin Jaite, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6, 6-3, to assure himself of at least a bronze medal.

Later in the day, the United States clinched at least a silver medal when Gilbert was joined in the semifinals by teammate Tim Mayotte, who defeated Carl Uwe-Steeb of West Germany, 7-6, 7-5, 6-3. Both losing semifinalists get bronze medals.

Mayotte is seeded No. 2 here, Gilbert No. 5, putting them on the same side of the bracket for a semifinal matchup Wednesday and guaranteeing that an American will be in the final.

In the other bracket, top-seeded Stefan Edberg advanced on Center Court in straight sets over Paolo Cane of Italy, and Miloslav Mecir was scheduled to play Michiel Schapers of Holland.

Gilbert, a finalist for Pepperdine in the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. final, has been one of the steadiest players on the pro tennis tour for the last three years. He even worked his way into a ranking in the top 10 for awhile in 1986, and currently is No. 15.

And perhaps before Monday, his main claim to fame had been his three victories over Boris Becker, including a stunner in the 1987 U.S. Open.

Monday, according to his coach, Tom Gorman, he faced a different kind of opponent, and Gorman wasn’t talking about clay-court specialist Jaite.

“This is probably the most pressure any player will ever feel for a quarterfinal match,” Gorman said. “It was a whole different thing with both of them (Gilbert and Mayotte) in the locker room before the matches today. They knew this was for a medal, and they were feeling it. This is one of the bigger deals in either of their tennis lives.”

Afterward, Gilbert agreed.

“It’s different,” he said. “It dawns on you that, unlike other tournaments, if you lose in the quarters, you go home empty-handed. No medal, no money, no nothing.”

But he is shooting for more.

“I came here for the gold, not just the bronze,” he said.

In the first set, Jaite broke Gilbert’s serve at 4-4, then Gilbert broke back for 5-5. Jaite broke right back for 6-5 and finally served it out for 7-5. In the second set, Gilbert broke early and stayed on top all the way, winning, 6-1, apparently having discovered how unsettling it was to Jaite to have his second serve chipped back, with Gilbert repeatedly charging in behind it.

Gilbert got up a break again in the third set, but Jaite came back.

“That really got me,” Gilbert said. “I should never have let him back in like that.”

The set went to a tiebreaker, and Gilbert took control by serving a winner at 0-1 before Jaite made unforced errors on the next 3 points.

After his 7-1 tiebreaker win gave him a 2-1 lead in sets, Gilbert once again got on top of Jaite by breaking early. And once again, he let his opponent back in. But this time, he broke back at 3-3, on a superb lunging forehand shot down the line that passed Jaite at the net and barely kissed the sideline.

Then, serving at 5-3, Gilbert overpowered Jaite, who is ranked 28th in the world.

Afterward, somebody reminded Gilbert said that this would not be his first medal victory, that he had won some in the Maccabiah Games.

“Hey, that’s right. I got gold,” he said. “Maccabiah Games, 1981. I lost the singles to Schlomo (Glickstein) and won the doubles.”

Somehow, were he to win here, it would probably be a bit more memorable.