TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 3^rd of June. E. Gulbis d. T. Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. An interview with Ernests Gulbis

Q. A few years ago tennis experts said that you are a great talent.

ERNESTS GULBIS: Which tennis experts?

Q. A few of them.

ERNESTS GULBIS: Okay.

Q. Now you showed it. What took you so long?

ERNESTS GULBIS: (Laughter.) I answer this question many times. What took me so long? I think I was eating wrong. I had the wrong diet.

Everybody was talking about this gluten free diet. My diet is full on gluten. I like a lot of ketchup, a lot of unhealthy stuff so there is a balance which I found in the last couple of years (smiling).

Q. You said yesterday that you thought you had one of the best backhands on the tour. Out of the guys that are left in the tournament now   Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Monfils   do you feel like you have the best backhand out of the six guys that are left in the tournament?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Why my opinion should have changed from day to day? If I said that I have the best one, one of the best throughout all the tour, doesn’t matter who’s left in the tournament. My backhand didn’t change overnight.

Q. It’s an ego thing? You need to show you can actually do this time?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Okay, if you want to go that way, then I will explain a little bit.

For me, I found throughout these years what is important for me to be truly happy. For me to be truly happy   I said it many times, also in the press conference; I don’t know if you were here yesterday or the day before   that my happiness comes only from doing well my job.

Then I can really live my life to the maximum. You know, I can enjoy the stuff much more.

So for me it’s really important for my happiness just to be successful on the tennis court. Forget about the money. Forget about fame. It’s just about my inner comfort. That’s it.

For me, that’s all that matters in the end of the day.

Q. On a boring tennis subject, you served exceptionally well today. Are you serving as well consistently, do you think, as you’ve ever done in your career?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes. Well, I remember the match I played against Berdych. It was in Rotterdam, and I lost the match because he was returning really well.

On a fast surface he was standing close to the line, a little bit similar like Roger is returning close to the line, not going far back.

On clay it’s a little bit tougher because you know you have a little bit more bad bounces and the ball is a little bit higher, so I think it’s a little bit easier if you step back.

So for clay my serve was working better against Berdych than on fast surface. I think I served the best against Radek Stepanek. Against Roger the level was a little bit down. Now today it was really high.

Today everything was good. I felt physically so good. I felt that I can run forever. I felt that he cannot make winner, you know? That’s how I felt on court. I felt that I covered it really well.

If I feel so confident, you know, from the baseline, then everything just comes together.

Q. Last February your mom told you you should probably quit tennis.

ERNESTS GULBIS: Now she tells me if I win the tournament I shouldn’t quit (Laughter.)

Q. I’m wondering why tennis? You could do many different things with your life. You have all these off court pursuits. You’re a smart guy. Why grind away on this tour?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Thank you.

Q. Yeah, no worries.

ERNESTS GULBIS: Why?

Q. Yeah, why.

ERNESTS GULBIS: You know, sometimes we don’t choose our profession; the profession chooses us.

I was five years old when parents brought me to tennis. If they would bring me to football or basketball, that wasn’t my choice. I was just an active kid. I liked every kind of sport.

Tennis basically chose me because my father had a friend who was a tennis coach. That’s why I started, you know. I’m pretty sure that I would be good with anything with a ball.

I think I would be pretty good basketball player, pretty good football player, you know, because I like ball. I have a good feeling for it, you know. Just happened to be tennis.

For a while, you know, I was a little bit pissed off about it because I wish I could play on a team, you know, because in my understanding, it’s much easier. In my understanding, tennis is one of the toughest sports. You cannot compare to nothing. You’re all alone there.

If you have a bad day, that’s it. You’re done. If you have bad day in football, you give a pass. You score a goal. You won.

It’s tough, but it has its bonuses. I think if you think the right thoughts and understand what you’re doing, then it builds up your character much more than it would in any other sport.

It’s up and down. Now I’m really happy that it is tennis. I need to prove to myself that I can be the best that I can be in tennis, and then I’m going to have a clear and easy mind when I’m 35 years old sitting on a beach with a… (demonstrating drinking.) (Laughter.)

Q. You’re now talking about tennis as a job, and of course you’re a professional. That doesn’t surprise. When did you start thinking that this was a job and not a game since you were kid? Later? Recently? And also, one more question about you and Djokovic. When you were playing when you were 14 years old. Who was winning? Who was more hungry if he had no diet at that point? What do you remember of those days when you were playing Djokovic?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, about Djokovic, you know, it wasn’t that we spent too much time together. I came to Niki Pilic’s academy at one point and he was before me there, and then I stick to that place, you know, and he was just coming and going.

Basically we were there all around all    during this four, five years when I was practicing there, maybe one month together, you know. So maybe even less.

We had to practice. We had couple of sets. I couldn’t really beat him. But I could beat him on carpet. There was really fast carpet indoors, so I could beat him there.

He was    I told this. He was really professional already at that time. I remember we had a friend. You know, there was one Croatian guy who was all about the girls at that age already. He was dressing up. He was looking good, putting perfume, sunglasses, going to talk to the girls.

I see Novak, he’s going to stretch, you know. And Novak told me that, Yeah, you can have anybody. Can have all the girls in the world, you know. But to be really successful in tennis, you need to    something like that he said to me. I remember it still.

That’s a kid who is 15 years old. I didn’t forget. (Laughter.)

About the job, when did I understand it? I still think it’s not a job. I think it’s half hobby. It’s enjoyable job, very enjoyable job.

Q. The ATP guy says that you’re named after writer Ernest Hemingway. He wrote about sports a bit. Did you ever read his work, take something from it?

ERNESTS GULBIS: Unfortunately not. Unfortunately I trust only two people with books, who is recommending me books. That’s my father and my mother. One book, Gunther recommended me, but that’s a different kind of book.

My mother is pushing me to read something from Hemingway. My father is more giving me some of the more newer stuff, modern stuff. You know, he’s not too much    he’s a walking bibliothèque. We have a lot of books in our country house, and I read some of the Dostoyevsky, you know. But in Russia, for example, we have really good TV, which is basically you watch it and you know exactly what’s in the book, you know.

So he prefers that I read other stuff than what I can watch. And otherwise, I do it through TV, you know.

With Hemingway, it’s a longer conversation why I didn’t read it yet. Maybe afterwards.

Q. What about the S? If you are named after Ernest, why is your name Ernests?

ERNESTS GULBIS: In Latvia, all the men words finish with S and woman words are with A or E. That’s just grammatics.