Ernests Gulbis

Gulbis made his first ATP Tour final in four years at the 2018 Stockholm Open, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas. This was his first loss at a final, having previously won six singles titles and two doubles titles. In 2018 Gulbis made his way back to Top100 men's singles rankings, for the first time since summer of 2016.

The second of five children, Gulbis has three sisters and one brother, who is training in Florida to become a professional golfer. His younger half-sister Laura Gulbe is also a tennis player. Gulbis comes from a sporting family in general, and his paternal grandfather, Alvils Gulbis, was one of the starting five players on ASK Rīga, the Soviet Union basketball team that won the European Championships. He first started playing tennis with his grandmother and considers basketball, association football and ice hockey to be his favorite sports. Ernests got married with Tamara Kopaleyshvili in November 2017, and together they are raising a child in Riga, Latvia.

Gulbis won his first match of the season against world No. 171 Quentin Halys at the 2016 Open Sud de France, but lost in the round of 16 to Richard Gasquet in straight sets, who went on to retain his title from the previous year.

Gulbis lost to Richard Gasquet for a second consecutive time in 2016 at the Open 13 in Marseille in the round of 16.

Following this came a string of losses in the first rounds of four consecutive ATP tournaments: at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, at the 2016 Miami Open, at the 2016 Barcelona Open, and the 2016 BMW Open in Munich. After that, Gulbis failed to qualify for the 2016 Mutua Madrid Open, losing to Lucas Pouille in qualifying.

Gulbis managed to break the losing streak at the 2016 Rome Master by getting through qualifying and beating Ivo Karlovic in three sets in the round of 64, but went down to Pouille in the next round for a second consecutive time (and tournament).

Gulbis defeated Lithuania's Ričardas Berankis in the first round of the 2016 Geneva Open, but lost in the round of 16 to Marin Cilic in straight sets.

Gulbis appeared resurgent at the French Open by beating Andreas Seppi, João Sousa and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, losing his first set of the tournament only to the latter. Tsonga pulled out of the match due to injury, the second time Tsonga had to retire from a Grand Slam match against Gulbis. Gulbis then lost in the round of 16 to David Goffin in four sets. During the tournament, Gulbis cited injury of his shoulder as the cause for poor performances since 2015, having never fully recovered from it and refusing to have surgery. Before the tournament, Gulbis had split with his coach since 2012, Gunter Bresnik.

Gulbis was seeded at the 2014 Australian Open, and defeated Juan Mónaco in the first round in four sets by coming back from losing the first set. Gulbis ended the tournament in the second round by losing to Sam Querrey in straight sets.

Gulbis won his fifth ATP title at the 2014 Open 13 in Marseille, beating 3 Frenchmen in succession without losing a set – Nicolas Mahut, then world No.9 Richard Gasquet in the semi-final, then No.10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. With this victory, he entered the ATP Top 20 for the first time in his career, at No.18.

At the Open 13 in Marseille, Gulbis failed to defend his title from 2014, falling to Jérémy Chardy in two sets in the round of 16.

Gulbis also failed to defend his title from 2014 at the ATP Nice Open, losing to Dominic Thiem in two sets in the quarter-finals.

At the French Open, Gulbis lost in the second round to Nicolas Mahut, having won in the first round against Igor Sijsling. As a result, Gulbis dropped outside the top 75 in the ATP Rankings, having failed to defend the ranking points for his semifinal appearance in 2014.

Gulbis continued his excellent start to 2013 with a great run at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. After winning his two qualifying rounds, he beat Spaniard Feliciano López in straight sets, crushed ninth seed Janko Tipsarević for the loss of only two games, and then defeated 20th seed Andreas Seppi from a set down to set up a fourth round meeting with the returning Rafael Nadal. Gulbis lost in a tight three setter after taking the first set 6–4, ending his win streak at 13 matches. At the French Open Gulbis lost in the second round to Gaël Monfils despite taking the first set.

Gulbis was absent from the 2013 China Open and the 2013 Shanghai Rolex Masters due to illness. He made his next appearance at the 2013 If Stockholm Open where Gulbis made it to the semi-final stage, losing to David Ferrer in three sets. During the tournament, Gulbis defeated Jérémy Chardy, Igor Sijsling and Jerzy Janowicz.

Gulbis finished his season with two first round defeats by John Isner and Fernando Verdasco at the 2013 Valencia Open 500 and the 2013 BNP Paribas Masters respectively.

As of February 2013, Gulbis uses a Wilson Steam 99 paintjob racquet after switching from Head. His strings are Luxilon ALU Power 16L strung at 59/57 lbs. Gulbis uses Tourna grip on a white Hydrocontrol grip. He endorses adidas for his attire.

Gulbis then lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Lukáš Rosol in three sets. Having recorded a dismal 1-3 win-loss record at the first three Grand Slams of the season, it was the worst performance for Gulbis at these tournaments since 2012.

Gulbis' professional training in tennis began at the age of 12, when he was enrolled at the Niki Pilić Tennis Academy in Germany. Beginning after Wimbledon 2011, Gulbis was coached by Austrian Günter Bresnik, until his departure the day before the 2016 French Open. Previously, he was coached by Guillermo Cañas, and before that by Hernán Gumy (who before that was Marat Safin's coach), but their partnership ended due to Gumy's schedule; during that time, Darren Cahill served as Gulbis' consultant for several tournaments. Before Gumy, Gulbis was coached by Karl Heinz Wetter and subsequently Nikola Pilić, the former professional Croatian tennis player and Croatian and German Davis Cup captain.

His next tournament was the 2011 Australian Open, where he lost in the first round to unseeded German Benjamin Becker in straight sets, again citing fatigue and illness for his poor showing. It marked his fifth consecutive loss at a Grand Slam event. Gulbis then withdrew from his next three tournaments, his ranking momentarily rising to his personal best of World No. 21 due to Marin Čilić failing to defend his points from the 2010 Australian Open.

Gulbis' season did little to improve as he next played in the 2011 BNP Paribas Open, receiving a bye through the first round, before struggling with Lu Yen-hsun, but ultimately prevailing, with the first two sets going to tiebreaks. In the third round, he was swiftly defeated by eventual winner Novak Djokovic, winning one game. He then proceeded to play the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, receiving a bye through the first round, but losing in the second round to World No. 72 Carlos Berlocq. Ranked World No. 30 going into the Monte-Carlo Masters, he defeated the Ukrainian World No. 21 Alexandr Dolgopolov in his first round in straight sets, before losing to Milos Raonic in the second round, also in straight sets. Gulbis proceeded to lose in the first round of the 2011 Serbia Open to Ukrainian Illya Marchenko, in straight sets.

From late April to mid-May, Gulbis took three weeks off due to fatigue before competing in the 2011 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur. In his first two rounds, he defeated Fabio Fognini and Denis Istomin, both in three sets, before falling to World No. 6 Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals. From there, Gulbis' playing deteriorated further as his ranking dropped from No. 30 to No. 85 during the clay-court season, failing to defend his deep runs in 2010. He proceeded to lose his next four matches in a row: against Blaž Kavčič at the French Open, against Adrian Mannarino at the Queen's Club Championships, against Dmitri Tursunov at Wimbledon (which marked his seventh, consecutive first-round exit at a Grand Slam, and after which he took nearly a month off from tennis to train with his new coach), and against former World No. 4 James Blake at the Atlanta Tennis Championships.

Gulbis received a wildcard entry into the 2011 Rogers Cup. He defeated former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in three sets in the first round, and proceeded to defeat Michaël Llodra in the second round after Llodra retired, trailing in the second set. In the third round, he fell to eventual finalist Mardy Fish, whom he had recently defeated, in another tight three-setter. He then qualified for the 2011 Cincinnati Masters, where he lost to Croatian Ivan Dodig in two sets. Gulbis reached the second round of the US Open, but lost to Gilles Müller in the third round. He was later fined for improper coaching by the USTA. Gulbis played five more tournaments that year – all hard court – but had four first-round exits and one second-round exit.

He went to Florida to qualify for the Delray Beach ATP tournament. After winning seven matches to reach the final, including wins against Sam Querrey and Tommy Haas, Gulbis won his third career ATP title by defeating Édouard Roger-Vasselin in straight sets to claim his first title since 2011.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013, he continued to play in Davis Cup competition for Latvia.

Gulbis is known as one of the funnier personalities on the tour. When Gulbis stunned World No. 1 Roger Federer at the 2010 Italian Open after throwing away six match points, he told reporters that, "I shit my pants a little bit there . . . excuse my language", and has also bragged about his racquet-throwing "skills" in an on-court interview. On a telecast during the 2010 Western and Southern Financial Group Masters from Cincinnati, broadcasters Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Chris Fowler all compared Gulbis to former world No. 1 Marat Safin, in terms of both playing style and attitude on and off court. Also like Safin, Gulbis often comments about his own lack of discipline and/or interest in practising, but is very forthcoming about his aspirations of entering the top 10, 5, or even No. 1 in the ATP rankings.

To begin the year, Gulbis claimed wins in the first two rounds of the Australian Open precursor tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, defeating sixth-seeded Spaniard Albert Montañés and Italian Andreas Seppi. Gulbis progressed to the third round, where he was defeated in a tight three set match against World No. 1 Roger Federer. At the 2010 Australian Open itself, Gulbis was ousted in the first round by 30th seed Argentine Juan Mónaco in straight sets.

Gulbis' next tournament was the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, an ATP 1000 Tier tournament. Gulbis defeated Swiss player Marco Chiudinelli in the first round, but succumbed to fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko in the second round. Davydenko later withdrew from the tournament due to a wrist injury exacerbated during the match. Gulbis did not compete in the Sony Ericsson Open, instead returning to Europe to train for the clay season.

At his next tournament, the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Gulbis was drawn to face Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of a tournament for the fifth time in his career, although for the first time on clay. He defeated Baghdatis for the loss of only four games, which set up a match with top seed and World No. 1 Roger Federer. After losing the first set, Gulbis rallied to win the match 7–5 in the third, converting his seventh match point for his biggest career win to date. In the third round, he backed up his win over Federer, with a battling final set tiebreak victory over Italian qualifier Filippo Volandri. In the next round, Gulbis defeated Feliciano López to reach his first semifinal at an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in a tight, three-set match, hitting 50 winners and 59 errors throughout. This made Gulbis the first player to take a set off Nadal on clay in 2010. With his semifinal appearance, he assured himself a seeded position at the 2010 French Open.

At the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Gulbis got off to a winning start in the first round against 2010 Estoril Open champion Albert Montañés. He carried on his good vein of form, defeating 10th seed Mikhail Youzhny and Feliciano López. In the quarterfinals he again faced World No. 1 Roger Federer, which ended in the opposite result: Gulbis losing after taking the first set.

Expectations were high for Gulbis as the former quarterfinalist came into the 2010 French Open seeded 23rd (ranked World No. 27), after having an incredible clay-court season. However, Gulbis retired during the first round citing a hamstring injury against the veteran Frenchman and World No. 38, Julien Benneteau.

To begin the year, Gulbis claimed wins in the first two rounds of the Australian Open precursor tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, defeating Victor Hănescu and Antonio Veić, both in straight sets. Gulbis progressed to the quarterfinals, equaling his 2010 run, where he was defeated in a tight match against World No. 1 Rafael Nadal. Gulbis next played in the 2011 Medibank International Sydney. He received a bye through the first round due to being seeded third for the tournament and defeated Russian Igor Andreev in the second round in three sets. He then defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky in the quarterfinals, before losing to eventual champion Gilles Simon of France in the semifinals, citing fatigue as a cause for his low intensity.

In 2010, Gulbis continued to participate on the Latvian Davis Cup team, playing against Poland, where he won both of his singles rubbers.

Gulbis is also not a stranger to controversy. In 2009, Gulbis was arrested in Sweden for allegedly soliciting prostitutes. He called it a misunderstanding. After paying a small fine, he was released in time to play in the Stockholm Open. As well, speaking of a desire for more explosive rivalries in tennis (e.g. Connors-McEnroe), in 2013 he opined Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray were "boring" in interviews. The next year at the French Open, when Gulbis was asked if he would encourage his sisters to pursue professional tennis, he said he believed that women should "focus on family and kids." The sincerity of his comments was questioned by Maria Sharapova.

Gulbis began the year strongly by defeating former training partner Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the first round of the Brisbane International tournament, before falling in the second round to Paul-Henri Mathieu. He lost in the second round of the 2009 Australian Open to Igor Andreev in five sets, after beating Albert Montañés in the first round in straight sets.

Gulbis was seeded third heading into the 2009 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, but was defeated in the first round by former World No. 8 Marcos Baghdatis. It was the fourth time he was drawn to face Baghdatis in the first round of a tournament.

At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Gulbis, unseeded, defeated Italian Riccardo Ghedin in the first round, before falling to third seeded Andy Murray.

At the 2009 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, Gulbis advanced to the quarterfinals, upsetting sixth seed Radek Štěpánek in the first round as a qualifier, then defeating top-20 player Juan Mónaco in the second in straight sets. He lost to eventual champion and second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after taking the first set.

At the French Open, Gulbis reached the quarterfinals for the second time courtesy of a five-set victory over world No. 4 and 2009 champion Roger Federer. He followed this up with a straight-set win over Tomáš Berdych to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. As a result of this run, Gulbis entered the ATP's top 10 for the first time in his career.

In the first round of the 2008 Australian Open, Gulbis lost to Marat Safin in straight sets. He reached the second round of the 2008 Pacific Life Open, where he lost a tight match to former Grand Slam finalist David Nalbandian in a final set tiebreak. In the first round of the 2008 Miami Masters, he defeated Dominik Hrbatý, but in the second round met eventual champion Nikolay Davydenko. After winning the first set 6–3, he lost the following two sets in tiebreaks.

His biggest result up to that point occurred when he reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 French Open. Throughout the tournament he beat Simon Greul, seventh seed James Blake, Nicolás Lapentti, and home-favourite Michaël Llodra. In the quarterfinals, he lost to third seed Novak Djokovic in three tight sets.

In his next tournament, he reached the third round of the 2008 Queen's Club Championships, beating Kristof Vliegen and 12th seed Andreas Seppi. He lost to sixth seed Andy Murray, after winning the first set 7–5.

At the 2008 Cincinnati Masters, Gulbis defeated Jarkko Nieminen, Arnaud Clément, and James Blake, but succumbed in the quarterfinals to third seed Novak Djokovic.

The young Latvian then traveled to Beijing to take part in the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he lost his first-round match to Nikolay Davydenko.

Gulbis had a poor clay-court season compared to 2008, failing to go deep in any of the tournaments preceding the French Open. Gulbis also failed to defend his quarterfinal appearance at the French Open, causing his ranking to drop to World No. 67, the lowest it had been since the summer of 2007.

Despite playing a style more attuned to fast surfaces, his strong showing at the 2008 French Open, 2010 Rome Masters and 2014 French Open are attributed to his powerful and flat strokes which can play through the surface.

Gulbis was relatively successful on the Challenger circuit in 2007. He reached the quarterfinals in Bergamo (l. to Fabrice Santoro) and the semifinals in Heilbronn (l. to Michaël Llodra). Gulbis won his second Challenger title by triumphing over the local favorite, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, at the Besançon Challenger in France, enabling him to break into the ATP Top 100 for the first time in his career. In his next tournament, the Sarajevo Challenger, Gulbis emerged victorious in both the singles and doubles events.

Gulbis announced his arrival on the Grand Slam stage in the 2007 French Open by defeating the British veteran, Tim Henman in straight sets to advance to the second round. It was heralded by the British Davis Cup captain, John Lloyd, as "... a brilliant performance from Gulbis, that is just pure and utter talent." Gulbis' run was halted in the second round by Spaniard Álbert Montañés in a four set, rain-interrupted match.

At Wimbledon, his second Grand Slam participation, Gulbis again was drawn to face Marcos Baghdatis in the first round. He won the first set before succumbing in four sets. Gulbis debuted in Grand Slam doubles by teaming up with Ivan Ljubičić, with whom he had reached the semifinals of the 2007 Ordina Open.

At the 2007 US Open, Gulbis upset 30th seed, Potito Starace, in the first round and eighth seed, Tommy Robredo, in the third round, the latter for the loss of only 6 games. In that match, Gulbis broke Robredo six times and had 39 winners to Robredo's seven. Gulbis' run was finally halted by former World No. 1, Carlos Moyà, to whom he lost in four sets.

Gulbis took his first win of the season against Daniel Gimeno-Traver at the BNP Paribas Open in Indiana Wells. It was the latest first win of the season in ATP level tournaments for Gulbis since 2007. Afterwards, he fell to Adrian Mannarino in two sets in the round of 32.

The highlights of his career up to 2006 included reaching the final of the Oberstaufen Challenger in July 2006, where he lost to Michal Tabara, reaching the final of the Tampere Challenger, also in July 2006, where he lost to Florian Mayer, reaching the semifinals of ATP St. Petersburg Open at the Wayback Machine (archived 2006-11-08) as a wildcard in October, where he lost to Mario Ančić, and winning the Eckental Challenger in November, where he defeated Philipp Petzschner.

Ernests Gulbis (Latvian pronunciation: [ˈærnests ˈɡulbis] , born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schüttler, and in 2010 won his first ATP Tour singles title in the Delray Beach, defeating Ivo Karlović in the final. In total, Gulbis has six ATP titles to his name. His best performance at a Grand Slam is reaching the semifinals of the 2014 French Open. He had previously reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 French Open. Gulbis' career-high singles ranking is world No. 10, making him the only Latvian tennis player ever to be ranked inside the top 10 in ATP Singles Ranking. He achieved this in June 2014.

In the first week of October, he won the Mons Challenger in Belgium (d. Kristof Vliegen) as the top seed, breaking into the ATP Top 50 for the first time in his career and surpassing Juan Martín del Potro as the highest-ranked player born in 1988. This win also meant a fourth consecutive title.

Gulbis who was the 24th seed, lost in the first round of the US Open to Jérémy Chardy of France in three sets, marking the fourth consecutive first-round lost at a Grand Slam tournament. Gulbis then took three weeks off to play for the Latvian Davis Cup team against Poland, winning both of his singles rubbers against Jerzy Janowicz and Michał Przysiężny. His next tournament was the PTT Thailand Open. He received a bye through the first round, and defeated Rainer Schüttler in three sets, advancing to the quarterfinals, where he fell to Guillermo García-López, also in three sets. He then played the Japan Open Tennis Championships, but suffered an upset defeat at the hands of World No. 432 Dmitry Tursunov.

Gulbis then played in Miami, where he was seeded 21st and had a bye into the second round. In an almost two and a half hour match, Gulbis lost in three tight sets to veteran Julien Benneteau, having conceded a match point during the match.