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All About Ernests - Interviews and Articles

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#1 ·
#2 ·
GULBIS'MOM TOLD HIM TO QUIT TENNIS ONE MONTH AGO.

Sport Illustrated.


Ernests Gulbis only losses since the ATP Challenger in Bergamo have come against players in the Top 10

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. —

Ernests Gulbis scored his first Top 10 win since Wimbledon on Saturday, dismissing No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-0 win in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open and extended his current win streak to 12 matches. Gulbis has turned his spiraling career around over the last two weeks after winning eight matches as a qualifier in Delray Beach to win the title and, again as a qualifier, already winning four matches in Indian Wells to make the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time since 2011.


And to think, his mom wanted him to quit the sport last month.

Gulbis began the 2013 season ranked outside of the Top 100 and chose to skip the Australian Open swing to stay in Europe to train. That decision didn’t pay off immediately though, and after losing in the first round of an ATP Challenger in Bergamo, Italy in February, Gulbis said his mother told him to quit. “I told her, ‘Give me one more month,” he said laughing. ”So now at least she’s happy.”

Quotes: Life according to Ernests Gulbis

Since Bergamo, Gulbis hasn’t lost to anyone ranked outside of the Top 10 and suffered only two losses, to Juan Martin Del Potro (Rotterdam) and Tomas Berdych (Marseille). Delray Beach was his first title since 2011 and vaulted him back into the Top 100 at No. 67. Consistency has eluded the talented 24-year old throughout his career but he hopes things will be different this time.

“It’s been really like a third chance now, fourth,” he joked when asked about whether this was his second chance at the promising career he’s capable of. “I hope it’s my last one. I hope that this is the one where I make it.”

“I want to play like I played when I was 15, 16, 17 years old when I just came on tour. I played relaxed, aggressive tennis. I didn’t think much. I just went for it. I didn’t think how short or how big [my swing] is going. Just [the] ball came, I hit it. Then suddenly I started to think, you know, ball comes, what to do, and then how many steps and this and that. Then your just brain goes out of order.”

“So story of my life, you know. I reach something, and then I destroy it. So now I’m going to reach something and I’m going to keep reaching something new, I hope.”

Next up for Gulbis is 20th-seed Andreas Seppi. Win that match and he could take on Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.

http://tennis.si.com/2013/03/10/gulbis-mom-told-him-to-quit-tennis-in-february/
 
#4 ·
Thanks. Funny, honest and smart as per usual

Love this part, too.
Q. You and Del Potro and Cilic were all born within 30 days of each other. Do you think about them? Do you compare yourself to them?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't think about them at all.

Q. No?
ERNESTS GULBIS: (Shakes head.) Nothing. (Laughter.)
Q.Do you know them?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I saw them couple of times. (Laughter.)
 
#8 · (Edited)
#9 ·
Transcript of monday march 11

ERNESTS GULBIS PRESS CONFERENCE
Indian Wells, USA
11.03.2013


E. GULBIS/A. Seppi
5-7, 6-3, 6-4

An interview with:

ERNESTS GULBIS

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Well, 13 now; on a streak. Was that one of the toughest of that 13 today?

ERNESTS GULBIS: No. There were some tough ones. If you remember against Sam Querrey, Love 4 down in the third set. Really believed I could win. Then against Tommy Haas 7 6 in the third.
So, yeah, this one was tough. This one I should win easier. This one I should I played better. I played better than him the first set. I played better than him the whole match, I think, so...
It's just that the first [] match just mentally I destroyed myself, and that's what happened.

Q. Do you think this is the kind of match you would have lost, you know, in previous parts of your career?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Who knows? Who knows? I just told to myself to keep focused in the second set. That's what I tried to do.

Q. So you've played Nadal four times. Most of them have been close, but you haven't been able to get over the hump. Can you just talk about what would make the difference to get you the win this time?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I think the way I play right now, that should make a difference. I believe that I can win. Yeah, I said it already. It doesn't, okay, it matters if I win or not, but I want to play as much as matches as possible against these top guys.

Sooner or later I'm going to win something, you know, it's gonna give me extra confidence, and then just to keep it there, you know. I need to win the guys who are ranked 20 to, I don't know, to 100 easier than I did let's say today, and then I need to have enough shots against the big guys.

Q. We all know what his titles are and how great he is. Can you describe facing him, what his ball feels like and how he moves?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Should I describe?

Q. Yes. Can you? Can you describe what it's like to play Nadal?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I like to play against him because his ball and his heavy spin, it's good for my timing. I don't like when the opponents hit flat, deep balls. I like the opponents hit spin, high balls. It's easier for me to control them.
So honestly I like to play against him. I just wasn't able to keep let's say I had close matches. I had three sets twice, and just in the third set lack of experience, lack of fitness, lack of everything, you know, and then he just broke me down.
You know, when I play him now I know how he plays. And of course he's a great player, but I believe honestly I believe that if I play my best game I can beat him.

Q. Do you think you're going into this match with Nadal more confident than you've ever been in the times you have faced him before?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Of course. When was the last time I won 13 matches in a row? (Smiling.)

Q. Do you think the day off has helped him or hurt him?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Ask him.

Q. Can you just talk about how hard it is to hit a winner against him?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Asking me a lot of questions about him.

Q. Well, it's a big match. When you're hitting a ball against him, I would think it's not like playing a normal guy trying to hit a winner, no?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I'm telling you, if I'm going to hit a winner it's gonna be a winner. Doesn't matter if it's gonna be Nadal or whoever. I'm going to go for my shots, and I want to see that of course it's maybe is going to take me more than one shot. Maybe it's going to take me two shots. But I'm going to be ready for it.
One shot one corner, one shot other corner. I want to see him get it.

Q. You have had a lot of success on a bunch of different surfaces. Do you feel any one of them is harder on your body than another?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Hard court, for sure, is the hardest one, because of because it's hard court it's like running on, I don't know, asphalt where the cars go. It's really hard for your knees.
But I feel good, you know. I'm not really tired. I feel nothing is really in pain. I'm surprised. I'm surprised that my body reacts really well to a lot of matches.

Q. Have you had injury problems before when you had a lot of matches?

ERNESTS GULBIS: When I had a lot of matches. (Smiling.)

Q. Have you woken up any time in the last couple of days and said to yourself, I can't believe I'm winning this many matches in a row?

ERNESTS GULBIS: No, no, I am pretty realistic guy. I wake up and I have a good sense of reality.

Q. And that reality is what?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Reality is that I won 13 matches in a row and that I'm playing Nadal.

Q. Do you think you were fortunate to win the match against Tommy Haas in Delray Beach?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Haas?

Q. Yes.

ERNESTS GULBIS: What about Sam Querrey, the match before, Love 4 down?
Yeah, it was even more fortunate.

Q. Why do you think you pulled off those two?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Because I'm mentally really, really strong. (Smiling.)

Q. What was your earthquake experience like?

ERNESTS GULBIS: My what?

Q. Earthquake, the earthquake this morning.

ERNESTS GULBIS: I didn't feel it.

Q. You didn't feel it?

ERNESTS GULBIS: No. You haven't been I think to the real earthquake. This was nothing.

Q. Where were you when it happened?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I wasn't, but my father once told me he was in Siberia hunting, and he said that there was a joke. He was sitting in one small sauna, you know, Russian small sauna where you have to sit like this(indicating crouching), and the earthquake hit and the whole sauna just collapsed.
He was able to kick the door out, go out in the middle of nowhere in Siberia. That was a tough one, he said.

Q. Where were you this morning?

ERNESTS GULBIS: I was on court. I didn't feel it. My coach felt it. I just, I was moving. I didn't feel it.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports
 
#13 · (Edited)
I haven't see the Seppi match through tennis channel, but Mark Knowles interviewed him and also called the Seppi match.
We have his taughts through this article.
I didn't realize that: "He has notched four top 25 wins, three top 20 wins, and a top 10 win in his current streak."

GULBIS WINS LUCKY 13, PACES RAFA NEXT
bY Chris Oddo
Tennisnow.


http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Gulbis-Wins-Lucky-13,-Faces-Rafa-Next.aspx
 
#15 ·
Nadal outlasts Gulbis late in third set at Indian Wells


THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2013 /BY AP

Gulbis was on a 13-match winning streak, having made his way through the qualifying rounds at Delray Beach, Fla., where he won the title, and at Indian Wells, where he won three main-draw matches, including two over seeded players.

He was playing his 14th match in 19 days, and has yet to beat Nadal in five tries.

"I think that I played better tennis. I was more aggressive," Gulbis said. "I went for my shots much more than he. But he did really incredibly well, as he always does, on important points."
 
#16 ·
Ernests Gulbis on fake congrats from peers, chances of Sony Open wild card

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Rafael Nadal put an end to Ernests Gulbis’ 13-match win streak Wednesday, defeating the Latvian qualifier 4-6, 7-6. 7-5 in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. Since losing in an ATP Challenger in Bergamo, Italy, at the beginning of February, Gulbis has only lost three times, each to a top-10 player (Tomas Berdych, Juan Martin del Potro and now Nadal). Asked whether he felt players feared his top-10 form, Gulbis laughed.

“Who’s gonna [say], ‘Hey, Ernests, I’m scared of you?’” he said. ”No, I try to not pay attention to it. It’s tough to have good, nice relationships on the tour. Unfortunately, everybody is a little bit — they congratulate you but with a look in their eye that they don’t mean it.

“If I congratulate somebody, I mean it. Usually I don’t congratulate people. Honestly. Because if I don’t mean it why open my mouth? I say what I mean, and when I get not that in return, then I’m just — I do my stuff here, I eat, and then I spend as much time as possible outside of the facilities always, in every tournament.”

With his fourth-round performance at Indian Wells, Gulbis will rise to No. 55 on Monday. The tough news for him is that he may still be stuck in the qualifying tournament at the Sony Open next week in Miami. Though one main-draw wild card is still open, Gulbis isn’t confident he’ll get it.

“I can ask, but I don’t think somebody’s going to give a Latvian guy a wild card, let’s be honest,” Gulbis said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter how good he plays.”
 
#18 ·
I just love how real he is, no bs. And that's also really good to hear, tennis would never be the same without him. <3
 
#22 ·
"so you're gonna see me around a couple years"
best part of interview ;)
It's nice to read how well you react about his interview and other stuff about him without negative comments...I feel like I'm his lawyer in Serbia :D when some site published an article about him, his interview etc people always leave negative comments, don't say that they are all bad, but there's plenty...how he could say that he can beat Nadal,he is prepotent,arrogant,13 match in a row it's not big deal he beat average players etc.. and I always try to defend him.
I think that honesty is not appreciated :rolleyes:
I think for people in Serbia are only Novak, Janko and Viktor (when they play good) Nadal and Federer.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Recap OF IW by tennistrandstand:

ERNESTS GULBIS STORMS BACK
Maude Watson

ONE TO WATCH ERNESTS GULBIS

Okay, Ernests Gulbis has been “one to watch” on more than one occasion throughout his career, but after a thirteen match win-streak and a near upset of Nadal in the Round of 16 in Indian Wells, maybe this time, the label will stick.
The Latvian may lack the looks and some of the charm of Marat Safin, but he’s definitely the closest thing tennis currently has to the charismatic Russian. He’s unabashedly confident and honest, from declaring he didn’t fear Nadal and had the goods to beat the Spaniard, to his calling out his peers for what he perceives to be fake congratulations.
Love him or hate him, he calls it like he sees it. He’s also always had the talent to pull off a plethora of shots to flummox his opponents and thrill the crowds, but the consistency has been lacking. After winning a title in Delray Beach and nearly booking a quarterfinal berth in Indian Wells, however, things could be turning around.
At 24, Gulbis is starting to mature. He’s starting to make strides at controlling his temper and keeping the bad patches of play short and to a minimum over the course of a match. We’ll have to wait and see how he fares in the coming weeks, but if this guy has truly put it together, the rest of the field better be on alert.

http://www.tennisgrandstand.com/2013/03/15/ernests-gulbis-storms-back-grunting-still-an-issue-the-friday-five/
 
#25 ·
(He is one of the 5 heros chosen in this article. Not bad)

HEROES AND ZEROS OF INDIAN WELLS.
Tennisnow.
Chris Oddo.

Hero: Ernests Gulbis

Ernests Gulbis smashed racquets and waxed poetic like he always does at Indian Wells, providing highlights and quotes that us blogger-types love.

But he also played some transcendent tennis to reach the round of 16 from qualifying (he defeated Janko Tipsarevic and Andreas Seppi), and some gritty, gutty tennis against Nadal to nearly pull what would have been a massive upset, especially considering how well Nadal had to play to beat him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0B9r6u32Ork

http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Heroes-and-Zeros-of-IW-Bryans-Break-the-Curse,-Raf.aspx
 
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