WIMBLEDON, England – Justin Gimelstob could not contain himself at his post-match press conference yesterday, and who could blame him?

It’s rare that Gimelstob, a 28-year-old native of New Jersey, has the chance to soak up so much attention. The press did not follow him around when he flew to South Korea, Sacramento, and then England in the last month as he tried to climb back into the top 100. And there were no interview requests when he lost in the first round of a small claycourt tournament in Forest Hills, Queens, where he was the top seed.

But after winning his second-round match yesterday over the no. 29 seed, Nicolas Massu of Chile, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0), he wanted to soak up as much attention as he could.

“We’re good here,” he told a tour official who tried to bring his freewheeling question-and-answer session to a close. “This is my moment. You don’t understand where I’ve been. Let’s let them learn.”

The tale begins with his third cortisone shot of the year and a bit of luck. Otherwise, no one would have been talking to Gimelstob yesterday, never mind congratulating him on reaching the third round here for the third time in his career.

Gimelstob’s back went out during his second qualifying match last week against former Wimbledon semifinalist Vladimir Voltchkov. He managed to win that one, but was forced to default from his final match. As fortune would have it, a place in the draw opened up when other players withdrew. Gimelstob became the designated “lucky loser,” and he is making the most of it.

While the majority of the courts at the All England Club offered little in the way of compelling matches yesterday, Gimelstob treated a small contingent of fans on Court 14 to a wonderful brand of grass-court tennis. He flung his 6-foot-5 frame around the court, serving and volleying, chipping and charging, diving, spinning drop shots, and pumping his fists. For half the match he played with a stripe of white paint on his left leg, a tattoo from one of the lines he crash-landed on during a winning dive.

After he won the third set with a diving forehand volley, Gimelstob lay sprawled on his back for about 20 seconds, his face a portrait of relief.

Later, in the third-set tiebreak, Massu missed an easy forehand into a wideopen court, one of his first bad errors of the day. His two gold medals from the Athens Olympics would be no encouragement. All afternoon, he struggled to get under Gimelstob’s low, slicing returns with his heavy topspin ground strokes. Mentally, he was beaten. He proceeded to lose the next six points.

Afterward, Gimelstob talked about the life of a 10-year tennis pro who lives match to match without the benefit of multimillion-dollar deals to hawk sneakers, soft drinks, or credit cards.

He began playing at the age of 8, and once was the top-ranked 16-year-old junior in the country. He even won the U.S. National Boys’ 18-and-under singles title before going to UCLA. for a year, after which he turned pro.

Yesterday’s win pushed Gimelstob past the $2 million mark in career earnings (Rafael Nadal, in comparison, has won $2.7 million this season). He now has a career ATP singles record of 89 wins and 134 losses. Not bad for a batting average, but as a winning percentage in tennis, it amounts to no a decent living – if one does not tire of the traveling, training, and injuries.

“It’s a struggle,” Gimelstob said. “It will probably be my third time of coming back from oblivion to back in the top 100.”

Gimelstob had foot surgery a year ago and missed seven months. During that time, his ranking, now at no. 123, slipped into the 200s. His back has caused him to miss several more weeks this year, and he has received 13 cortisone shots for it in just over three years – an amount that he said is at the brink of medically recommended limits, according to his doctors. Still, he could not resist the chance to play Wimbledon one more time.

“I’ve invested a lot in this since I was 8 years old,” he said. “I just want to make sure that I got everything out of it that I could.”

As for those shots, they were free of performance-enhancing steroids, thank you very much.

“I don’t know if you guys have seen my body,” he said. “This is as natural as it gets. This is part Jewish, part Christian, part upper-class upbringing, working-as-hard-as-you can genetics. There’s no anabolic-ness going on here.”

The running commentary bodes well for his next career in television, once he finishes the college degree that he has been cobbling together through Internet courses.

First, though, Gimelstob has some unfinished business at Wimbledon, perhaps even on Centre Court. On Friday, he will meet former champion Lleyton Hewitt, who yesterday defeated Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Though his Wimbledon run likely will end there, Gimelstob has hope.

“I don’t think there’s any match at this point that could change my life,” he said. “But, you know, maybe there is.”