Djarvik will probably enjoy this,
Ernests Gulbis sees the ATP Tour as just fun and games
The wealthy Latvian player, Ernests Gulbis, is driven only by his desire to prove himself as he rises in the ranks on the ATP Tour, and to enjoy himself, whether on court or in jail.
The Universe According to Ernests Gulbis; it’s a little weird. Gulbis has shown over the past month that he is the most dangerous young player on the men’s tour: in Rome he eliminated Roger Federer and took a set off Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, and he was a set and a break up against Federer in Madrid in the last eight... yet he isn’t sure whether he even likes tennis, and he is adamant that he doesn’t care for fame or money.
As for the night that he spent in a police cell in Stockholm, after he was arrested for soliciting prostitutes during a tournament, he regards that as a hilarious and wonderful adventure, as
“it was great, it was great fun, a very funny time”.
He is the ‘Trustafarian’ of the international tennis scene, the kid from the Baltic who previously appeared to have more wealth and talent than he knew what to do with, but who is now starting to apply himself.
On the Roland Garros clay and the Wimbledon grass this summer, Federer and Nadal could be troubled by Gulbis, who is too intelligent to be a “tennis freak” or a grey obsessive, whose father is an oligarch and one of the richest men in Latvia, and who has been rumoured to travel to tournaments in his dad’s private jet.
Is that true about daddy’s Learjet?
“Yes, and I have a helicopter, a submarine and a spaceship.”
That didn’t exactly amount to a denial by the 21 year-old, who recommended that everyone should try to spend at least one evening behind bars, just for the thrill of it, just for the experience.
At times, Gulbis sounds as though he has stepped straight out of that teen film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Perhaps think Marat Safin, or think Goran Ivanisevic. Just with reddish-brown hair, from Riga.
Gulbis, who is at a career high of 27 in the rankings, and whose preparations for Roland Garros have included reading The Revolution of the Ants, a science-fiction novel by the French writer Bernard Werber, said it had been a misunderstanding in Sweden last autumn: he did not know that he was with a prostitute as he walked into a hotel, as when he meets girls he is not in the habit of asking them what they do for a living.
“It was great, it was great fun, but I’m never going to go to Sweden again in my life. If you go out and meet some girls, and immediately you’re put in jail; that’s not normal,” said Gulbis, as he discussed his encounter with the vice police for the first time.
“When I meet a girl, I don’t ask her what her profession is, I don’t ask if she’s a hairdresser or something else. I just meet her. And she meets me. She maybe doesn’t ask what I’m doing. Anyway, if she does ask, I usually lie; I say that I do nothing or I’m a musician or something. Suddenly, the police come and take me to jail, so I spend the night in jail for nothing, really nothing. So I’m upset with the Swedish government.”
For Gulbis, a night in a cell was an education, and certainly not something to be ashamed of.
“It was very funny. I think every person should go to jail once, as it’s interesting. It’s really interesting, as they are very strict. I was in jail for one night, about six hours. I slept a bit. Then the prosecutor came and he asked me what happened, and then he said, ‘Sorry, we didn’t know that it was this’.
"And he let me go after I paid a fine. I paid the minimum fine for violating the law in Sweden. It’s the same fine I would get for, say, smashing up a telephone booth. I paid 250 or 300 euros to get out of jail, as I had a match to play in just a few days, and I couldn’t stay there anymore,” recalled Gulbis, and he giggled at the memories.
Money doesn’t motivate or interest him.
“Because I come from a wealthy family, it’s more normal for me to have this money as a tennis player. It’s OK if it’s there, it’s OK if it’s not there. It’s not a big issue for me. If you come from a poor family, you want to pull yourself up, you have a goal to earn money. I don’t have that goal.”
And he isn’t playing for celebrity either.
“The fire in me is that I want to prove to myself that I can do it, that I can be at the top. I don’t care about money, I don’t care about fame. I don’t like money and fame, I don’t need them and I’m not living for them. I don’t know if I like or love the game so much.
"I enjoy competing. I don’t like practising. When I’m on court and it’s a competition, I enjoy it. I enjoy having a goal. When you reach a goal, it’s OK, but also an empty feeling. When I won my first ATP tournament this year, I was happy for maybe 10 minutes, and that was it. Then I had an empty feeling,” he said.
“And then we are on to the next week, that’s OK. It’s good in tennis that you always have to push yourself for new achievements.”
Gulbis’s grandfather was a leading film director in Latvia, and his mother is an actress. Ernests, who was named after Ernest Hemingway (in the Baltic, they add the ‘s’), appeared in a film when he was a child; it was directed by his grandfather and his mother played the part of his screen mum.
It was in 2007 that Gulbis first introduced himself in tennis, when he smacked Tim Henman off the court in the first round of the French Open, and later that season he reached the last 16 of the US Open.
The following year, he was a quarter-finalist at the French Open. But, and perhaps this was because he was not leaving enough sweat on the practice court or in the gym, he did not progress at all during 2009: in fact, he had a horrible season, and dropped out of the top 100.
“There is a lot you can get wrong in tennis, and that’s what I did,” Gulbis disclosed.
We have seen a very different Gulbis in 2010.
“I woke up one morning with a hangover, I clicked my fingers, and decided, ‘right, now I go for it’,” he said.
But that was (probably) a joke. The reality is that, towards the end of last year, he consulted his friend Safin, who is now retired, about the Russian’s former coach, the Argentine Hernan Gumy. If Gulbis had not taken Safin’s advice and had not hired Gumy, perhaps he would not have had the “empty feeling” of scoring his first tour title in Delray Beach in Florida in February, and perhaps he would not have been such a nuisance to Federer and Nadal on the clay.
We can thank Safin for the fact that Gulbis is out there on the biggest stages, sending over his cheeky drop shots and sitting cross-legged during changeovers.
“I think anyone sitting on the sides can see that I’ve got fitter; I’m staying in the rallies and not hitting so many crazy shots. I’m more confident in every shot and in every area. Every aspect of my game is better.”
The Wimbledon crowds wouldn’t recognise Gulbis as the player who, in the second round against Andy Murray last season, had no faith in his game.
Gulbis and Safin, a Muscovite who was once the world No 1 and who is still a world-class libertine, have a similar attitude towards tennis.
“What we have in common is that he’s not a tennis freak and I’m not a tennis freak,” Gulbis said.
“We both perfectly understand that there’s more to life than tennis.
"This is a good part of your life, but it will end. It will end when you’re 30, and you shouldn’t plan a life in tennis forever. Tennis is just one part of my life, and then when I quit tennis, I’m going to start a new life.
“I visited Marat in Moscow, and in the summer he’s coming to see me in Latvia as we have a big music festival. We are trying to arrange a few things.”
Latvia, beware. Just as Safin used to do, Gulbis wrecks a lot of rackets. He has estimated that he mangles about 60 to 70 frames a year.
“I felt bad after going to the Head factory in Austria where they make the rackets, and I saw all the work that they do. It’s hand-made, they do everything for the players, they really think about what the players need, and then an idiot like me comes and breaks it. Sorry, that’s my emotions, I can’t hide them.”
Can Gulbis reach the top of the game?
“I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do, because words are nothing,” he said.
“When I beat the top players, then I will say what I feel and what I think. Now, they are just words, I can say whatever, and the words mean nothing.”
by Saarbrigga » Sat, 15 May 2010 23:12 
