Ernests Gulbis



Birthdate: 30-Aug-88
Birthplace: Riga, Latvia
Residence: Jurmala, Latvia
Height: 6'3'' (190 cm)
Weight: 169 lbs (76 kg)
Plays: Right-handed
Turned Pro: 2004
Coach: Niki Pilic

Gulbis, le Letton tranquille



LE MONDE | 02.06.08 | 14h57 • Mis à jour le 02.06.08 | 14h57

Avec ses petits crans naturels à la limite du poil de carotte et sa bonne bouille à peine débarrassée des rondeurs de l'enfance, on donnerait le Bon Dieu sans confession à Ernests Gulbis. Les travées de Roland-Garros l'ont gentiment affublé du sobriquet de "Gloubi-Boulga", la recette préférée de Casimir, l'inoffensif dinosaure à peau orange de "L'île aux enfants", émission télévisée des années 1970. Mais le Letton, âgé de 19 ans, commence à faire figure d'épouvantail.

Après l'Allemand Simon Greul issu des qualifications, l'Américain James Blake, tête de série no 7, et l'Equatorien Nicolas Lapentti, il a éjecté le Français Michael Llodra (6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-3) en huitièmes de finale, dimanche 1er juin. Et ceux qui pensaient tenir avec ce joueur, méconnu mais si puissant sur le court, les ingrédients d'une "success story" larmoyante en sont pour leurs frais.

Son accession en quart de finale - la première de sa jeune carrière dans un tournoi du Grand Chelem - le propulse du 80e rang mondial au top 60, et Ernests Gulbis continue d'afficher l'assurance tranquille du garçon de bonne famille dans lequel ladite famille a toujours cru. "Je ne suis pas calme ni mature, jure-t-il dans un grand rire d'adolescent. Je ne veux simplement pas sauter de joie. A la fin de chaque match, je suis juste heureux que ce soit fini, c'est comme être soulagé d'un grand poids."

Pour les gènes sportifs, Ernests Gulbis revendique un grand-père membre de l'ancienne équipe nationale soviétique de basket et nanti d'un titre de champion d'Europe, et une grand-mère qui l'initia au tennis dès l'âge de 5 ans. Sa mère, Milena, est comédienne, avec une préférence marquée pour les planches. Son père, Ainars, pudiquement étiqueté "investisseur" dans sa biographie, est riche. Il l'accompagne "le plus souvent possible". Alors, Ernests Gulbis suppose que "oui", pour un jeune Letton désargenté, "il est malheureusement difficile de réussir" dans le tennis.

Dans la fratrie Gulbis, on allie en revanche rigueur et bohème avec un égal bonheur. Elina, l'aînée d'Ernests, étudie le droit en Angleterre, le frère cadet, Kristops, se passionne pour les maquettes de voitures et d'avions. Les benjamines, Laura et Monika, jouent aussi au tennis. Ernests, qui a réussi son bac en 2007, aurait volontiers rejoint les bancs d'une université lettone, mais sans savoir vraiment "quoi faire, ni où". Comme il ne passe guère plus d'un mois par an dans son pays, il a bien demandé à son papa de se renseigner pour lui sur un système de cours par e-mails. La question n'est pas tranchée, et son parcours à Roland-Garros risque de la laisser définitivement en suspens.

Gulbis n'avait que 12 ans lorsqu'il est entré à l'Académie de Niki Pilic à Munich. Son tennis a redonné pendant quelques années le goût du voyage à l'ancienne star croate, finaliste à Roland-Garros en 1973 et aujourd'hui âgé de 69 ans. "Quand je suis arrivé chez lui, Niki ne voulait plus coacher personne en particulier, raconte Gulbis. Mais quand j'ai eu 15-16 ans, il a proposé de m'accompagner parce qu'il voyait que je pouvais bien jouer. On est partis sur les tournois Futures (3e division) jusqu'à mon 8e de finale à l'US Open l'an dernier, mais il veut rester à la maison maintenant."

A la fin de la saison dernière, le zig de 1,91 m pour 76 petits kilos s'est donc mis en quête d'un préparateur physique. Le "grand frère" russe Mikhail Youzhny - dont il parle couramment la langue - et Boris Sobkin, son coach de toujours, ont suggéré Karl Heinz Wetter : un Autrichien, également entraîneur de tennis, lui a appris à tirer meilleur parti de sa longue carcasse et lui a enseigné les ficelles de la terre battue.

Jouer sur cette surface n'était pas sa tasse de thé. "Je ne m'y montrais pas très intelligent, admet Gulbis. Je n'avais pas compris qu'il ne faut pas y tenter des points gagnants à tort et à travers, et je croyais mon jeu plus adapté aux surfaces rapides. Mais l'amélioration de ma condition physique cette année m'a rendu confiant pour les échanges plus longs. Du coup, j'ai progressé un peu partout." Il a crânement séché les tournois préparatoires d'Hambourg et de Rome pour la terre ocre. Son classement lui imposant de passer par les qualifications, il a préféré s'entraîner dur avec son coach du côté de Vienne.

En quart de finale, il devait retrouver, mardi 3 juin, un ancien condisciple de l'académie Pilic : le Serbe Novak Djokovic, numéro 3 mondial. Son état d'esprit avant cette rencontre ? "Je me sens bien", éclate-t-il de rire.

lemonde.fr
http://www.lemonde.fr/roland-garros/article/2008/06/02/gulbis-le-letton-tranquille_1052677_3458.html

Queen's: Gulbis sur sa lancée

09/06/2008 - 18:25

Révélation du tournoi de Roland-Garros où il avait atteint les quarts de finale avant de se heurter à Novak Djokovic, le jeune Estonien Ernests Gulbis a réussi à passer le premier tour du tournoi du Queen's en battant le Belge Kristof Vliegen sur le score de 6-4, 7-5. Il rencontrera au prochain tour le vainqueur du match entre Arnaud Clément et l'Italien Andreas Seppi.

www.sports.fr

An interview with Ernests Gulbis

E. Gulbis - 24 June
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Ernests Gulbis def. John Isner, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 7-6

Q. I understand that you are going to meet Nadal next, right?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes.

Q. Can you beat him?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Of course I can. I don't want to go with an attitude of a loser on the court. I want to go with attitude of a winner.

Q. I mean, do you have the instrument? Do you know how to beat him? Let me put it this way.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Not yet, but I'm going to talk with my coach now, so maybe he has the answer.

Q. He will tell you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: He will tell me. I mean, he's pretty tough opponent, but we'll see after tomorrow.

Q. Yesterday I spoke to the coach of the Russian Davis Cup team, and he said that Gulbis will be the biggest problem for Nadal.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Well, I'm happy that he says that. We'll see in two days. I don't know.

Q. Is it frustrating to play a guy with that kind of serve?
ERNESTS GULBIS: It's not frustrating, it's just really tough because you have to concentrate double on your own serve. I knew if I'm going to be just concentrated I didn't need to play my best service games to win the serve. I just needed to be focused. That's what I need to do.

He's serving, it's a little bit like a lottery. He's serving, he can serve three, four aces a game, there's not much you can do about it. But when it was the smallest chance for me, I tried to take those chances. I did it first two sets when it was 5 All both times. He got a little bit nervous, I took advantage of it. It was good.

Third set tiebreak is always a tiebreak. I mean, it was third set, I won all of my service games real easy, and he was struggling a little bit. He had some juice. I don't know if I had breakpoints or not, but I think I wanted that much more points than him, but I lost the set. That's how it is sometimes against big servers like him.

Q. How do you feel about your game on grass?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I feel pretty good because last year I didn't win a match on grass. That was my first year on grass. But I still liked it.

And this year, today was a different match because it was not so many rallies and it was just basically serve, return was the most important things.

But in practices, my game overall, I feel the ball pretty well, I like grass courts, and I think I can play good on it.

Q. Sorry if this was asked before, but how do you feel going into the match against Nadal?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I feel you know, I don't want to go into a match like a loser, you know? I want to go to be the same because many players, when they see that they play Federer or Nadal or even Djokovic now, they go on the court, they fight a little bit, but then in the end, if it's getting close, I don't know, sometimes they just don't believe in themselves that they can win. So I'm going to try to be there and to play as best I can, and we'll see how it goes.

Site Officiel
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/interviews/2008-06-24/200806241214325115000.html

An interview with Ernests Gulbis

E. Gulbis Interview - 26 June
Thursday, 26 June 2008
R. NADAL defeated E. Gulbis 5-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-3

Q. When you go off on one of these streaks like you started today where you're like playing on another planet someplace, do you ever get the feeling that it can't last forever, that at some point I can't keep playing this well?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I started the match really well, as you could see, first set. I was serving really well; that was the key to the first set. I saw the statistics; I served more than 70 percent first serve, so that's what I didn't do for a long time.

Yeah, I knew that it can't last the whole match that I'm going to serve over 70 percent my first serve. But you know, Nadal is such a player that he also adjusts a lot. He started to return better, he started to guess more where I'm going to serve. That was the key point. And from baseline, he's, I think, the best player from baseline.

But still, I think I just lost a little bit of concentration in the second set, and that was the moment, if I would take maybe the break when I had Love‑30 the second game, maybe it would be different. But overall, yeah, I played the whole match pretty good, I think.

Q. Your vibration dampener, the yin‑yang, what's the story behind that?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Nothing, just ‑‑

Q. Is it your personality maybe?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No, I don't think so. It's just my coach had this vibrator and I'm using it. I like it. It's my lucky one. But not a big story behind it.

Q. There are two parts to Ernest Gulbis, tremendous power and great hands, great touch, and you showed it today with all the drop shots you hit.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, you know, power, I need it to play like this. I couldn't go every time long rallies with Rafael; otherwise I would be really tired by the third set already. So I was trying to shorten it up a little bit. So that's why I played aggressive. I mean, yeah, that's the way I play. I don't know how to explain.

Q. Why did you lose your concentration in the second set?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Not that I lost my concentration a lot. I was thinking that now it's important to take the second set, in the beginning to be concentrated and focused.

But he changed a little bit his game. I don't know if you could see it from the side, but I had a feeling a little bit. He started to return better, and I didn't serve so well in the beginning. So that was the part which decided it. Because if I would take second set, two sets love, anything could happen. But he took second set pretty easy, and third set he was in a better place to be.

Q. On your second serves, he began to back up like he was playing clay court tennis a little bit, just get the second serve back in play. Was that the tactical change you think he made that helped him out?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I didn't realize it, actually. It's good that you tell me. But I think that what I could do better was to go in more, to go volley more. That was the part which I didn't do good today, the only part, because from baseline I was feeling the ball really well. Returning, also, okay, as much as he let me to return.

But the part was maybe I should to serve and volley sometimes more against him, especially on important points, because he was just pushing it back. He was just slicing long if I would go volley.

But that's the part of my game which I still need to work on a lot because to be honest, I don't feel very confident in my volley. I feel much better than I did half a year ago. But still, it's a lot of room to improve, especially in volleys. So I think if I'm going to put that thing into my game, I think I will be more dangerous player.

Q. What did Nicky say to you after this match?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I haven't met him yet. I went to go shower and now here.

Q. You haven't seen him yet?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No.

Q. Many players don't bother practicing drop shots. They just think, well, you just touch the ball. Do you practice drop shots?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No, not at all.

Q. They're just natural for you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: They're just natural. It's the ball feeling, which you have. It hasn't always worked for me. You know, I had matches where I played terrible drop shots, and I stopped after half a set.

But on grass court it's much tougher than on clay court to play drop shots. In Paris I played a lot more drop shots. Here, not so much. But against Nadal, it's tough to make some of those drop shots.

Q. You not only hit the shots well, but after you hit the drop shots you positioned yourself well assuming he would get to the ball.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Actually I don't think so, because I think I positioned myself pretty bad after drop shots.

Q. Really?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I think so, because ‑‑

Q. Because you won about eight drop shot points today.
ERNESTS GULBIS: But that's also part of my game which I should be better in to my point of view, because I usually think I play the drop shot and that's it, that I won a point. But not always it's like this.

Okay, today it was a few lucky points actually when I made the drop shots, when he played right on me or something. I don't really remember so well.

Q. One off the net, too.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah.

Q. You played Djokovic at Roland Garros and you played today in Wimbledon. Which was the more difficult?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Today was much more difficult. Okay, I lost to Djokovic three sets, now in four sets, but I think I played better today than I did against Djokovic. The conditions were better today for my game than they were then because it was wet and slow.

But I think that Nadal is a tougher opponent for me to play, because he's hitting with so much spin and with ‑‑ when I warmed up with him, because it was the first time in my life I played against him, I was surprised because he's hitting really strong and a lot of spin. I thought that I'm in trouble.

But I could adjust my game, because when I played Novak, I was more or less in control of the points. You know, I did a lot more unforced errors, but I could do a lot more from his game because he's not putting so much pressure on me with his game. Nadal is putting a lot of pressure to anybody, so that's why he's No. 2 and he has a good chance to be even higher.

Q. But today you weren't very far from him, so that's a good sign?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, that's why I'm happy, because it was ‑‑ it's really a great experience for me. I'm really happy that I could play more or less in the same level. On important points he was better than me, but I'm really happy that I saw that I can compete with the top players. So that's for me the most important thing right now, to be confident.

Q. And it was a bad draw for you, playing Nadal in the second round?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't think it was a bad drew. I'm happy I played him in the second round. Why not? I'm really happy to get any kind of experience that I can get from these matches. I would be happy to play Roger in my first, second round. It's not a time that I'm disappointed I played against him. I'm really happy about it.

Q. We all think that the tiebreaker in the third was the turning point of the match. We all think. I don't know if you agree, because after the tiebreaker almost everybody thought that the match was falling on Nadal's side. If you were to single out some point or crack some point, the main point of Nadal's game, what point or what skill can you point to?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Sorry, I didn't understand. Wich is his weakest spot?

Q. No, stronger, or main spot maybe.
ERNESTS GULBIS: The way I played today, I wasn't ‑‑ I didn't try to play too much in his backhand because everybody when they play against him, they try to play more on his backhand, but that's not really ‑‑ I think that's not really the right way to play him, because when you're hitting backhand he doesn't miss and he goes around with his forehand, and then he kills you.

I tried to play more on his forehand side, to get him out of the backhand corner, so that was more or less my tactic today. That's basically it.

Q. But if you were to ‑‑ what's the main thing in Nadal's game that appeals to you or that kills you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: The way he's playing. You know, you can see the way he's playing. I don't know which is his weak spot, actually, like a big one. Maybe it's volleys, but he's not going so much volleys. I think that he didn't serve so well today, actually, because he missed a lot more first serves than ‑‑ I was pretty surprised.

But of course when he's in the rally with you and then he's playing really good behind your body. When he hits on my forehand, I hit forehand, and then I run to middle and then he hits again in the same corner, so you are ‑‑ that's, I think, his best thing that he does.

Q. Did you think that if the tiebreaker would have fallen into your hand then the match could have been yours?
ERNESTS GULBIS: If I would win tiebreaker it would have been different fourth set. But it's always difficult to say which point was the deciding one in the match.

Of course it was ‑‑ I think also important point was second set when I had 1‑0 up, the beginning of the set, Love‑30. If I would take that game 2‑0, you know, my serve, I could make 3‑0, for example, it would be a different game. It's a difference of one game, you know?

Okay, second set was a little bit bad for me, but third set was close. And on tiebreaker he just showed that he can play important points the way he can play them, without mistakes, and that's it.

Q. Who is the most popular sportsman in the history of your country? You don't know?
ERNESTS GULBIS: To be honest, people are really happy for any sport which is good because we don't have so many top athletes to choose from. I know, for example, in Austrian tennis, they have three guys who are top hundred, and the people, they are not really popular. Because for example, they a player who was No. 1, and now they have three guys who are really good, and they are not so popular.

In Latvia it's different because they really appreciate when somebody makes it to the top level in sports. I don't know who is more popular.

Q. Maybe you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Maybe me, but I don't know if I am most popular. Of course tennis gets more popular in Latvia; that's for sure. But to be most popular, it's not what I can say.

Q. But before you in the history, say 10, 15 years ago, was there ever one famous Latvian athlete, very, very famous in any sport?
ERNESTS GULBIS: You mean ‑‑

Q. Basketball player, soccer player from Latvia ten years ago, five years ago?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I can't say just one. Every time in Latvia it was popular hockey, basketball, football, and Latvians are really big fans of hockey. When it's the world championship, all of the players on the team are really popular for that time. It's like periods of time. If it's a hockey championship, then they are popular. It's like this.

It's tough to say who is the most popular. It's not a goal that somebody has to be popular.

Q. No one has won some Olympic medals?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Of course there were some Olympic champions, but that's also ‑‑ that's like, that period of time, he's the most popular.

Q. Where are you going next? Which are your main goals this year? Where do you expect to get?
ERNESTS GULBIS: You mean ‑‑ I don't have a goal to be in a certain position in the rankings. I have a goal to play better and better throughout the season because the beginning of this season was unlucky for me. I had some injuries and some problems.

But now I think I'm on the right way. I played better and better every month. I'm going to play Bastad now and Sweden. I'm going back on clay for one tournament. And then it's starting in the Masters Series, Toronto and Cincinnati and Hartford.

Q. Olympic games?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Probably Olympic games.

Q. Who will carry the flag for your national team?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No idea, no

Site Officiel
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/interviews/2008-06-26/200806261214501704953.html

Gulbis passe Nieminen

Ernests Gulbis a passé le premier tour du Masters Series de Cincinnati.

La saison délicate de Jarkko Nieminen se poursuit. Le Finlandais a été éliminé dès le premier tour à Cincinnati par Ernests Gulbis (7/6 6/2). Qualification également d’Ivo Karlovic aux dépens de Thomaz Bellucci.

www.sport24.com