Gulbis falters on the yellow brick road
At times during his opening match in Melbourne, Ernests looked like he was wishing that he, too, had a pair of ruby slippers to spirit him away from Oz.
His opponent, the thirtieth-seeded Juan Monaco, was infinitely more benign but no less dangerous than the Wicked Witch of the West.
The talented Argentine had a history of inconsistency but was well eclipsed by Ernests, who looked on edge from start to finish.
The Latvian slammed down a top serve speed of 214kmph but brute force does not equal glory: a lesson empathically driven home by his 73 unforced errors – including seven double-faults – which was tantamount to gifting Monaco with more than 16 free games.
In contrast, the steadier Monaco committed only 31 unforced errors and won 113 of the total points played to Ernests’ 87.
This was an abrupt comedown to Earth after Ernests displayed such a promising start to the season in Doha, where he was on the verge of putting Roger Federer’s head to the guillotine.
He declined a wildcard to play in Auckland in favour of spending the last week before the first Slam of the year acclimatising himself to the vagaries of Melbourne weather.
Unfortunately for him, it was a gamble that did not pay off.
It is much too premature to judge, based on this one performance, whether it is merely a blip in the trajectory of his progress or if his coaching change at the end of the previous season is a case of “same old, same old.”
With three weeks until his next tournament in San Jose, Ernests would do well to ponder over the relative merits of plugging away on the ATP tour, floating between narrowly making the main draw and playing in the qualifying, versus regaining confidence and match practice on the Challenger circuit. The quality of opponents on the Challenger level is nothing to scoff at, and reaching the later stages of such a tournament carries more ranking points than early Tour losses.
Ultimately, however, the decision is his to make and supporters can do no more than to hope, for his sake, that he makes the correct one.
Well at the beginning I did not expect this early leave from the tournament , Ernests has to thins seriously in the beginning of season.
Hope to see him much better in San Jose
Thanks Zahirah
Thank you. Good writing.
well. very very poor game from Ernests… it was quite interesting to hear the commentators to comment on him – one minute saying that he is extremely talented, next saying that his game is pathetic, sloppy, mistakes like not a professional could afford…. sad he played that bad
terrible match. 54% first serves, 7 doubles, 73 unforced errors. he didn’t show up.
At least nobody will spoil his mood with the attribute “BABYFACED giantkiller”.
Great fans following him there too.
My heart was beating so fast whenever he was rallying with Monaco, because I knew that he was going to make a mistake. 73 errors!! He didn’t show up, but i see him doing better at the French. Hope he can break through this year. If not now, then never.
Love the tittle Z. I now can’t stop singing “follow the yellow bring road” over and over in my head LOL.
Hahaha!
Gulbis needs learn to start digging deep for this points, and start wanting it more than the guy on the other of the net. that third set was unbeileivable,he just gave up.
I’m gonna try to go to the San Jose match, take some of my Latvians friends and go find Gulbis and give him a nice little pep talk. Will see how it goes.
Pep talk hahaha I like that
I hope you will get that on film. I would love to see his reaction to the pep talk!
so sad, ernests was defeated 1st round in san jose..