A Gentler Marat? Hey, Safin never spent a night in a Swedish jail for soliciting services from a prostitute.... (or he hasn't, yet.)

Nice to have you on the scene, Steve. This is pretty crushing for those, who like me, thought that Ernests was on a special run. I guess he peaked in Rome. I hope he peaks again this year. It was a nice ride.

I thought he had made significant improvements to his mental game, or was he just shellacking everybody so badly that he didn't need fortitude?

Good for Benneteau - he's an old-school savant.

so happy for the French who so desperartely want one of their own to do well at THEIR FO!!! So understandable.

I bet Gulbis going down when everyone thought he was on a roll(myself included) made for a lot of slit throats bleeding into the suicide pools.

Let's just hope he builds up his confidence in time to get some sweet revenge on Andy at the US Open

Lame writing--you're not as interesting as you think you are writer.

NIce one Steve.

I must say, I am SHOCKED and very dissapointed in Gulbis(who I was just starting to get excited about). Its a pity that he's not mentally there when he needs to be. So much for my bracket, I had Gulbis losing in 5 sets to Fed in the QFs.

So sad to see Mr. Gulbis leave. What a downer. Hope he gets that hamstring attended to and pays attention to his team. Geez ... what a let down for the guy. And, Steve, you are right. His serve is a thing of beauty to witness. Best thing I've seen from a new-comer. I hope he doesn't hate tennis enough to stay with it, if it means he's doing it for someone else. That'd be the road not worth traveling.

Unlike Marat, Gulbis is a very late starter. He's 21 and done nothing so far to justify the hype. Marat could have perhaps achieved more but he won a Slam at 20.

Thanks for this really nice piece. Ernests is my favorite player and I really hope his injury is minor and he will have a great grass season.

Bennetau always plays well at Roland Garros! I'm a little surprised Gulbis wasnt ready for it. Hope he does develop some fire, maybe like Verdasco, showing that talent and hard work can pay big dividends.

steve, thank you for writing this. i hated ernests for losing today, for not being there, for not looking for the match. i promised i wouldn't watch him anymore and demote him from my favorites list. But after reading your piece, i felt better and understood him a bit better. thank you for being at roland garros.
also, "Safin played out of an albatross-like obligation to his talent". nobody said it better.

After being slapped around by a few more fellow pros (to whom all this IS a big deal), I hope that Gulbis finds out this tennis thingie is a bit bigger deal to him than it is at the moment.

Or maybe he tries playing oboe for a while, just to prove to himself that he can.

Great talent, jaded person. Marat was maybe pushed into it, but at least he tried as much as his nature allowed him. Gulbis just dabbles, while talking like a sleazy old man.

Give the guy a break, it is just one match, and he injured himself anyways...how could anybody draw any conclusions from this?

Had my eye on him since his run at the USO in '07....clean cut and babyfaced:

http://tinyurl.com/34qav8m

As a fan of Gumy, I hope Gulbis ends his season on a high note.

I sincerely hope that Ernie's possible injury is healed and better by Wimbledon. I just thought that he might make a lot of noise there. Disappointing today.

Hmmmm. Really too bad for Gulbis. I can think of no other athletes, in any sport, of a comparable background. Sure, Nadal comes from money, but his family is nowhere near the wealth of Gulbis' father (the 3rd wealthiest person in Latvia). Even conservatively, it seems his father is worth a couple hundred million. So, from where does one find the motivation to win at tennis if it's not the fame/fortune? Put differently, I believe than many of the modern players who have fallen far short of their potential (e.g., Safin, Nalbandian, Blake, etc.) did so because they made so much $$ on and off the court that winning consistently, or rather, living up to their talent, just wasn't a necessity. And that goes double for Gulbis. So, that he's achieved any success at all as an athlete is somewhat amazing. But I do wish him good luck. He's a great player and handsome kid and he could achieve so much in tennis if he gave it 110%.

"—Gulbis appears to be wiry bordering on skinny on TV, and while he’s not exactly thick, like most pros he’s taller and more physically imposing in person, as if he just grew two inches since last week."

So true Steve! I saw him at Indian Wells and was surprised at how much taller he looks in person.

Sad to see him go out so early at RG. I was really looking forward to some of his pressers. He is very "Marat-like" in that way. Guess I will wait to hear from another presser fave, Andy Roddick.

Great you are on the ground in Paris Steve. Looking forward to more!

Geellis - Alberto Tomba in alpine skiiing and Nelson Piquet in F1 racing came from wealthy (multi million) background. Both were fierce competitors.

this guy is not like marat he is a fag, bad attitude, annoying, and ugly

I liked Gulbis, and I liked his chances at this French Open. But I am beginning to dislike him. I think he is becoming another spoiled brat of a tennis player whose love for the game is half-hearted and whose work habits are at best mercurial. I wonder when he would become a really serious tennis player who has clearly set goals for himself. If this is not a serious option, then maybe he can just go back to Daddy and be emotionally asleep all his life. What a waste.

"Sure, Nadal comes from money, but his family is nowhere near the wealth of Gulbis' father "

I've seen similar comments about Nadal but it's my understanding that's not quite true. I have read that yes, his family was comfortable and had a certain standing in their town (e.g. his grandfather was the mayor for a time), but Rafa's father owned a door and glass store. It allowed the family a reasonable standard of living but it was more recently he then, with his brothers, made some real estate investments which worked out very well for them.

It's not really important as it's obvious Rafa's family instilled admirable values in Rafa as he was growing up but I think it misconstrues his background to say he 'came from money'. I think he came from a solid middle class milieu.

nice piece steve. I hope Gulbis, or shall we call him Marat Jr. :) finds a way to be more consistent then Safin, and up to this point he, has been, I could get used to seeing this guy in the 2nd week of majors very easily. Especially since it seems to me as though we've been dealing with the same players for awhile, a fresh face would be cool.

And let us not foirget that Benneteau has a win over Federer, too. He can play witht reh big boys. But I;m sorry for Ernests, whom I have liked since I first saw him hit a forehand three or four years ago. I don;t think we've seen the last of him. And I also think that his aloofness, his insouciance, is not manufactured and not due to his money. I think he has a genuine perspective about life, the game, his chances at winning a big title, etc. Of course, realists rarely make the big breakthroughs, only idealists are up to the task. Still, go Ernests!

nicely to have you on the ground Steve! Thought when the match started that ernie looked a bit flat. Compliment to how he's been playing that I thought he'd pull it together and battle in out. Really to bad about the injury, if that had happened it could have been a really entertaining match. Still, great win for benny, he seems to be one french player who really does seem to punch above his weight in front of the home crowd.

Sad to see Gulbis go this early, but I guess he can afford it. I just hope a nothing-to-lose attitude will truly liberate him in the form of GS trophies...And yet, who are we really to pass judgment and get disappointed at his losses? Ernests may yet be tennis' most humanly practical realist.

cool post, steve.

agree with s/d. the attitude is not manufactured.

and finally someone has said something about his refreshing honesty, which is not contrived or hypocritical.

Too bad for Ernests, but hopefully he'll grow out of the easy-injury stage. And, on the positive side, a great win for Julien, a nice guy who deserves to win.

By the way, and unrelated, could someone assume the responsibility of teaching the broadcasters how to pronounce CORRECTLY the names of the players. Example: John McEnroe who insists on saying MON FEEL when everyone else is saying MOAN FEAS for Gael Monfils. Benneteau is also advancing, so have the announcers learn how to pronounce EAU in french, as in Eau de Cologne. If nothing else, listen to the referees when they introduce or mention the players. This is SO ANNOYING!!! They're getting respectable bucks and should at least pronounce names right. They can say RAFA, but not RAFA EL... it becomes Rafayel (listen to Bill McAffee).........

Thanks

Thanks for the good article.

hope Gulbis lives up to his potential (which is huge) and helps make the ATP entertaining.

Actually, Gulbis reminds me a little of McEnroe, in personality, or of certain other whimsical or quotable players. Actually Ivan Lendl was and remains quite a quote machine.

The kid is not done because he lost a match, on clay, to a decent French player. If this is the same Benneteau I saw playing doubles at IW about 8 years ago - and I honestly don't remember if it was he or another French player now retired - he's big and talented.

Gulbis' game is made for hard courts. It's made for fast hard courts. It's made for power, flat-balling tennis and relatively short rallies. I know he hits with top and can play on clay also, but his temperament and strokes are just made for Flushing Meadows. If he ever becomes a true professional athlete - and he has not yet - then Ernests' big chance to make his mark on the game would be in 2-4 US Open wins.

Larry,
I thought exactly the same about his style of play - better suited for hard courts, obviously. But what worries me is that he hasn't got the patience to hang in there when things don't go his way, no matter what surface. He seems to be unstable emotionally and for a while I put it down to youth, but then somebody pointed out that Marat won the US Open at 20 and then Rafa was even younger. I don't think it's the age. I just hope Gumy, or somebody, can help him with managing his emotions better.
As for him being realistic, somebody pointed out earlier that it's not the realists, but the idealists, that win big, and I think it's true. Realistically, Rafa should have never beaten Roger at Wimbledon and AO, but he did. As the Nike ad for the World Cup says: "You write the future"

"Gulbis’ attitude is refreshing for its honesty, and a little disappointing in its complacency. The sportsmen's ideal of hard work and love of competition may be a crock, a form of social control, a way to sell racquets and shoes, but, as unrealistic and unfair as it is, we do want to feel that our athletes are emotionally invested enough to be crushed by their defeats."

You summed it up beautifully, Steve. Great article, as always.

It's not that he lost a match, and it's not that he's rich. It's that he's extremely talented at tennis and, judging by his interviews, commits to it less than halfheartedly and gives smart-ass explanations for that.

How many people are lucky to be extremely talented at something? Most people are without any talent and spend their life doing something for which they have no real aptitude nor interest. He does not realize how lucky he is to be so good at something. Very stupid attitude to be partying and womanizing at 21 like any untalented young guy would do.

He might as well find something else to do other than tennis, it's way too difficult. He would be happier and have more time to enjoy life.

pgvoz: Perhaps announcers are getting the pronunciation of Nadal's name from the official ATP website, which says: "Pronounced: ra-FAY-el nah-DAHL"

And by the way, it's Bill Macatee, not McAffee.

Gulbis made a choice last autumn hiring Gumy and from a hobby, he finally decided to approach tennis as his work.
Gumy said that he had never saw a tennis player in such a bad physical form.
He had then paletta problem...which is now corrected by a better muscular fitness.

So sad he injured himself at the beginning of the 2nd set, he should have retired then but decided to go on
with the match relying only on his strokes and not being able to produce big serve with a bad hamstring.
The final score looks bad for those who have not witness the match and his consequences.

He made huge progress in 6 months, many QF, SF, and a title...climbing from 99 to 27 in ranking.
We will see him back and are very lucky to witness such beautiful game when he is on court.
I miss him already and the tennis field as well.

He was joking during interviews most of the time... (including the latest 'no big deal' thing). The ranking and the result will show how he's committed to the sport.

A little late for the comment, Steve, but in case you're still checking on this thread - just wanted to say great column. I've always been captivated by EG and, the first time I heard an interview with him, I immediately thought of Marat. His voice (which I actually think is low, not high) and his droll sense of humor immediately conjured up Safin for me. I've seen Ernests close up at IW and, to me, he is big and athletic looking like Safin and, obviously, has the big shots and a big serve, probably bigger. I hope he gets his act and physical condition together. What an amazing talent. (Although I have to say I don't get the comments that sling mud at him for his attitude. It's his life - if he wants to play, he'll play and if not he won't. Relax folks.)