NEW YORK -- There was a time when Robby Ginepri was best
known for his girlfriend, actress Minnie Driver.
"Just a little fling, and that's over with, and now I think I'm
making my name with tennis," Ginepri said. "So that's what I'm
here to do."
When the U.S. Open began, no one was talking about an American
man making a serious bid for the title apart from Andy Roddick and
perhaps Andre Agassi.
Well, Roddick is gone, and Agassi has made it to the semifinals,
where he will play Ginepri, a 22-year-old unseeded upstart.
Ginepri's quarterfinal victory was a third consecutive five-set
thriller in which he upset Guillermo Coria 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
The eighth-seeded Argentine double-faulted on a sixth match point
for Ginepri.
Ginepri, ranked 46th, is playing in a Grand Slam semifinal for
the first time. He has come a long way from earlier this summer
when he sank to the lowest point of his five-year career following
a first-round exit at Wimbledon.
Francisco Montana, his coach since December, persuaded Ginepri
to see a sports psychologist who used to work with Ivan Lendl. A
trainer also was brought on board.
"After Wimbledon he hit rock bottom and he really decided to
change his mentality," Montana said. "Now he really understands
how he needs to play -- his patience has increased tremendously.
Before he'd have a good match here and there but for no rhyme or
reason. He didn't know what was going on. Now he's playing a lot
smarter tennis."
He arrived at Indianapolis and for the first time in seven
career meetings beat Roddick, who also defeated Ginepri in the 2000
U.S. Open junior boy's final. Ginepri followed by winning his
second career title, then reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati
tournament in August.
Now, in New York, it's a family affair. Ginepri's father, Rene,
soon to retire as a systems analyst, and his mother, Nancy, a
second-grade teacher in Marietta, Ga., as well as his older sister,
Jenni, armed with a camera to record the moment, were all nervously
following play Wednesday from a courtside box.
Watching on TV was Ginepri's grandfather, Roy Larson.
"It must be my dad," Nancy Ginepri said when her cell phone
rang. "I had to call him, he's 91, to see how he was holding up.
This is a highlight for him, but I don't know how much more he can
take. That's why I call after every match and say, 'Dad, are you
OK?' He doesn't go around so much anymore, but we might have to fly
him here now."
When the Ginepri clan returned to the player's lounge following
his quarterfinal victory, practically the first person to greet
them was James Blake, who went on to lose to Andre Agassi in five
sets.
"James is a great guy -- we love James," said Nancy Ginepri,
moments after Blake hugged her. "He and Robby have been through a
lot together."
U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has been taking note of
Ginepri. He said Wednesday he will bring Ginepri and Blake to
Belgium for the Davis Cup in two weeks, although he is not sure
which one will play singles with Roddick.
"I think he has a seriously big heart and showed a lot of guts
to be out there and play three five-setters in a row," McEnroe
said. "Talk about doing things the old-fashioned way. Robby's
seeing all the hard work is paying off."