TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 1st June 2014. E. Gulbis d. R. Federer 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. An interview with Ernests Gulbis
Q. You didn’t want to tell us earlier what your plan was. You said you didn’t want to reveal your cards. Now, can you tell us how you pulled that off?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don’t know (smiling). The plan was to play more to his backhand and then with my backhand down the line to go for down the line shots. That was the main plan, you know, to not go too much to his forehand, because he has, you know, the nicest and the most dangerous forehand I think in the world.
Yeah, that was the plan. Plan is always to serve well. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes serve is half of the win already.
Q. Was it your back? I mean, you took a timeout.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, it was my back and the hamstring, they were getting a little bit tight.
Yeah, I’m honest, I’m not big on medical timeouts. I don’t like to take it, but I take it when it’s really necessary. It probably was my third medical timeout in life.
I didn’t want to take it in the fifth set, so I took it in the end of the fourth set. Unfortunately it was before his serve. I don’t like to do it, but I just had to do it. Otherwise I was scared a little bit to pull a muscle, and I had already a tear in the muscle in that area. So I just was being cautious.
Q. I think you said on court it was the best win of your career. Why would you say that?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Probably the most important, especially because it was five sets, you know, because I had I beat him before, but it was a three set match, you know. So for my confidence and just for me as a tennis player, a five set win over Roger Federer, it’s really big.
Q. How important was the end of the second set? Do you think that was the key to the match?
ERNESTS GULBIS: There I was lucky, I have to say. I was really lucky then.
In the second set he had a smash and I guess the place, the place where he could I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t move a lot. I stayed in one place. He smashed right onto me. So, yeah, that was a bit lucky.
Q. Do you consider this an upset, your win?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes, for sure. For sure. If you see the rankings, you see everything. It’s a big upset. It’s a big win for me.
Q. Do you think in any way knowing that the crowd here was waiting for any chance it could get to boo you, do you think that kept you on better behavior and maybe your focus tighter than sometimes it can be?
ERNESTS GULBIS: For sure I’m going to behave better here than I would behave in when it’s 10 people watching. Yeah, it’s a mental thing, for sure. This crowd is tough, you know. You have to keep your emotions more in line.
It actually helped me. You know, the less I talk the better I play. I need tough crowd.
Q. Do you actually think that the clay would be your best chance of winning a Grand Slam?
ERNESTS GULBIS: It’s too early for me to say. I like grass also. I like faster surfaces. For me it is all about ways to get used to the surface.
This year I was really happy that I had just one bad tournament on clay. It was Monte Carlo. Because usually, you know, I had two or three bad tournaments in the start of the clay court season.
And I just kept I just started to go, you know, only for Rome and Madrid time usually. And now I started already to play well in Barcelona.
So this was really important for me. This was what I told my coach Gunther, I want to concentrate on the first tournament.
If I can win a Grand Slam, hopefully I can win a Grand Slam on any surface. But if it’s my best, I wouldn’t say that, no
Q. You have been improving on your game and your performance for the last year and a little bit more. What do you think is the key on these improvements, and what do you feel you need to improve more to achieve your further goals?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Hard work and dedication, like Floyd Mayweather said in his interview. Hard work and dedication. That’s the key.
Q. Floyd Mayweather?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes. These are good words. Hard work and dedication. It’s all about hard work. You cannot have good results without hard work. That’s what I understood.
What else I understood is that I start enjoy, you know, things much more if I did my work. I don’t enjoy life to the fullest if I didn’t do my whole life, my job, you know.
You know, this is for everybody of us. We did something good, we work hard for one week and then for sure on Saturday and Sunday we can enjoy that Saturday and Sunday much better.
Or if we stay at home, you know, drink beer all day and not do nothing, Saturday and Sunday, what, it comes again? We get drunk again. It’s only after hard work we can enjoy, we can enjoy life.
That’s what I found out.
