French Open 2014: Ernests Gulbis adds new layers to his journey of rediscovery

Ernests Gulbis, shifting his focus back to tennis

In the spring of 2008, Ernests Gulbis, still a teenager reached the quarterfinals at the French Open. There were suggestions of a new dawn, for a player who was thought to possess oodles of talent even as a young kid. Of that there was no doubt but then he was a spoilt kid with too much of everything. The wealth of talent and a wealthy family masked the young man’s ability to think, dropping him into an abyss.

After four years of carefree excesses, life had pushed Gulbis into a suffocating vacuum that was threatening to consume his soul. He wanted to break free from the shackles he bound himself in, realising that tennis was perhaps the only medium that could set him free.

Ranked a lowly 151, Gulbis made his way to Eckental in Germany asking for a wild card to a challenger event. As he admits so freely now, he was turned down and asked instead to play the qualifiers. Still very rusty, he lost in the third round of qualifiers to fellow Latvian, Andis Juska who was ranked 373rd.

Fortunately for Gulbis, he still made the main draw as a lucky loser before going on to reach the final. It was a week that would remain with Gulbis as he dealt with the insult of rejection with some spirited performances on the court.

Most importantly, it was a catalyst that would spur change in a self-indulgent young man who was doing nothing to translate his gifts. Gulbis realised he wanted to be happy again and accepted that it could only come through hard work, discipline and commitment.

In his early days, Gulbis was sharing the same space with Novak Djokovic, as they sought to feed their hopes at the Niki Pilic tennis academy. The Serbian was already a disciplined soldier, but Gulbis was an insolent child needing Pilic to work overtime to ensure he fell in line.

In the words of Djokovic, Gulbis was more into enjoying life “with open arms” than he was stretching himself over tennis. And the results were for all to see, including Gulbis himself. Eventually the snub of Eckental managed to accomplish what much else could not – the drop in rankings and endless losses could not do it. Gulbis set about restoring the dignity he deprived himself.

Some of his very prime was lost to his wallowing existence, but fortunately it was not everything. Despite his playboy lifestyle and disrespectful work ethic of his past, Gunther Bresnik an Austrian of distinction was willing to give him a chance to redeem his unfulfilled dreams.

Gulbis rented an apartment in Vienna to ensure he could spend as much as time possible with his new coach. And the two set down to work, trying to restore his game just as much as they needed to fix him mentally and physically.

“Don’t trust me,” said Gulbis last year, even as he asserted that he was rededicating himself to the game. “Let the results speak for themselves.” Just as he assured, at 25, the Latvian seems ready for another journey into the unknown. It was, he thought, the last train for him to hop on and accomplish something meaningful as a tennis player.

The last time he went on one, he found himself. But it took him a night in jail and a thousand others partying late into them to get there. This time though Gulbis wishes to discover a tennis champion, so he could sit back at his country home ten years from now knowing that he had indeed given it everything he had.

Hearing Gulbis wax eloquent after his conquests on court has been a revealing journey. Ahead of his match with Roger Federer, the Latvian assured us that he had a plan and believed that it will work. His confidence was palpable, some of us thought he was just being cocky.

But he was right, Gulbis did have a plan. As he revealed after defeating the great Swiss – he wanted to open up the court with his cross court backhand and then strike his softened opponent with the backhand down the line. He did just that, sending the 17 time grand slam champion on an early flight home.

In a dominant performance against Tomas Berdych, the Latvian underlined the fact that he wasn’t going to be satisfied with the odd big scalp. He played another terrific match, this time to completely dominate the Czech and coast into the first grand slam semi-final of his career.

Friday is looming and we can almost be certain that Gulbis is busy keeping it together to try and ensure that he is as well prepared for his match against Djokovic as he can be. But as Bresnik admitted, “Everybody else I would take, but Djokovic is unbeatable this year.”

Perhaps the spirit in the Gulbis camp foretells the result of their semi-final match. But we will sure hope that Gulbis gets better with time, enough at least for his coach not to worry about the name of his opponent.

It is a fascinating journey, a ride we are happy to take even though we are just as oblivious of its destination as is the protagonist.