Miscellaneous > Tennis > Gulbis > May-Jun 08

Ernests Gulbis

29th May 2008

Gulbis was born in 1988, and is the first Latvian tennis player to reach the top 100. I first heard his name when he bundled Tim Henman out of the opening round of Roland Garros in 2007, scoreline 6-4,6-3,6-2. He then lost to a Spanish claycourt specialist, Albert Montanes in four sets, taking the third 6-1.

At the time I didn't read about his brief appearance at Wimbledon 2007. He actually came up against Marcos Baghdatis, seeded 10, in the firsts round, and lost in four sets after winning the first 6-3.

He came to my full attention during the US Open in 2007. He was one of the few players to reach the fourth round without losing a set. The thrashing he gave Tommy Robredo, seeded 8, in the third round was by all accounts astonishing, not least to Robredo, who asked for a DVD of the match afterwards in the hope it could help him understand what had happened. The scoreline was 6-1,6-3,6-2.

Today he's beaten James Blake, the 7th seed, in four sets at Roland Garros. I saw the match on BBCi - the very first time I've actually seen Gulbis play. Gulbis is currently 80th in the world, having been up in the mid-40's last autumn. Here's what I wrote about the match on a fansite:

• You mentioned in your interim post (at the end of the first set I think), that this match could be seen on some TV channel in the USA.
  
  I'm writing to let you know that I saw the whole match in the UK courtesy of the BBC, in the service they provide under Freeview (a satellite service) called BBCi (i for interactive), so it wasn't show in their free to air channels BBC1 or BBC2.
  
  I really enjoyed watching Gulbis in action for the very first time. He seems to have better control of his "exuberance", and his wild shot count was low enough to ensure a win. His excellent serving, especially when he was break points down, was another major contributing factor, as was Blake's inability to get back into court most of the Gulbis dropshots, even though their quality was not outstanding. I think Nadal would probably have won every point off todays dropshots from Gulbis. (Nadal slides into position for such plays, whilst Blake would only slide after hitting the ball, and was therefore often moving too fast to properly control his responses.)
  
  Gulbis' growing maturity was clearly in evidence in the final game, when he served for the match. There was not the slightest hint of any choke as he calmly did what was required.
  
  Very well done, Ernests.

30th May 2008

He followed up the victory over Blake with an emphatic straight sets defeat of Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador today. Again I refer to my words on the fansite:

• UK tennis fans were again lucky today, as the third set of the Gulbis demolition of Lapentti was shown live on the BBC. The move of coverage to Court 7 from Chatrier after completion of the Sharapova match was probably only possible because the Murray match was to follow.
  
  Gulbis' performance in the first four games shown was electrifying. (Maybe that's how he was playing throughout his match against Robredo last August.) Then he simply went walkabout. Lapentti easily held his next service game, and then Gulbis served a couple of double faults and also seemed to need to get a couple of poor dropshot attempts out of his system. Lapentti was just given the game.
  
  However, Ernests' new-found maturity then reasserted itself as he pulled himself together, effortlessly winning the last two games, winning the last point of each with a dropshot, prompting a BBC commentator to remark that he hoped tha Murray would be executing his dropshots that well.
  
  Sunday's match against Llodra could well be in the Chatrier court, as the Llodra/Bolelli match today was held there, creating a precedent. I hope this means that we in the UK will get to see Gulbis/Llodra on the BBC. I'm feeling quite confident about the outcome of that match.

Now back to his career since the 2007 US Open. I wasn't really following it then, so all I can say without doing any research is that he was treading water, as his ranking slipped back. For example, he lost in the first round of the Australian Open 2008 to Marat Safin.

I began to take notice of him again in the Indian Wells tournament in California in March. After a 6-2,6-1 victory over Oscar Hernandez in the first round, he was playing so well against Nalbandian that he actually served for the match at 5-4 in the final set. He promptly lost that game to love (if I recall correctly), and the match in a tiebreak.

The Miami tournament followed, and after beating Hrbaty in the first round, Gulbis actually had a match point against Davydenko, and missed an easy shot to an open court. Davydenko went on to win the tournament, beating Nadal in the final.

These results show that Gulbis was capable of beating anybody, and to do so consistently all he needed to do was to perhaps calm himself at critical moments, especially when on the brink of winning. Without such an adjustment to his mindset, he was also sadly capable of losing to anybody.

1st June 2008 - fanciful near term predictions

Another painless straight sets win yesterday against Llodra, which unfortunately was not shown on the BBC. In predicting it would be, I wasn't aware that five Frenchmen would get to the last 16, which led to Llodra not making the cut for the Chartrier court.

Having seen Gulbis against Blake and his last set against Lapentti, and some of Federer v Ancic, Nadal v Verdasco and Djokovic v Mathieu, I honestly don't see why Gulbis shouldn't keep on winning this week.

Djokovic said after his match today that his serve was improved, and getting him out of trouble. So what? In comparison, Gulbis hasn't been getting into trouble in the first place, and his serving has been exemplary.

Nadal's impressive performances so far seem to have been up against other top-spinning clay-courters. Gulbis' fast flat hitting could well remind Nadal of his semi-final in Australia, and put him in a similar predicament. However, Gulbis would need to cut down on or improve his dropshots compared to those that proved so profitable against Blake. Nadal is more effective on clay after running to make a shot than Blake could ever be. But don't forget, Nadal needs to beat Almagro to get to the semi-final in the first place, and Almagro (who I saw beat Murray) seems to be playing more like Gulbis than Nadal...

Although I can envisage Gulbis beating Nadal on clay, and easily see Nadal beating Federer again at Roland Garros, it may be a dream too far to see Gulbis beating Federer in Paris this year. On the other hand, if he gets to the final, which would only happen if he displays supreme consistency allied with an unbending determination to win against both Djokovic and especially Nadal, by then he could well have developed an aura of invincibility (remember Chang?) and simply sweep Federer aside as well. Maybe Nicci Pilic has today put some money on just such an outcome. (If I were a betting man I'd certainly be checking the odds.)

8th June 2008 - reality check

Well, Gulbis had a less than perfect last day in Paris, during which he lost to Djokovic, but at least he kept Novak busy for 187 minutes.

The draw for the Artois tournament on grass at Queens club in London was announced today, and to my mind it looks rather good for Gulbis. I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't make it to the third round, where an interesting match against Andy Murray could take place. Then in turn Roddick, Nadal, and Djokovic (or possibly Nalbandian) in the final. To my mind, striving for opportunities to come up against these formidable obstacles are exactly the kind of experiences that Gulbis needs to help him develop and mature on the court. Conversely, some Murray supporters grumble that their man has a difficult draw. What future is there for a young man who is perceived as needing to be sheltered from the best competition ?

13th June 2008 - comment on loss to Murray

I watched this match on the television, and it appeared to me that Gulbis got so relaxed - he was clearly capable of winning easily - that he became complacent. The point on which he lost his serve at 4-4 in the final set was in effect given away. He had Murray running back and fore beyond the baseline, then Gulbis had an easy overhead to put away. However his smash was at half strength, and Murray got to the ball and hit a winner. The BBC's commentator (probably John Lloyd) said that Gulbis should never have lost that point. I hope that Gulbis learns from that defeat.

I saw part of Nalbandian's match against Troicki. He played very well indeed, and I was surprised to read later that he was expected by some to lose agains Mahut. Today I read that he's now expected to lose to Gasquet. I'm sticking with my prediction that he could well make it to the final, and now that Gulbis has gone, I would expect Nalbandian to win in the final.

22nd June 2008 - Nalbandian is still Nalbandian

Probably Nalbandian's poorest match ever was his 6-1,6-0 capitulation to Djokovic in their semi-final at Queens. O.K., he remains an enigma, so I'll try to resist the temptation to forecast any more of his results.

22nd June 2008 - the challenge of Wimbledon

I think that the draw for Gulbis couldn't be better. If he doesn't beat Isner comfortably I'll be extremely disappointed. To me that match should sharpen Gulbis ready for Nadal in the second round, where I hope that Gulbis' performance will re-awaken in Nadal uncomfortable memories of his semi-final against Tsonga in the Australian Open back in January.

I'll be upset if Gulbis wins less than two sets, and obviously I'd like to see Nadal win less than three. Clearly Nadal will be more of a challenge than Murray was at Queens (see 13th June), so if Gulbis wins the first two sets he is less likely to get complacent, and he should always keep in mind that Nadal's will to win is awesome.

Perhaps as a relatively new fan of Gulbis, I've missed out on most of his his earlier frailities, and expect more of him than many of his fans of longer standing. They have had to witness prehaps too many of his losses from seemingly winning positions. I can see the now maturing Gulbis beating Nadal, hopefully in less than five sets, so that he'll have energy in reserve to take on Keifer, Stepanek and Gasquet (or Murray) on his way to the semi-finals. But please Ernests, no more (apparent) complacency on court.

8th July 2008 - Wimbledon outcome

Gulbis was simply electrifying in the opening set of his match against Nadal, but then faded slightly, which was a sufficent change in the environment for Nadal to take command and win.

Putting matters in perspective, Nadal lost only three sets in the tournament, two to Federer and one to Gulbis.

Go here to see some Roland Garros stats.






March 2008: Gulbis serving at Indian Wells