No salvation in Indianapolis
Ernests’ woes continued after yet another first-round loss, this time to the seventh-seeded Marc Gicquel in Indianapolis.
He recorded a promising start after enjoying a break point in Gicquel’s opening service game.
However, the veteran Frenchman deftly turned the tables on Ernests by saving the break point and forcing two break points of his own in the next game.
Having initially been up 15-00, Ernests lost four straight points on his own serve and capitulated with his first double-fault of the day, thus gifting Gicquel with a one-break lead.
Ernests was handed a ‘get out of jail’ card in the sixth game when he enjoyed two re-break points on the Frenchman’s serve, but failed to capitalise on the opportunity.
Gicquel broke Ernests once more in the following game for good measure, and comfortably served out the first set, 6:2.
Ernests’ misery was compounded in the second set after he was broken in the opening game, despite saving no less than four break points.
Once again it was his serve that played Judas, after he double-faulted on the fifth break point of this game.
Unlike in the first set, he was unable to score any break points against his opponent and was forced to play catch-up for the rest of the match.
A tense moment occurred in the seventh game after Gicquel scored two more break points against Ernests.
Had he converted one of them, he would have moved into a 5:2 lead, with only one game on his own serve standing between him and victory.
However, Ernests managed to muster a last-minute burst of grit and determination, staving off the challenge to hold serve for 3:4.
Alas, his heroics merely delayed the inevitable.
Another double-fault in the ninth game helped to nudge Gicquel ahead and the Frenchman finally converted match point on Ernests’ serve to send him crashing out of the singles draw.
Ernests will return to the courts later today as he teams up with Russia’s Dimitry Tursunov in the doubles.
They will face the third-seeded American duo of Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky in the fourth match on the Grandstand.
He is next scheduled to play in Los Angeles and Washington DC, followed by the qualifying of the Masters events in Montreal or Cincinnati.
His loss in the singles here earned him no ranking points but may help him to find his feet on the American hard courts, which is the antithesis of the heavy Bulgarian clay he played on just last week.
With his ranking on a rebound (up to No. 65 this week) Ernests will need all the match practice he can get as he tries to regain his touch and hunt down that elusive breakthrough tournament.
UPDATE:
Ernests and his doubles partner, Dimitry Tursunov, have defeated the American third seeds of Butorac and Lipsky in the first round of ATP Indianapolis.
Ernests served two consecutive double faults to hand the Americans the second set, but he and Tursunov fought back to secure the match in the champions’ tiebreak, 11-9.
In the second round, they will face another all-American combo in James Cerretani and Travis Rettenmaier, who defeated Jeff Coetzee and Jonathan Erlich in straight sets.
Oh Ernests *hugs* I was watching the scores but after the first set I couldn’t do it anymore, and my laptop decided to be weird on me anyway. -shrug- I really wish I could know what is in that pretty head of his.
Even if this is another r1 loss I still am optomistic about that boy! I know he can turn his slump around.
COME ON ERNESTS!!
OMG ERNIE JUST WON DUBS WOOT! 6-3 3-6 11-9! That’s awesome and gives us something to watch this week yay!
Salvation in doubles.
Fingers crossed for doubles
the match went by so fast and i did the same thing that courtney did, after the first set i couldn`t follow the score anymore. Its a shame but unleast ernie and dima won in doubles. I have faith in ernests too and im completely sure he`s destined to do big things. And like any other ernie`s fan im gonna say “in the next tournament he`s gonna do it better“ WE ALL BELIEVE IN YOU ERNIE BOY!!!
About singles : ” Sad, so sad ” (c) Elton John
About doubles : LABS ERNESTS ! SARAUJ !!! (c) Me !
i having my doubts whether or not ernests can ever crack the top 20 let alone top 10. these matches are not even competitive.
did they win the doubles i can’t find anything? The official site isn’t up to date and the live scores aren’t correct
The livescores were correct. Only 2 matches were played in Indy on Wednesday (both doubles). Gulbis/Tursunov v Cerretani/Rettenmaier was pushed to Friday, probably because Dima had a singles match on Thursday and didn’t want to stay up too late the night before.
i think ernests maybe doesnt wanna keep playing tennis anymore. I mean, in a interview to Milena, she said that Ernests gets bored really easily with the things that he does. And i dont know, maybe he is too shy or dont have the confidence to tell his father: “hey, i dont want to play tennis anymore“. It`s the same thing, for example, that your father pays you I dont know, swimming class and suddenly you dont want to go anymore but you know all the effort that your father has done and dont want to desapoint him so you give it another try. Sometimes you might enjoy it or sometimes not and sometimes things are not gonna work out right and that`s where the frustation comes from. Thats why you get frustated because no matter how hard you try, its just not gonna happen. And like nick said these matches aren`t even competitive and maybe he`s not enjoying this anymore and keeps playing just to give it another try. My theory its a “little bit“ long but its what i think. Its not a scientific report and im not saying either that ernests is gonna give up ( which is not the WORSTT THINGGGGGGGGG IN THE WORLDDDDDD, after all its just a sport) its just my way to interpret what is going on with him.
Speaking about frustration, disillusions, I think they are almost universal. A moment ago I read about Tursunov that because of it” he barely picked up a racket in more than 3 weeks” before Indy.
Safin speaks at length about “boredom”. But would there be any boredom for him if he had had wins, wins and wins?
And the news that A.Bogomolov Jr’s win is his first at ATP since 2006. When he left Russia for US to have a career in tennis, I guess his and his parents’ hopes had been as high as ours for Ernest.