Ernests stumbles on Olympic debut

A jet-lagged Ernests fell at his first hurdle in the Olympics as he lost 4-6 2-6 to the world #4, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, in Sunday’s first-round match.

Both players walked onto the court three hours later than the scheduled time, after heavy rain delayed the start of the match. Ernests looked unperturbed as the announcers mistakenly introduced him as being ranked #53 in the world (he moved up to #38 this week) and elected to receive after winning the coin toss.

With the Latvian President, Valdis Zatlers, amongst the spectators, Ernests committed 49 unforced errors and scored only ten winners in the whole match. He was uncomfortable on serve the whole time, offering Davydenko break points in all but two of his service games.

The Russian played solidly and drew first blood by breaking in the fourth game to lead by 3*-1, and the match progressed in that vein until he served for the first set at 5*-3. Ernests appeared to regain some intensity in this game and took Davydenko by surprise, as he committed a forehand error on break point to gift Ernests with the break back.

Alas, the momentum deserted Ernests in the next game as he strung together several unforced errors (including his first double-fault) to lose serve and hand Davydenko the first set.

His woes continued in the second set as he began taking an increasingly longer time to recover between points, with the punishing conditions starting to take their toll. Davydenko, known for being a resilient baseliner, defended flawlessly and entrapped Ernests into overhitting each shot in an effort to penetrate his armour.

Ultimately, Davydenko’s consistency was too much for Ernests today, but he refused to go down without a fight as he saved the first two of three match points but faltered at the final one when his backhand marginally missed the far baseline.

When interviewed after his loss, Ernests refused to make excuses. “It’s hard to play against Nikolay in any conditions. He’s a world class tennis player, number 4 in the world. He played very well, I didn’t play too well and that is visible in the final result.”

He also admitted to a less-than-ideal preparation period prior to the Games. “I had many flights in a short space of time – from the US to Latvia, home only for 1 day, then to Beijing. I had less time for acclimatization. I was tired early in the evening, couldn’t sleep in the morning.”

Was his knee bothering him again when he summoned the trainer in the middle of the second set? “Actually it was fine, it didn’t hurt today. It’s very up and down with my knee – sometimes I completely forget about it, sometimes there are problems.”

Ernests opted out of staying in the Olympic Village to minimise changes to his routine, but he has checked out his fellow athletes’ accomodation and dubbed it “an interesting experience.”

“The Olympics is just one of many tournaments in the season but it was one of the most important ones for me so I’m upset that I wasn’t able to play as well as I wanted to. These were my first Olympic games but not the last ones, I hope.”

Ernests and his coach will be flying to the United States on Tuesday, to resume his preparations for the US Open where he is defending 150 points from his run to the fourth-round last year.

(The author wishes to thank Evita for translating Ernests’ interview from Latvian.)

~ by Zahirah on August 10, 2008.