Gulbis goes down fighting
Ernests may have been sent packing in the semifinals of Memphis but also began to display a much overdue sense of purpose and passion on court.
While in previous years the furthest Ernests went to acknowledge his own good play was with a wry smile, today he roared “C’mon!” each time a rifled winner found its target.
He was also prone to fold mentally instead of gutting it out through difficult patches, but recorded come-from-behind wins this week despite being a heavy underdog.
If this is a reflection of his renewed overall passion for tennis, then it bodes promisingly for a talented player often criticised for his lack of discipline and who answered, yes, he would like to be a Top 10 player, with the same mild detachment that one would reserve for rice pudding.
The hunger for success – dubbed by Andy Murray as ‘the love of winning, not just the hate of losing’ – is an often underrated component of a player’s arsenal. It is not enough to skate by on talent; single-minded determination to excel is what leads one to push himself just that little bit harder in training and to hang on in a difficult match.
Today, Ernests displayed some of that raw hunger against Sam Querrey, despite not quite having the presence of mind to put together a winning strategy.
The key difference between Ernests and Querrey – himself a heavy-hitting big server – lay in the former’s inability to convert any of the nine break points he enjoyed.
Ernests was broken once in each set but subsequently blew numerous opportunities to level the score, revealing his relatively limited return game as an Achilles’ heel.
He saved his best for when Querrey was serving for the match, earning five break points when 4:5 down in the second set with several clever volleys.
Alas, Querrey was not to be denied, despite having his nerves temporarily jittered by an over-excitable let cord sensor.
He clamped down on each of Ernests’ five opportunities with strong serving, aided by his opponent’s penchant for unforced errors, and ultimately secured safe passage into tomorrow’s final against John Isner.
Ernests will now head to Delray Beach, where he will open against a qualifier before potentially facing the top-seeded Tommy Haas, or Russia’s Teimuraz Gabashvili, against whom he has a 0-4 losing record.
Delrays marks the last stop on the Tour calendar before the first ATP 1000 event of the year kicks off in Indian Wells, California, on March 8th. As of today, Ernests is the top-ranked alternate and needs only one more withdrawal to make the main draw directly.
Another good write up! I love the fire he displays on the court now. The “C’mons” he yells helps get himself pumped up & I hope that continues! He has shown such great improvement this year. First testing Fed and now getting to the Semis. I’m proud of him! He is really showing that he wants to be there and he wants to win!
Z,do you know how bad the knee is? I could not get the match live .The write ups did say he was treatend and his own comment are. He did not have good movement and wanted to make points short. Monday is only a day away.Hope he plays Tuesday would be extra day rest. Thanks for any info.
I’m not sure if that was the Querrey or Berdych match. I watched both. What happened was he went to serve and stopped mid toss. He waved to his opponent, tried again, and didn’t attempt a swing. He bent down to his knees and walked to the chair. He was looked at for a few minutes and returned with no visible sign of pain. Maybe this explains him going for shots all over the place, and trying to end points quickly in the Querrey match. I was saying why doesn’t he hit a more conservative shot and wait for a short or high ball to attack.
Fabulous to see Ernests through to the semis in Memphis. FABULOUS!!!! Would love to see him get his ranking up away from that precarious number, when qualification becomes part of a tournament. You got it Ernests. Let it all come out on court. We’re behind you 100%. Move from point to point. Believe!
Impressed by Gublis performance versus Berdych. Impressed by his way of getting to the ball and strike. Maybe he was troubled by his knee in the match versus Querrey, because something happend in the way he got to the ball and the balls went all over.
Do anybody have the stats for unforced errors gublis made?
Anyway, will be very exciting to follow Ernests this year.
I’ve watched the matches against Berdych and Querrey and it seems pretty obvious that Gumy is doing a nice job with him, but I think that what he needs is a shrink, he needs to learn patience… if he waits for the right time to strike, with his ability, he would really be a major threat to the top guys
You told it like it is! This good news is long overdue for Gulbis fans
Gulbis is through to the Quarterfinals in Delray. He beat Gabishvili pretty easily, converted on 80% of his break chances. I don’t know how he turned everything around so quickly. He is really getting some much needed points and should climb quite a few spots. What’s good is he doesn’t have many points to defend from last year. Next up is Leonarda Meyer, who beat him earlier this year. He’s started his turnaround after that match, so let’s hope he gets some revenge. There are no killers left in the draw, and 250 points go to the winner of the tournament. This is a good opportunity for him.
Gulbis in the Semis !! He beat Mayer 7-6 (2) 6-4. He battled back from down a break, saved a set point, to even up at 5-5 in the first before cruising in the tiebreak, then broken Mayer at 3-3 in the 2nd. Congrats to Gulbis, his semifinal match is on Tennis Channel live tomorrow (Saturday). The 1st semi is 2:30 pm local time, the 2nd is 7pm local time.
Nick,the match today is at 2PM Eastern Time zone. Match is on Tennis Channel live at 2PM. So in the States easy to see Ernest play. Good luck Ernie.
Yeah I just finished watching it, I had to go to a party and DVR’ed it. Of course with 1 game left to serve out, the rain came !! Unbelievable. So I watched most of the match but didn’t get to see him win and the following interview. Luckily I get to watch the final tomorrow. So happy. He’s now like 72nd in the world, and this final will bring him much higher. So crazy how things all of the sudden turned around.