Name: Ernests Gulbis
Age: 21 (30.08.1988)
Birthplace: Riga, Latvia
Residence: Jurmala, Latvia
Height: 6'3" (190 cm)
Weight: 169 lbs (77 kg)
Plays: Right-handed
Turned Pro: 2004
Coach: Hernan Gumy
Nicknames: Ernie, Erno, Curlbis, Swan(Gulbis = Swan in Latvian)
He speaks three languages: Latvian, Russian and English.
PERSONAL HISTORY
As a kid he was very active. His mother claims that he was bouncing balls all over their flat aged 2 and it even got so bad that they had to install sound-insulating material in order to not disturb their neighbours.
Q. How did you get started?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I got started playing tennis?
Q. Yes.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Well, I was four or five years old. I started playing tennis with my grandmother. I mean, I was really active, small guy. I was with a ball all the time, football or basketball. And my grandfather was a really good basketball player. He was in starting five in Soviet Union team. My father was also playing basketball, but he stopped because of injuries. Yeah, but I was more like an individual guy. You know, I wasn't a team player I think.
Won stuff when he was a bb. Had a bowl cut.
Initially noone wanted to coach him as he was "too little," but he showed potential. He had 3 coaches in Latvia before training at Pilic's Tennis Academy in Munich between the ages of 12 and 18. Pilic is most known for coaching Goran Ivanisevic. Novak Djokovic also trained there. Didn't play much juniors, but he did win one tournament in 2004. Has a 6-1 juniors record. Niki Pilic also traveled with Gulbis on the ATP tour until he was 18.
With Pilic
AS A PLAYER
Futures/Challenger
Having basically skipped a juniors career he started on the Futures/Challenger tour in 2004. Won 4 Challenger events and 3 Futures events. Most notable wins from this period are over Dustin Brown, Benjamin Becker And Philipp Petzschner(they're the only people I recognise from his wins).
Winning things
Davis Cup
Is a member of Latvian Davis Cup team and has a 15-8 career record (10-4 in singles) in 11 ties and seems to play DC more often than not. Zone Group I Europe / Africa is the highest level that Latvia have reached the Davis Cup. On two occasions 2008 and 2010. I'd imagine that Ernie is a lot to do with the better results in Davis Cup as he's like 200 places above the next Latvian in rankings.
They get plus points for being an attractive team though.
bb Latvians.
ATP TOUR
2006
Played and won some Challenger/Future events. Made his ATP Tour debut in St. Petersburg and reached Semi Finals, beating Vik, Dlouhy and Hernych on the way before falling to Mario Ancic. A pretty impressive start :)
This is the only picture I can find from the event. No one looks good at the point of impact :P
2007
Still playing some Challenger events, won a few. Hit the top 100 after 2 Challenger wins at the start of the year. Compiled a 23-4 record in Challenger events. Knocked out Tim Henman(ranked 53) in the first round of the French Open and convincingly at that 6-4 6-3 6-2 before falling to Albert Montanes(50). Made it to the round of 16 at the US Open beating Potito Starace(31), Michael Berrer(84) and Tommy Robredo(8) all in straight sets then losing to Carlos Moya(17) in 4 sets. This was pretty much when people started paying attention to Gulbis. Didn't quite manage to defend his semi final points as he lost to Marin Cilic in the Quarter Finals of St Petersburg. Won 10 matches at ATP level.
Probably the first time anyone actually cared about his autograph.
2008
Reached the Quarter Finals in Las Vegas, then lost to Robert Ginepri. Had an impressive showing at Roland Garros making it to the Quarter Finals at a Slam for the first time. Beat Simon Greul(193), James Blake(8), Nicolas Lapentti(69), Michael Llodra(41) before getting beaten by Novak Djokovic(3).
Attractive Bromance
There's background music on this video.
Was the only person other than Roger Federer to take a set from Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. Reached a career-high of No. 38 on August 4th. Advanced to Quarter Finals at AMS Cincinnati, defeating No. 8 Blake again and then lost to Djokovic. Lost in the second round of the US Open to Andy Roddick(it was both he and Roddick's Birthday by the time they finished the match). Played some impressive tennis. Went 2-9 vs. Top 10 opponents with a 13-14 on hard, 8-6 on clay and 3-2 on grass.
2009
Ernie's 2009 season can basically be summed up with this picture.
Ernests only won 2 back to back matches all season. Quarter Final showings in Tokyo (l. to eventual champ Tsonga) and St. Petersburg (l. to Zeballos). Both of these results came after Gulbis started working with Hernan Gumy. Gulbis had left his previous coach sometime around August and even went into the US Open without a coach. Was beaten by Andy Murray at both the US Open and Wimbledon. Showed signs of his talent, but mostly went through the year being an underachiever. Went 1-7 vs. Top 10 opponents with his lone win coming over No. 3 Djokovic in first match of season in Brisbane then losing in the next round to Paul-Henri Mathieu. Compiled marks of 14-18 on hard, 3-6 on clay and 1-2 on grass. Slight consolation in him winning a doubles title in Indianapolis with Tursunov. Apparently on court there was much laughing and they didn't seem to be taking it too seriously :P
2010
Made a strong start to the season, reaching the quarter-finals in Doha losing to Roger Federer in 3 competitive sets. Suffered back-to-back first-round losses at the Australian Open (lost to Monaco) and San Jose (lost to L. Mayer) before hitting back in Memphis to reach his first ATP World Tour semi-final in 65 tournaments lost to eventual winner Querrey. Captured his first ATP World Tour title in his first final at Delray Beach with a 62 63 victory over second seed Karlovic. Didn't drop a set the whole tournament.
Won an ugly vase.
Became the first Latvian to win an ATP World Tour title and afterwards leapt 27 places to No. 45 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings
"Everything what I do now is first time for my country. I hope much more players will start to practise in Latvia. It's good for tennis in Latvia. They see that a guy from Latvia also can make it and win an ATP World Tour event"
Continued this form for the clay season reaching the Quarter Finals of Barcelona, the Semi-Finals of Rome and the Quarter Finals of Madrid. Rome was the standout tournament for Gulbis with him beating Marcos Baghdatis(33), Roger Federer(1), Filippo Volandri(152), Feliciano Lopez(35) and then losing to the eventual champion Rafael Nadal(3).
“Well, actually I was shitting my pants - sorry for the language, but that's the only way I can describe how I felt at 5-4 and at match point, I couldn't get the serve in, I didn't know what to do, I was shaking. A terrible feeling.
on his nerves against Federer
It feels great! I was shocked after the match. It's a great feeling -- that's all I can say. I don't have a word for it in English. It’s... indescribable."
on beating Federer
Signed ball at the Riga Open Tennis Tournament. Both of Ernest's little sisters played there.
Was cited by many to be the dark horse of Roland Garros(the first Grand Slam that he was seeded in), however he crashed out of the first round with a hamstring injury. He was a set and 2-1 down to Julien Benneteau when it happened, but played through the injury until he was 2-0 down in the third set and retired. This is the first time he had retired in his career, despite playing through injuries the year before. This injury also put him out of Queens and Wimbledon, where he was set to make trouble for Nadal. However, Gulbis was one of 2 players to take a set from Nadal the whole clay season. Reached a career high of 27 in May.
SPONSORS
Ernests is sponsored by Adidas and Head. Adidas like to airbrush players and make them look like paintings.
Currently he has only taken part in one advert. Other players in the advert are the Bryan Bros and Marat Safin.
THE MEDIA'S VIEW
Depending on when the article was written Ernests has been described as a:
→ Latvian Playboy
→ Underachieving Prodigy
→ Most Dangerous Young Player on the Men's Tour
→ Young and Precocious
→ Lanky Latvian
→ "Late Bloomer"
→ Streaky Ernie
→ Rich Kid
He's also been described as having:
→ Choir Boy Looks
→ Feisty on-court Attitude
→ A Game From Heaven and Discipline From Hell
→ A Halo of Brown Curls
→ A Colourful Character like Marat Safin
His headshot progression. Apparently he's serious this year.
COMPARISONS TO SAFIN
Ernests has often been compared to Marat Safin, there was even a whole article regarding this which you can read here. Highlights include:
"I remember watching Gulbis take on Safin at last year’s L.A. Tennis Open and couldn’t help but notice the similarities in both players, playing and personality wise. In a previous post, I wrote the following, “This match was like the younger brother taking on the older brother…Both players tossed their racquets around and moaned their plights throughout the match."
Gulbis mentions that Safin was his favourite player growing up in this video. It's in Russian, but here's a translation someone did. This is only what Ernests says.
"I am still a young player and my hands are still shaky in such moments. I expected a result like this to happen at some stage but not that soon and especially not at Roland Garros because it's not my best surface, I prefer fast surfaces"
"When I was younger, like 10 or 11 years old, I didn't practice too much. I practiced for an hour or an hour and a half a day, three to four days a week. I started to practice more when I was 13. When I came to a practice session, I was happy"
"I like Safin, I think his tennis is very interesting and maybe my style of play resembles his a little bit. He's one of those Russian players I used to watch on TV with pleasure, back when I was training in an academy in Germany, I watched his final in Australia and so on. I liked the way he plays"
Apparently he speaks Russian well
Marat also seems to be a fan.
- Q: What do you think of the comparisons to you? For example, you are compared to Juan Martin del Potro, a tall guy with good service, shined on US Open. How do you estimate his possible comeback? Or, for now they started comparing you to Gulbis. Do you know about that? How do you think?
-Marat: I am for Gulbis (talks excitengly), I like him a lot. We have a similar game, though he is more powerful than I am, he is another generation. I gave him my coach Gummy, with whom I have worked year and a half, my managers. The result is already there – he was 109th now he is round top 20. Unfortunately he got injured and had to miss RG and it's not known, whether he will play on Wimbledon. I think he should be in top 10.
With Marat
They're also friends.
“What we have in common is that he’s not a tennis freak and I’m not a tennis freak,” Gulbis said. “We both perfectly understand that there’s more to life than tennis.
"This is a good part of your life, but it will end. It will end when you’re 30, and you shouldn’t plan a life in tennis forever. Tennis is just one part of my life, and then when I quit tennis, I’m going to start a new life.
“I visited Marat in Moscow, and in the summer he’s coming to see me in Latvia as we have a big music festival. We are trying to arrange a few things.”
OTHER FRIENDS ON TOUR
Ernests seems to mostly be friends with the Russian players. As mentioned before he's friends with Safin and also pairs up with Tursunov for doubles occasionally. He's also friends with Victoria Azarenka and she sometimes watched him play. This also lead to speculation that they're dating amongst the crazy obsessive Gulbis fans. But who really cares to be honest :/
When asked about the fact that Victoria Azarenka, Daniela Hantuchova and Melanie Oudin were watching Ernests' match, a smile broke out. “Who was watching me play today? I'm becoming popular with the girls now! I'm flying home tonight and there in Latvia it is Saturday night...! (laughter) Vika is just an old friend and I think she likes the way I'm playing. I think she might want to learn something from me!”
tbh. I just wanted to put this gif somewhere in this post
ATTITUDE
It's well documented that Ernests doesn't enjoy practising. He's mentioned it in most interviews that he's done this year. He's also not sure if he even likes tennis all that much.
“The fire in me is that I want to prove to myself that I can do it, that I can be at the top. I don’t care about money, I don’t care about fame. I don’t like money and fame, I don’t need them and I’m not living for them. I don’t know if I like or love the game so much.
"I enjoy competing. I don’t like practising. When I’m on court and it’s a competition, I enjoy it. I enjoy having a goal. When you reach a goal, it’s OK, but also an empty feeling. When I won my first ATP tournament this year, I was happy for maybe 10 minutes, and that was it. Then I had an empty feeling,” he said.
“And then we are on to the next week, that’s OK. It’s good in tennis that you always have to push yourself for new achievements.”
Talks about practising around the 2:40 mark
Gulbis is one of the more emotional players on court. He's not one to keep it all inside and claims that sometimes he goes a bit "nuts." He's prone to racquet throwing, shouting in frustration and his shots going a little haywire.
He talks about his racquet throwing at the start and around the 5 minute mark and then talks about visiting the Head Factory. There's 5 parts to this interview thingy and they're all pretty good. One of the parts opens with him fucking with the interviewers about how many baskets in a row he can get in after playing basketball during a rain delay.
Using his racquet as a gun...
ON HIS BAD 2009 SEASON
It's a new and improved Gulbis that we're seeing nowadays. He's worked hard to better his game and change things up. He's also revealed he had a knee injury last year that he played through, with him mentioning he had Schlatter's Disease.
"There were many other things that affected me - my coaching change, my knee problems, my practice scheduling, my thinking of life, my priorities, what is more important for me. So, now I understand that tennis is top two in my life, maybe not the biggest priority, but that's my job," he said.
"Both my tennis coach and fitness coach are new. I'm very happy with that. I think that was the key. The right preparation, the right practice and I'm fitter."
Of his decision to treat tennis as a job he claims he had a sort of epiphany that only he could have.
“There is a lot you can get wrong in tennis, and that’s what I did,” Gulbis disclosed.
“I woke up one morning with a hangover, I clicked my fingers, and decided, ‘right, now I go for it’,”
STYLE OF PLAY
Ernests has a good drop shot he's also prone to abusing it. He claims he uses it because he "can't do nothing else." His badly timed drop shots are usually a sign of his lack of concentration and you may as well stop hoping for him to win tbh. However, when he's playing them correctly they're a thing of beauty. His mother says his drop shot was perfected as he used to play against boys 3 or 4 years older than him so he had to do something else.He's also a hard hitter from both sides and has an impressive serve. Federer even claimed that Gulbis has "one of the fastest second serves in the game." His serve is often what determines how well he plays in a match, so when it's on all is good.
HERNAN GUMY
AKA. The holy saviour of Ernie's tennis career.
A tennis player in his own right, he reached a career high of 39 and was the number 1 Argentinian. Gulbis credits Gumy with improving everything.
"He's helped every aspect from my game. My shots were a bit out of something and if I made a mistake I really didn't know why I made it. Now, I know how to make it better. Basically it's not one thing — it's everything. He's a really good coach."
When Hernan began working with Gulbis he reportedly stated that Ernie was the most unfit player in the top 100. Gumy previously worked with Marat Safin and it was he who introduced them when he retired. He's also an attractive man. Which is appreciated.
MEET THE FAMILY
Ainārs Gulbis
Part of Ernests entourage, Ainārs is present at pretty much every match. Ainārs was a professional basketball player in his youth until an injury forced him to stop. His own father, Alvils, was a starter on the Soviet Union team that won the 1958 European basketball championship. Ainārs is now a successful investor and a millionaire and funded Ernests's early tennis career. Mostly remains pokerfaced, even when Ernests is being whiny. Let's out his smile when Ernie wins.
Being a proud parent
Milēna Gulbe-Kavace
Milēna is theatre actress and rarely court side, though she used to travel with him when he was younger. She has also been in some films and Ernests even features in one, playing her son. Ernests' family rarely give interviews, but Milēna did one that you can read here. She's also crazy pretty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6aB2V4e
^More here but it won't let me embed. He looks adorable, but his laugh is kinda irritating lol.
"I was the daughter of Uldis Pūcītis once, now I’m the mother of Ernests Gulbis.”
Uldis Pūcītis
Uldis is Ernests Grandfather on his mother's side. He was a popular film actor and director in Latvia.
I found one of his films online if you want to see him in motion and/or you understand Latvian.
Siblings
Gulbis has 3 sisters and a brother. Ernests eldest sister Elina completed a Masters Degree in Law, whilst based in London. She is now studying in Paris for a similar degree in Art. His brother Kristaps is based at Saddlebrook, Florida and is pursuing a career in golf(I'm fairly sure both are from his father's side). One of his younger sisters,Laura Gulbe, is 14 years old and enjoyed a decent run at the Riga Junior Open after she was awarded a wildcard. Monika Kavace, aged 11, is Ernests's sister from his mother's second marriage and also plays tennis. She reached the second round in the Riga Junior Open.
"They're very beautiful, so watch out. They're gonna have big contracts with lots of clothes firms because they are good-looking and they play good tennis."
Gulbis talks about his sisters in this video. Video also contains "I think I beat Roger Federer because I ate scrambled eggs in the morning.
Laura Gulbe
Ernie with his mum and sister Monika.
PROSTITUTES
On the 19th of October 2009 it was reported that two tennis players had been arrested for trying to buy sex in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the two was reportedly a known name on the tour. No names were released and we speculated about who it could be here. The name that came up most was Marat, but everyone was all "Marat's not in Sweden..." Other players such as Albert Montanes, Oscar Hernandez and Thomaz Bellucci were also rumoured. However it was Juan Monaco that took offence to being accused and outed Ernie lol.
"Monaco fick sent igår kväll reda på att han blivit anklagad i argentinsk press för att han var den skyldige spelaren som köpt sex under helgen trots att Gulbis redan erkänt."
"Monaco found out last night that he was accused in the Argentine press of being the player who bought sex during the weekend, even though Gulbis has already confessed. He will probably have a difficult time before the match on Wednesday. I'll try to take advantage of it early in the match ..."
(ty to
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
acityofwonder for this beautiful macro)Mostly we just loled about it cause we'd kinda guessed it might have been him. It's worth reading back that post cause it was pretty amazing and full of lulz. Anyway, in May Ernie opened up about what happened in Sweden.
“It was great, it was great fun, but I’m never going to go to Sweden again in my life. If you go out and meet some girls, and immediately you’re put in jail; that’s not normal,” said Gulbis, as he discussed his encounter with the vice police for the first time.
“When I meet a girl, I don’t ask her what her profession is, I don’t ask if she’s a hairdresser or something else. I just meet her. And she meets me. She maybe doesn’t ask what I’m doing. Anyway, if she does ask, I usually lie; I say that I do nothing or I’m a musician or something. Suddenly, the police come and take me to jail, so I spend the night in jail for nothing, really nothing. So I’m upset with the Swedish government.”
“It was very funny. I think every person should go to jail once, as it’s interesting. It’s really interesting, as they are very strict. I was in jail for one night, about six hours. I slept a bit. Then the prosecutor came and he asked me what happened, and then he said, ‘Sorry, we didn’t know that it was this’.
"And he let me go after I paid a fine. I paid the minimum fine for violating the law in Sweden. It’s the same fine I would get for, say, smashing up a telephone booth. I paid 250 or 300 euros to get out of jail, as I had a match to play in just a few days, and I couldn’t stay there anymore,” recalled Gulbis, and he giggled at the memories.</u>
And this is pretty much why we love Ernests. I'm pretty sure every other tennis player would deny, deny deny. But he's just "lolz oops!" Ernie and hookers is pretty much a running joke.
GIRLFRIEND,TWITTER AND OFFICIAL WEBSITE
I'm putting them under the same heading cause on all matters it's the same answer. He doesn't have any that we know about. An official website would be handy though cause if you want to find any info on him you basically have to search Latvian sites with your trusty google translate. It became frustrating when trying to get info on his hamstring injury. Also, a lot of his interviews tend to get mistranslated so somewhere to set things straight might be nice.
FRENCH OPEN AND DELRAY BEACH
Already been covered. Only most searched because of the injury this year at the French and good results the previous years and Delray Beach because that's where he won his title.
FATHER AND INTERVIEW
People searching for info on his dad is mostly due how many times it's mentioned that his father is rich. I put it under the same heading cause Ernie addressed the issue beautifully here.
So you do not mind the money?
"No, I said that. The money is good, just not my priority.
"I have the label of rich kid.
"Maybe the media gave me that reputation. I left home at an early age, never gave me anything. Yes, I come from a wealthy family, but I was never asking these things because I do not need. The issue of money is more normal for me because I come from a rich family is there, but it is an important issue. If you come from a humble family, you make yourself and your goal is to make money, it's fine. But that's not my goal.
- Is it true that sometimes travels to tournaments in a private jet?
"Yes, and I have ten helicopters, a submarine and a spaceship. They are all nonsense.”
Ernests has become a press favourite with his interesting pressers and interviews. He's never one to give a dull answer. He also did an interview recently with a journalist in Latvia. You can read it Here
FORGETTING TO WITHDRAW
Ernests ended his 2009 season with a no show in Bercy.
"Ernests Gulbis was a no-show! Mathieu Rodrigues, ATP 410 who turned 24 today, knocked up with the ball-kids, waited for 15 minutes while the crowd sang “’appy burssday” (with a French accent) and then strolled into the second round. He was an alternate – i.e. he was only here because other higher-ranked players did not sign up for qualifying – and now he is only two sets away from making it into the main draw. Poor show from Gulbis though – a no-show like that won’t enhance his already somewhat flaky reputation. A poor end to a poor season for such a talented young man.”
Someone at the match said they eventually updated his status to "In Russia." It turned out that he forgot to withdraw as after the St. Petersburg tournament he mentioned:
"It was the last match for me this year, it is the end of season. The main task was accomplished, to won as many ranking points as possible and to reach quarter-final. I got a spot in the main draw at Australian Open. Of course I wanted to play here longer but it happened so"
"I’m flying home tomorrow. I will have two and a half weeks for rest. Probably I’ll go to Moscow. I didn’t have a chance to play there, so maybe I’ll go on holiday there. And after then a trip to Switzerland is scheduled. My physical fitness coach is going with me. So I plan to do both skiing and physical preparation in mountains for the next season. Then we are going to Miami, there are all conditions for trainings.”
Journalists asked Ernests about cars.
“I’ve been driving for 3 years, since I’m 18. I have Mercedes but it’s very old, I need to change it. I have to save and save to buy a new one, so maybe I’ll take my mom’s car. I don’t earn so much by myself, it’s enough only to buy perhaps a bicycle."
Entertaining Ernests interview. A best of compilation if you will.
Feel free to suggest anything that needs to be added :)
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Comments
There shall be more, but I'm off to sleep.
You should get in a pic of his maternal granddad too, he was pretty fit.
Awww..:)
Ernie and hookers will never not be funny tbh.
A bunch of your links have an extra '/' at the end
I love that hookers are a running joke, even with journalists :P His crazy fans are so dull, they're all "I don't really like to talk about that thing..." Dude, even Ernie lols about it.
LOL!
Awesome! :D