There may be better known and more successful tennis players than Ernests Gulbis, but the Latvian was a breath of fresh air on the circuit when he burst in at the end of the 2000s. One of the most prominent of his generation, he rubbed shoulders with the best in the world at that time, putting on the ropes Rafa Nadal himself on clay and winning several times over Roger Federer. Only Novak Djokovic resisted him, with whom he coincided at Nikola Pilic’s academy when he was a child and with whom he had them with several crosses of statements.
The story of Gulbis begins to be told in Riga in 1988. Ernests was born into the richest family in his country. His father, Ainars, was a well-known art entrepreneur in Latvia, who made his fortune after the fall of the USSR. He married Milena, a well-known Latvian actress, daughter of Uldis, who was a highly reputed director in the 60s and 70s. His paternal grandfather, Alvils Gulbis, was one of the members of the quintet of ASK Riga, the famous team of basketball, triple European champion in 1958, 1959 and 1960. Considered one of the best basketball players of that time.
With this resume, Gulbis, whose father named him Ernests in honor of the famous writer Ernest Hemingway, was born destined to be an artist or a sportsman. He opted for the second option. He himself admits that, as a child, he was quite a junk and that he did not stop still. He had to do some sporting discipline and, for years, he combined basketball with tennis. His grandmother introduced him to the racket sport bug and he reached an age when he had to choose what he wanted to do.
“I was not very good at team sports. He was a very lonely boy, so that’s why I decided on tennis ”, Gulbis said in an interview a few years ago. In this way, Ainars, his father, took him to Nikola Pilic’s academy. It was spent in Munich from 12 to 18 years old. There he coincided with Djokovic, among others. Gulbis was one of the most prominent boys. From a young age, talent fell out of his pockets. Not surprisingly, it soon began to stand out.
He hardly played juniors. Only three tournaments, of which one put it in his pocket. Gulbis had little interest in building his tournament career without much motivation for himself. I wanted to compete. That is why he immediately started playing in ITF tournaments and soon rose to the top until his head gradually appeared on the circuit. There, we all began to see, not only his tremendous talent, but his particular character and way of being.
He always gave a lot to talk about
It can be said that Gulbis, in terms of talent, had few rivals who could match him at the end of the 2000s. He emerged at the same time as other tennis players such as Djokovic, Cilic, Nishikori or Del Potro, and he was one of those who more illusion awakened. The problem was his head. Hernán Gumy, whoever was his coach, defined it perfectly. “Ernests is like Safin (whom he also trained). If he has the day, he can beat anyone. But if he is not motivated, he will not put one inside ”, he assured. The Latvian grew up in big events, in big stadiums and against big rivals. If he played outside, that didn’t appeal to him.
“Luckily for me, money is not an issue. I don’t play for money or fame. That doesn’t motivate me. My motivation is to want to be number 1. To show myself that I can be better than others, ”commented Ernests, who was rumored to go to tournaments on a private jet owned by his father. He went on to say, who knows if seriously or jokingly, that he also had a submarine and a rocket.
Gulbis soon began to rub elbows against the best. He got into his first quarter-finals at Roland Garros when he wasn’t even in his early 20s. There he was stopped by Novak Djokovic, who almost became his kryptonite. With him they had them in a certain way, on more than one occasion. The Latvian said of him that when he began to emerge and win titles, “his eyes changed.”
The character of Gulbis brought him more than one controversy at a press conference. Like that afternoon where he almost defeated Rafa Nadal in Rome, in 2013. The Latvian was one point away from hitting Rafa with a donut on his favorite surface. He ended up falling 6-1 5-7 4-6, and in the press said that he did not deserve to lose and that he had been better than his rival in all three sets. “If by being better we understand hitting the ball as hard as you can, regardless of whether it goes inside or outside, then yes, he has been better than me,” replied Rafa, who reproached him for everything that stopped the game, breaking him the pace steadily.
Injuries and lack of regularity, weighed down his career
Gulbis was haunted by irregularity throughout his career. He alternated very good years, with others that were not so good. Still, he managed to be Top 10. He only had two great results in a Slam, Roland Garros 2008 (QF) and Roland Garros 2014 (SF). He always had a hard time finding motivation in the early rounds, playing on outdoor courts. Unless he found a top, things changed a lot for him. After 2014 and after breaking up with Gunter Bresnik, his career took another direction.
He was no longer the same. He ended up finding love, with Tamara Kopaleyshvili, with whom he married and had a daughter, leaving behind his fame of partying and crazy head, but his career never had a way back and he almost completely disappeared from the circuit. Only in 2018 was he seen again, beating Zverev at Wimbledon and getting into the second week of the tournament. Beyond that, little else.
The one who gave so much to speak for his strange and peculiar right (Larry Stefanki changed it due to problems in his wrist), continues to play for the love he has for tennis and how much he likes it, although at this point in his life, At 33 years old and without money problems, the only thing that calls him is being able to play big tournaments against the best. Almost on the verge of breaking out of the Top 200, Gulbis has already said that if he doesn’t get close to the Top 100 soon, he will soon end up hanging the racket.
Perhaps Gulbis was hurt by coinciding in a time when professionalism rose to a new level in tennis. Rivals who put in extra hours to train and who took their careers very seriously, taking great care of their diet and nutrition. Ernests was the typical player who hated training and just wanted to compete. If he had played in the late 80s or early 90s, perhaps we would speak of a player with a better record. Of course, he left us moments for the newspaper library that we will remember forever. The only pity is that that talent, perhaps, deserved better numbers than those he had.
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