More later…

Nine aces and – believe it or not – a cool head under pressure helped Ernests to overcome a stubborn opponent and a three-hour rain delay before securing a spot in his first-ever ATP final in Delray Beach.

With two ATP doubles titles under his belt, Ernests is no stranger to the business end of a tournament.

However, this is the first time that he is there on a singles ticket, where the pressure not only is more intense but also has to be shouldered alone.

In the semi-final against Jarkko Niemimen, Ernests looked quietly confident all match long.

He broke Nieminen in the third game of the first set and staved off a reciprocal break point in the next game with an ace on second serve.

An early break on the Finn’s serve in the second set looked to seal the deal for Ernests, but he did not count on being broken in the sixth game after double-faulting at break point.

The increasingly blustery wind fuelled his frustrations and he looked in danger of self-destructing as Nieminen pulled ahead after holding serve for 4:3.

However, Ernests collected himself in time and forced a break on Nieminen’s serve two games later with some powerful backcourt hitting, taking the score to 5:4 in Ernests’ favour.

With only a service hold standing between him and his first Tour-level final, the aggravating weather finally dealt the ace up its sleeve, delivering heavy rain which halted play for three hours.

Players with less steely resolve than Ernests today probably would have crumbled during the lengthy delay, losing momentum and pysching themselves out with endless what-ifs.

That scenario came precariously close to reality as Ernests returned to court only to lose the first point of the game after dumping a forehand into the net.

However, Ernests was determined not to be denied this time around and raced to 40*-15 with two imperious overhead winners.

With two match points on his racquet, Ernests deemed that he had been out in the cold long enough and wrapped up business briskly with a thunderous ace.

He earned 150 ranking points just by reaching the final – shooting him into somewhere in the Top 60 – and looks to add another 100 points should he emerge triumphant on Sunday.

His opponent in the final will be either the defending champion, Mardy Fish, or the big-serving Ivo Karlovic.

Ernests has never played against either men before and will hope to strike the first blow tomorrow in what is slowly but surely becoming the best spring of Ernests’ career so far.

DELRAY BEACH SF: Ernests Gulbis (LAT) def. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 6:4 6:4

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.

MEMPHIS SF: (8) Sam Querrey (USA) def. Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 6:3 6:4

The long wait for a three-match winning streak is over after Ernests showed astonishing fortitude in his hard-fought victory over Tomas Berdych today.

He clawed back from 2:5 down in the final set and pushed through pain from a recurring knee injury.

The three-set victory propelled him into his first Tour-level semifinal since his ATP debut in St Petersburg in 2006.

Much like Ernests, the fifth-seeded Berdych is also a talented power hitter whose tumultuous inconsistency has hindered him from fulfilling his fearsome potential.

A match between two men of such similar temperament therefore was bound to be a Russian roulette of sorts, with both players alternately firing bullets and blanks.

In the opening set, Ernests held serve until the second-last game  before capitulating and handing Berdych a 5:3 lead which the Czech converted to win the set.

However, like the Empire, Ernests struck back in the second set, mixing in some serve-and-volley to befuddle his opponent. An early break in Ernests’ favour kept him ahead and he maintained the momentum until the end of the set, which he secured with an ace.

Nonetheless, his heroics appeared to have gone to waste after he dropped serve four games into the final set. A string of unforced errors pushed him deeper into his predicament before he summoned the trainer on court to treat an injury to his left knee.

At 3:5 down with Berdych serving for the match, all seemed lost but Ernests continued to batter at his opponent’s defenses, willing himself to find a chink in the Czech’s armour.

His determination finally was rewarded with a break of serve which kept him alive in the match.

With both men not conceding any ground, it was fitting that a tiebreak was required to settle the proceedings. They traded minibreaks before Ernests scored himself three match points after two dazzling winners on Berdych’s serve.

Against all odds, it was Ernests who finally had the match on his racquet and he did not play the fool, imperiously sealing passage into the semi-finals with his 23rd ace of the day.

He awaits the outcome of the quarterfinal match between top seed, Andy Roddick, and the eighth-seeded Sam Querrey to determine the identity of his foe in Saturday’s semi-final.

Win or lose tomorrow, Ernests has already earned 180 ranking points for his run to the semis, which will push him up into the Top 80.

Thus begins the long slog back into the elite tiers of the game, a rank deserved by Ernests’ talent but so far not by his efforts. It is hoped that this is the beginning of a breakthrough long overdue, and not yet another blip in a series of false starts.

MEMPHIS QF: Ernests Gulbis (LAT) def. (5) Tomas Berdych (CZE) 3:6 6:3 7:6(3)

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.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN R1: (30) Juan MONACO (ARG) def. Ernests GULBIS (LAT) 6:3 7:6(5) 6:1

Like a modern-day Thor, Ernests wielded his racquet like a turbo-powered hammer, thundering down lightning bolts of first serves past Roger Federer for most of their quarterfinal match in Doha.

Alas, his nerves were not as trusty a companion as the mythical Mjöllnir, having deserted him in the first set and – crucially – at the tail end of the deciding set.

Ernests showed his inexperience and ranking in the opening set, as he struggled to hold serve while the top-seeded Federer strolled to service hold after service hold in 90-second games.

However, Ernests struck like a provoked cobra in the second set, putting in a fearsome 78% of his first serves and returning aggressively, often while the ball was on the rise.

Federer, on the other hand, was reduced to retrieving Ernests’ serves from several feet beyond the baseline, and was out-maneuvered by a deliciously-placed topspin lob that caught the Swiss flat-footed at the net.

Ernests’ controlled aggression enabled him to capitalize on Federer’s mid-match dip in concentration, forcing set point on the top seed’s serve before Federer let fly a volley error to seal the second set for his younger opponent.

The Swiss appeared to recover his trademark unflappability in the third set, putting more pressure on Ernests’ serve until he was rewarded with a break in the third game.

However, Ernests was in no mood to wilt and battled back to reclaim the break and level at 3-all.

Two games later, the prospect of him taking out the world No. 1 suddenly was no longer hypothetical, but a very realistic possibility.

With the score at 4-all, he only needed to hold serve to be within one game of victory.

It was as if the enormity of the occasion suddenly dawned upon him as he stepped up to the service line, and his resolve wavered – only by a micro-degree, but it was enough of an opportunity for somebody of Federer’s calibre.

It took only one careless forehand from Ernests to hand Federer the break, and the top seed wasted little time in serving his victory out, quelling Ernests’ defiant challenge in the face of match point with an ace.

Despite the loss, the match helped to showcase the improvements that Ernests is bringing to the table for the new season. Ball-bashing is still the key feature of his game – indeed, one wonders if he even would be Ernests without it – but he has learnt to demonstrate a tad more restraint and control. He still showed some dubious clarity of thought when choosing to execute a drop shot, but at least he thought, and no longer resorted to his favourite party trick as frequently as he did in the past.

With relatively few ranking points to defend this season, all indicators suggest that there is no way for Ernests to go but up. However, progress must not be taken for granted, and Ernests must be careful to keep learning and not remain stagnant, while the rest of the pack advance in leaps and bounds.

DOHA QF: (1) Roger Federer (SUI) def. Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 6:2 4:6 6:4

Ernests will play his first tournament of 2010 in the glittering desert city of Doha, the host of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

The tournament boasts a formidable entry list, with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko headlining the field.

The affluent Emirates states have been positioning themselves as a modern commercial and sporting destination, with Doha leading the way with three tennis tournaments to its name, including the WTA season-ending championships.

Year in and year out, its deep pockets and growing reputation helped to secure marquee names for the event. This is no mean feat considering that the Brisbane Open – an attractive option which eliminates lengthy travel for the players immediately before the Australian Open – is held during that same week.

Despite having clawed his way back into the Top 100 with a quarterfinal run in St Petersburg, at No. 90, Ernests’ position is still precarious.

He will defend 20 ranking points in Doha, courtesy of his first-round victory over Novak Djokovic in Brisbane earlier this year.

Ernests is likely to make the main draw in Melbourne Park by the skin of his teeth, where he has a further 45 points to defend.

His performance appeared to have picked up towards the end of this year but he was still far from setting the world on fire.

It is hoped that with Hernan Gumy on his bench, Ernests will begin to translate his potential into victories on a more consistent basis.

Childish mistakes, like double-booking himself into both Kooyong and Auckland in the same week, and failing to inform the Bercy organisers of his withdrawal, also must go, for Ernests Gulbis is now 21 and must realise that he is not a child anymore.

Multiple withdrawals from the If Stockholm Open field have catapulted Ernests into the main draw of the ATP 250 event.

The last-minute pullouts of Ivo Karlovic, Jurgen Melzer and several others allowed Ernests to move up the entry list as an alternate, enabling him to directly enter the main draw without having to play in the qualifying.

His first opponent will be the eighth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

Lopez, a lefty whose playing style favours fast indoor hard courts like those in Stockholm, will arrive in Sweden fresh off a brilliant run into the semi-finals of this week’s Shanghai Masters.

However, he had to retire injured in that match after twisting his ankle in the first set, and it is unknown whether he will be fit in time for the Stockholm opener.

Should Ernests make it into the second round, he will frace either Olivier Rochus of Belgium or Swedish wildcard, Andreas Vinciguerra.

Ernests has never played against Vinciguerra before, while Rochus has a one-match advantage after triumphing against him in the Orleans Challenger in 2006, when Ernests was barely a young pup waiting to burst onto the tennis scene.

Seeded to face him in the quarterfinals is Germany’s Tommy Haas, who was also on the Shanghai casualty list after a shoulder injury forced him to retire against compatriot Rainer Schuettler.

Should Haas not feel up to the task, any of the three other men in his section, which includes Jarkko Nieminen, Florent Serra, and Bulgarian prodigy Grigor Dimitrov, will be more than ready to topple him to reach the quarterfinals.

In the upper half of the draw, the top-seeded home hero, Robin Soderling, is expected to make the final.

However, he may be feeling the after-effects of playing a full Asian schedule, and  Juan Carlos Ferrero, as well as aggressive big servers like Benjamin Becker and a recovering Marcos Baghdatis may stand a chance if they were to pull together a consistent performance.

ATP Stockholm main draw

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Ernests displayed some of his best tennis of the season during the current Asian swing of hard court tournaments, after he reached his first quarterfinal in over a year in Tokyo and stretched the top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three tiebreak sets in Bangkok, despite a minor blip in his baffling loss to Fabio Fognini in Shanghai.

He battled his way past Junn Mitsuhashi and Dominik Meffert in the Tokyo qualifying, only to find himself facing Davis Cup finalist, Radek Stepanek, in the first round.

Ernests, however, exceeded expectations with a display of fearsome hitting. He served 13 aces and saved all five break points against him to overpower the sixth-seeded Czech.

In the next round, he had his Argentine opponent, Juan Monaco, well under control before the latter retired when down 3:6 1:4 due to a right hip injury.

The retirement propelled Ernests into his first quarterfinal since the 2008 Cincinnati Masters, where he once again was drawn to play against Tsonga.

Alas, it was not his day to break his losing record against the Frenchman, as he once again capitulated after capturing the first set.

His quarterfinal defeat was also unfortunate on another level, as he would arrive too late in Shanghai to play in the qualifying but was ineligible for the Masters event’s special exemption slot, which is reserved for a player who reached the semi-finals or better of Tokyo or Beijing.

It was yet another stroke of luck which ruled in his favour after the Shanghai organisers then decided to award him with a wildcard into the main draw.

Having been paired up in the first round against unheralded Italian qualifier, Fabio Fognini, whom he had beaten in a Davis Cup tie last year, Ernests was expected to progress to the second round against Novak Djokovic with no drama.

However, Ernests has never been known to conform to expectations, and suffered a straight sets loss to the Italian in an inglorious end to his Asian campaign.

Nevertheless, Ernests appeared to be on track to getting his game into order, and credited his new coach, Hernan Gumy, for his new-found focus.

He will now return to Europe for the final month of the season.

He is an alternate in both Moscow and Stockholm, which will be played next week, where it is likely that he will have to compete in the qualifying unless last-minute withdrawals ensure him a spot in the main draw.

He is the second alternate in St Petersburg, scheduled for the following week, where he has played since his ATP debut in 2006.

The final fortnight of the year will feature tournaments in Basel and Valencia, as well as the Paris Indoors Masters in Bercy. Ernests did not make the main draw for any of these events as at the sign-in deadline, but he may still compete in the qualifying rounds.

So close, yet so far.

That is the most apt sentiment to describe Ernests’ chillingly close loss to the Thailand Open top seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the second round of the Bangkok tournament today.

The fast indoor hard court worked like a charm to Ernests’ advantage as he gunned down 23 aces and saved all break points against him.

He took the first set in a tiebreak but lost the next in the same manner.

Both men held serve convincingly in the decider, with no ground at all offered to the receiving player.

Fittingly enough, that set too was determined with a tiebreak.

Ernests sped into the lead after mini-breaking Tsonga in the first point of the tiebreak.

However, he lost the advantage when a backhand sailed long two points later.

Nonetheless, he did not look visibly flustered – at least, not until his forehand winner when serving at 2*-3 was wrongly called out to give a minibreak to Tsonga.

Still rattled, he was quickly mini-broken again to hand Tsonga a 5-2 lead, and the defending champion wasted no time in serving out the match to progress to the quarterfinals.

Despite the loss, Ernests’ fans have much to look forward to, as his game appeared to be on the upturn. He served well and no longer deployed the dropshot as recklessly as he once had, although his concentration during rallies still needs to be improved.

With two more weeks to go before the culmination of the Asian hard court swing, it is premature to speculate as to whether Ernests’ new cooperation with Hernan Gumy will lead to his long-awaited breakthrough.

However, if his performance against Tsonga is an indication of the future, then good tidings may well be close on the horizon.

ATP BANGKOK: (1) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 6:7(3) 7:6(4) 7:6(2)

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