After suffering his twelfth opening-round defeat of 2015, is the mercurial talent of Ernests Gulbis destined to be one of the biggest unfulfilled potentials in the men’s game?
Just over 12 months ago Ernests Gulbis was the darling of the tennis world having swept aside Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych at the French Open en route to his maiden Grand Slam semi-final.
While he ultimately went down in the last four to old foe Novak Djokovic, the Latvian’s heroics at Roland Garros saw him break the top ten for the first time in his career, as the much-heralded talent finally looked set take the tour by storm.
Back to 2015 and Gulbis is languishing outside the world’s top 70 for the first time since March 2013.
Gulbis’ 6-3 (5), 6-7, 6-3 defeat to Juan Monaco at Hamburg’s bet-at-home Open on Tuesday marked his twelfth opening-round defeat in the 17 tournaments he has played this year. Of the other five, he has made it only as far as round two.
The 26-year-old has won just five of 17 matches this season, on a losing streak that is as worrying as it is unfathomable.
Named after feted American author Ernest Hemingway, Gulbis’ mercurial talent was evident right from a young age.
Backed by his oligarch father, a 12-year-old Gulbis was packed off to the Niki Pilić Tennis Academy to hone his burgeoning skills, where he came across another talented youngster in the form of a teenage Djokovic.
The two would go on to become boyhood friends, but even at that early age, Djokovic noted Gulbis’ tendency to be distracted by temptations away from the court, something that would characterise his professional career.
The early signs looked for good for the Jurmala native. While still a fresh-faced 19-year-old, he made it to the fourth round of the US open, before defeating seventh seed James Blake, en route to the quarter-finals of the French.
However, following the early Grand Slam progress that saw him break the world’s top-50 as a teenager, Gulbis would go on to advance beyond the third round of a major on only one other occasion; his 2014 semi-final run at Roland Garros.
There were glimmers of hope during the intervening six years. Six singles titles were won, albeit all relatively low-level ATP 250 events, and a couple of forays were made close to the world’s top 20.
But nothing the kind of elegant skills possessed by Gulbis, promised from his early days on the tour.
Talent has never been the problem, but his desire to walk on the wild side of life has continuously proved incompatible with on-court success.
Prostitutes, prison and partying all took its toll on the young Latvian’s rankings position, but the man himself nonchalantly brushed aside concerns over his lifestyle.
When pressed on a night spent in the cells after a liaison with a call girl Gulbis told reporters: “It was very funny. I think every person should go to jail once, as it’s interesting.”
With the support of a billionaire family, Gulbis lacked financial drive to succeed on tour, but similarly the passion to reach the top, describing his emotions on winning titles as “an empty feeling”.
With the wisdom that maturity brings, Gulbis finally realised the only person he was deluding was himself and in 2013 began to bin the drinking, drugs and smoking.
The clean-up act appeared to pay off, with titles five and six and that maiden Grand Slam semi-final appearance in 2014 all leading to Gulbis enjoyed a career-best year-end ranking of 13, despite suffering from a shoulder injury throughout the second half of the season.
While Gulbis should be credited for turning his fortunes around, much of the accolades can go to Austrian coach Gunter Bresnik.
Bresnik, a former coach of Boris Becker, does not concern himself with trying to discipline his unpredictable charge, but has instead channelled his energy since the pair linked up in 2012 into honing Gulbis’ instinctive raw talent .
Under the 54-year-old, gone are the erratic forehands and uncontrollable groundstrokes, to be replaced by more streamlined and aggressive shots, while Gulbis’ backhand has been turned into a thing of beauty.
Before Bresnik, who also looks after 21-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem, Gulbis would go through coaches at an alarming rate. Guillermo Cañas, Darren Cahill, Karl Heinz Wetter, Hernán Gumy – all men who attempted to tame the free-spirited youngster.
The pair split briefly in April this year, but have now reunited following Gulbis’ alleged brief liaison with Swedish former world number four, Thomas Enqvist.
Gulbis has come on immeasurably under the tutelage of Bresnik, but the Austrian veteran could struggle to lift his charge out of the latest malaise should the former world number ten struggle to recapture his own desire to win.
Gulbis remains the only Latvian ever to compete at a major event, but has failed to build on his solitary Grand Slam semi-final appearance, while his contemporary Djokovic now has nine major titles in the cabinet.
Gulbis’ aggressive, offensive style means consistency can often be a problem, but a drop of 70 places in the world rankings over the course of a year is much more than that.
Tuesday’s defeat to Monaco at the Am Rothenbaum will more than likely see him slide a little further down the rankings, as last year’s Roland Garros victory over Federer becomes an increasingly distant memory.
That slide could well just be the beginning with the arrival of the US Open Series. Gulbis has won just one of eight matches on hard courts this season, including his shock 7-5 0-6, 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-8 Australian Open defeat to wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Such is Gulbis’ ability, peers and supporters alike continue to hold the unwavering belief that the Latvian will one day clinch the Grand Slam he is more than capable of winning.
Whether he has the inclination to climb his way back up the rankings one further time in an attempt to live up to that talent remains to be seen.
