LOS ANGELES – It’s one of the worst tags in sports – underachiever. And Latvian Ernests (yes, he’s named after Ernest Hemingway) Gulbis, though just 22, had long been labeled as one of the game’s great underachievers. Tall and talented, he burst onto the scene in 2007 and was soon considered a surefire star of the future. He reached the fourth round at the U.S. Open, the ’09 French quarterfinals, and beat The Mighty Federer en route to the semis of the ’10 Rome semis. Perhaps Latvia’s greatest athlete, you might think he’d have that Eastern European fire in the belly, a certain hunger.
Wrong.
Maybe the pop psychologists had it right, saying it was because his billionaire dad was one of the richest men in Latvia. Alas, Gulbis was seen as more of a lively party animal who spent as much time in cool nightspots as he did on hot practice courts. In fact, he spent a night in a Stockholm jail after being arrested for seeking a prostitute. “My problem,” he confided, “is that I like girls.”
Though conventional wisdom said, he had top-10 talent, Gulbis' ranking dipped to No. 99 in February ‘10, and coming into L.A., it wasn’t much better. Though still considered a dangerous floater, the No. 84-ranked player in the world hadn’t won a Grand Slam match in more than two years. Coming into town, he was on a five-match losing streak. Critics were quick to play the Hemingway card. Gulbis’ career was no “Moveable Feast,” after all, with all his losses one thought of “Death in the Afternoon” or “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” And as the Farmers Classic began, Gulbis seemed like a not-so-old man who was out to sea as he lost the first set of his opening match against Xavier Malisse, 6-2.
But then something clicked.
The lithe Lithuanian, with his fine movement, big backhand, solid serve and deft hands, continually held serve, winning eight sets in a row. En route to the final, he dismissed No. 5 seed Malisse, UCLA’s Daniel Kosakowsiki, No. 2 seed Juan Martin Del Potro (his first win this year against a top-20 player) and his American doubles partner Alex Bogomolov Jr.
But then in the final, America’s top player, Mardy Fish, began to put some sense back into the tennis universe. Once considered an underachiever himself, Fish was now in the midst of a late-career renaissance thanks to a model wife who turned out to be a model tennis booster/confidante, a “no gravy” diet and a renewed (“There’s no way I’m gonna waste my career”) commitment. Not surprisingly, the No. 8 player in the world collected a tight first set, 7-5, and seemed well on his way to his second ATP championship in as many weeks, a feat which would surely ease the agony of the most devastating performance in his career, his two-loss Davis Cup implosion in Austin earlier in July.
A Florida native who now has a UCLA wife and a Beverly Hills home, Mardy spent the week playing solid tennis and charming fans with revealing Fish tales of his beloved little dachshund, Charlie, who up-choked in his bed at 4 a.m. before his semi against Ryan Harrison.
But Mardy was undaunted. Blasting his serve, his backhand on fire, his volleys locked-in, Fish was frying his foes. And early in Sunday’s final – the Farmers Classic No. 1 seed seemed at ease. His opponent? Not so much. “At 3-2 for him [in the second set] , I thought I had no chance,” said Gulbis.
But then, at 3-3, Fish faltered on his serve for the first time as Gulbis at last began to read his foe’s mid-afternoon blasts, returning his driving heaters and explosive kickers with authority. Mardy, hobbled some by a heel injury that flared and tiring from two very long, very hot weeks of play, gave away three points on botched backhands to gift Gulbis a decisive break. The Latvian eventually polished his 6-4 second-set surprise with an ace down the T.
Gulbis, suddenly just a set away from only his second ATP title, twice broke serve and raced to a 5-1 lead over the flailing fish who seemed to be forever chasing drop shots..
In the last month and a half, Fish made a deep run at Wimbledon, played two Davis Cup matches and was in his second consecutive tourney final – “A good problem to have,” he quipped. And to his credit, he staged a final charge with a break of Gulbis’ serve at 5-2. Serving again for the match at 5-4, Gulbis double-faulted, offered a clunky drop shot and a backhand into the net and then a choke forehand that barely reached the net.
At 30-40, Mardy ran down another Gulbis dropper. But Fish let Gulbis off the hook, when his backhand poke drifted wide.
“I almost got him in the end,” Fish said. “I missed that drop shot by an inch.”
Instead, two points later, the Latvian crushed a forehand winner up the line to secure a stunning 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 upset win which announced loud and clear to tennis zealots (and Hemingway fans), that at during this week, on this stage, against this top ten player, Ernst Gulbis was no underachiever.
