INSIDE LOOK: SUN HURTS GAMBILL'S SERVICE GAME.

Byline: Aaron Levine Special to the Daily News

For Jan-Michael Gambill, the routine became frustrating Sunday: a couple of bounces of the ball, a toss, a glance into the sun and then a balk.

Eight times, Gambill went through the motions of the serve and was blinded by the sun. Eight times, he let the ball fall, holding his hand up to halt the point and following it with a ``Sorry.''

Therefore, while the sun shone bright for Andre Agassi as he captured the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA, it shone a little too bright for Gambill.

``In the sun, I was really having trouble,'' said Gambill, who fell to Agassi 6-2, 6-4. ``I couldn't quite get enough on (my serve) to hurt him. He was returning every one of my shots, and when a guy does that, he's back in the rally.''

All week long, Gambill had talked about the problems he had faced serving from the north end of Stadium Court. Against Nicolas Kiefer in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semifinals, Gambill had simply relied on a kick serve to carry him through the 1 p.m. sunshine.

But against Agassi, Gambill quickly learned that a kick serve would boot him right out of the point. He even admitted that he felt more pressure to hit a faster serve from the north end once Agassi had broken his serve a couple of times.

Although Gambill managed to make 63 percent of his first serves and double faulted just once, Agassi's consistent attack off the slower serve had Gambill running from end to end, and at times from 10 feet behind the baseline all the way to the net.

``The serve didn't seem to affect him at all,'' Gambill said.

Down 4-2 in the first set, Gambill's 87-mph second serve led to a patented Agassi backhand winner up the line, which gave him his second break of the match. Then, tied 1-1 in the second set, Agassi took an 88-mph second serve and rocketed a crosscourt forehand past Gambill, leading to another break of serve.

Of the four times Agassi broke Gambill's serve, three of them came when Gambill served into the sun. The only time Gambill managed to hold serve from that side, he still had to fend off two break points. And of Gambill's seven aces in the match, only one was served from the north end of the court.

Agassi, who was playing his first daytime match of the week, was also broken once when he served into the sun. Still, he managed to control most of the points from the baseline even when he took pace off his serve.

``Once I'm in the point, it doesn't matter who's serving,'' Agassi said. ``He was giving me more of an opportunity for me to be in the point. He was serving bigger from the other side.

``But both players had to deal with it. And to let the elements be your enemy is hurting your cause.''

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Photo:

Jan-Michael Gambill reacts to an error against Andre Agassi in the final of the Mercedes-Benz Cup on Sunday.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer