Ernests Gulbis

Ernests Gulbis

Country (sports)	Latvia
Residence	Jūrmala, Latvia
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro	2004
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Prize money	$1,026,653
Singles
Career record	46 - 54
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	38 (August 4, 2008)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2nd (2009)
French Open	QF (2008)
Wimbledon	2nd (2008)
US Open	4th (2007)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	11 - 11
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	160 (June 25, 2007)
Last updated on: May 25, 2009.

Ernests Gulbis (IPA: [ˈærnəsts ˈgulbis], born August 30, 1988) is a Latvian professional tennis player. As of May 19th, 2009, he is ranked 41st in the world in men's singles. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title in Houston, teaming with Rainer Schuettler. His career highlights also include a quarterfinal appearance at the 2008 French Open, where he lost a tight match to Novak Djokovic, and a 4th round appearance at the 2007 US Open, upsetting two seeds along the way.

Gulbis is currently coached by Karl Heinz Wetter. He was formerly coached by Nikola Pilić, the former professional Croatian tennis player and Croatian and German Davis Cup captain, and began training at the Niki Pilic Tennis Academy in Germany at the age of 12.

Personal life

Gulbis comes from a very wealthy family. He first started playing tennis with his grandmother and considers basketball, football and hockey as his favorite sports. His father, Ainārs, is an investment businessman while his mother, Milēna, a theater actress. The second of five children, Gulbis has three sisters (Elīna, Laura and Monika) and a younger brother named Kristaps. Gulbis comes from a sporting family and his grandfather, Alvils, was one of the starting five players on ASK Rīga, the Soviet Union basketball team that won the European Championships. His other grandfather, Uldis Pūcītis, was a popular actor and film director.

Gulbis can speak Latvian, Russian, English and a little German.

Tennis career

The highlights of his career up to 2006 include reaching the final of the Oberstaufen Challenger in July 2006, where he lost to Michal Tabara; reaching the final of the Tampere Challenger, also in July 2006, where he lost to Florian Mayer; reaching the semi-finals of ATP St. Petersburg Open as a wildcard in October, where he lost to Mario Ančić; and winning the Eckental Challenger in November, where he defeated Philipp Petzschner. In the 2008 US Open second round, Gulbis played a grueling 4 setter against Andy Roddick, yet lost. Later when interviewed, it was discovered that both he and his American opponent shared a birthday the moment the match rolled past midnight and into the early hours of the next day, August 30.

2007

Gulbis started his season as a qualifier in the Sydney Medibank International, losing in the first round to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. He was subsequently defeated in the first qualifying round of the Australian Open.

Gulbis was relatively successful on the Challenger circuit in 2007. He reached the quarterfinals in Bergamo (l. to Fabrice Santoro) and the semifinals in Heilbronn (l. to Michaël Llodra). Gulbis won his second Challenger title by triumphing over the local favorite, Édouard Roger-Vasselin, at the Besançon Challenger in France, enabling him to break into the ATP Top 100 for the first time in his career. In his next tournament, the Sarajevo Challenger, Gulbis emerged victorious in both the singles and doubles events.

In the first week of October, he won the Mons Challenger in Belgium (d. Kristof Vliegen) as the top seed, breaking into the ATP Top 50 for the first time in his career and surpassing Juan Martín del Potro as the highest-ranked player born in 1988. This win also meant a fourth, consecutive title, which drew some attention to him by tennis pundits.

Grand Slam debut

Gulbis defeated Potito Starace at the 2007 U.S. Open.

Gulbis announced his arrival on the Grand Slam stage in the 2007 French Open by defeating the British veteran, Tim Henman in straight sets to advance to the second round. It was heralded by the British Davis Cup captain, John Lloyd, as "... a brilliant performance from Gulbis, that is just pure and utter talent." Gulbis' run was halted in the second round by Spaniard Álbert Montañés, with a 1–6, 2–6, 6–1, 6–7(3) defeat, in a rain-interrupted match.

At Wimbledon, his second Grand Slam participation, Gulbis again was drawn to face Marcos Baghdatis in the first round. He succeeded in winning the first set off the tenth-seeded Cypriot before succumbing in four sets. Gulbis debuted in Grand Slam doubles by teaming up with Ivan Ljubičić, with whom he had reached the semi-finals of the 2007 Ordina Open.

At the 2007 U.S. Open, Gulbis upset the No. 30 seed, Potito Starace, in the first round and the No. 8 seed, Tommy Robredo, in the third round, winning by a convincing score of 6–1, 6–3, 6–2. In that match, Gulbis broke Robredo six times and had 39 winners to Robredo's seven. Gulbis' fine run was finally halted by former world Number 1, Carlos Moyà, to whom he lost in four sets.

2008

Gulbis serving to David Nalbandian at the 2008 Pacific Life Open.

At the first round of the 2008 Australian Open, Gulbis lost to Marat Safin 0–6, 4–6, 6–7. He reached the second round of the 2008 Pacific Life Open, where he lost a tight match to former Grand Slam finalist David Nalbandian with the score of 6–4, 4–6, 7–6⁴. At one point he was up a break in the third set, having served out the previous game with 4 aces, but he eventually lost the match in the tiebreak. In the first round of the 2008 Miami Masters, he defeated Dominik Hrbatý, but in the second round met Nikolay Davydenko. After winning the first set 6-3, he lost the following two sets in tiebreaks.

His biggest result to date occurred when he reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 French Open. Through the tournament he beat Simon Greul, seventh seed James Blake, Nicolas Lapentti and home-favourite Michaël Llodra. In the quarterfinals he lost to the third seed Novak Djokovic in a tight match with the score line 5-7, 6³-7, 5-7.

In his next tournament, he reached the third round of the 2008 Queen's Club Championships, beating Kristof Vliegen and 12th seed Andreas Seppi. He lost to 6th seed Andy Murray with 7-5, 1-6, 4-6.

In the first round at Wimbledon, Gulbis defeated 6'10" American John Isner, but he lost in the 2nd round to the 2nd seed and eventual champion Rafael Nadal with a score line of 5-7, 6-2, 7-6², 6-3. Other than Roger Federer, he was the only player to take a set off the eventual champion. In a post match interview, Nadal noted how difficult the return game against Gulbis' serve was, and that he felt Ernests was going to run away with the match if it wasn't for a rain delay that transpired.

Gulbis defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Arnaud Clément, and James Blake at the 2008 Cincinnati Masters but lost in the quarterfinal to #3 seed Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4.

At the US Open, Gulbis defeated Thomas Johansson in the first round before losing to Andy Roddick in the second, (3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5). It was his and Andy's birthday.

2009

Gulbis began the year strongly by defeating former training partner Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Brisbane International tournament before falling in the second round to Paul-Henri Mathieu 3-6, 4-6. He lost in the second round of 2009 Australian Open to Igor Andreev in 5 sets after beating Albert Montañés in the first round in straight sets.

Gulbis was seeded 3rd heading into the 2009 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, but was defeated in the 1st round by former World No. 8 Marcos Baghdatis.

Davis Cup

Gulbis has played in three Davis Cup ties for Latvia this year, winning all seven of the rubbers in which he participated (4 singles; 3 doubles with Deniss Pavlovs). His participation in the tie against Monaco in September helped Latvia to qualify for the Europe/Africa Zone Group I tier of Davis Cup for the first time in its history.

Playing style

Gulbis primarily employs an offensive baseline playing style, although is fairly comfortable playing from all court positions. Gulbis' most consistent shot is his forehand, which has been likened to that of American James Blake's for its rapid pace and relatively flat execution; his forehand is taken with a medium swing and with high levels of wrist action, which attributes to the explosive nature of the shot. His arsenal of forehand shots is nearly complete, and thus can be extremely disruptive and turn a defensive position into an offensive one. His running forehand has a slice action, but consistently lands extremely deep in the court, allowing for adequate recoil time to regain court position. Gulbis also has a particularly excellent array of finesse shots, including the high lob and drop shot, both of which he can strike from any position, including from deep in the court. His drop shot in particular has been noted as one of his more effective shots, as the power and depth of his groundstrokes push his opponents far behind the baseline, which makes the drop shot more effective. Gulbis' primary weakness is his consistency, which has been known to break down during tough situations. Gulbis' foot speed is only moderate, although his return of serve is varied and dangerous, particularly on second serves and, due to his height, kick serves. In his televised matches in 2007 and early 2008 his serve would have been described as moderate, but has recently vastly improved in speed and variety, having served out several games with no returns against the incredible returners David Nalbandian and Rafael Nadal.

Despite having prodigious talent for his age, Gulbis can be prone to nervousness when down in a set or match, which can cause tight matches to be more mentally straining on him. Similarly to Marat Safin, Gulbis' playing style is extremely tactical and aggressive, and relies more on making winners than drawing errors, which can sometimes lead to a very high unforced error count. Gulbis excels on all surfaces. Despite playing a style more attuned to fast surfaces, his strong showing at the French Open is attributed to his powerful and flat strokes which can play through clay.

ATP Tour titles

Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	April 14, 2008	Houston, United States	Clay	Rainer Schüttler	Pablo Cuevas & Marcel Granollers Pujol	7–5, 7–6(3)

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through 2009 Madrid Masters.

Tournament	2006	2007	2008	2009	Career W-L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	LQ	1R	2R	1-2
French Open	A	2R	QF		5-2
Wimbledon	A	1R	2R		1-2
U.S. Open	LQ	4R	2R		4-2
Grand Slam W-L	0 – 0	4-3	6-4	1–1	11-8
Year-End Championship
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A	A		0 – 0
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	2R	2R	2-2
Miami Masters	A	A	2R	1R	1-2
Monte Carlo Masters	A	A	A	1R	0-1
Rome Masters	A	A	A	2R	1-1
Madrid Masters	A	A	2R	1R	1-2
Canada Masters	A	1R	1R		0-2
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	QF		3-1
Shanghai Masters	NMS				0-0
Paris Masters	A	A	A		0-0
Hamburg Masters	A	A	A	NM1	0-0
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	NH		1R	NH	0–1
Career Statistics
Tournaments Played	1	14	21	7	43
Titles	0	0	0	0	0
Runner-ups	0	0	0	0	0
Overall W-L	3-1	10-14	19-17	5-8	44-49
Year End Ranking	141	61	53	N/A	N/A

Challengers and futures titles (10)

Singles (7)

Legend (Singles)

Challengers (4)

Futures (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	September 12, 2005	Friedberg, Germany	Clay	Marcel Zimmermann	6-4, 6-0
2.	January 16, 2006	Bergheim, Austria	Clay	Jean-Claude Scherrer	7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4
3.	March 6, 2006	Leuggern, Switzerland	Carpet	Tobias Klein	7-6(4), 6-4
4.	November 6, 2006	Eckental, Germany	Carpet	Philipp Petzschner	6–3, 6–0
5.	February 19, 2007	Besancon, France	Hard (i)	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	6–4, 3–6, 6–4
6.	March 12, 2007	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Hard (i)	Jan Mertl	4–6, 6–4, 7–6(2)
7.	October 7, 2007	Mons, Belgium	Hard (i)	Kristof Vliegen	7–5, 6–3

Doubles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	July 10, 2006	Oberstaufen, Germany	Clay	Mischa Zverev	Dacian Craciun & Gabriel Moraru	6–1, 6–1
2.	October 30, 2006	Aachen, Germany	Carpet	Mischa Zverev	Tomasz Bednarek & Irakli Labadze	6–7, 6–4, [10–8]
3.	March 12, 2007	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Hard (i)	Deniss Pavlovs	Jan Mertl & Lukas Rosol	6–4, 6–3

External links

• Ernests Gulbis at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Ernests Gulbis at the Davis Cup

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