By Mike McIntyre

Ernests Gulbis took a giant step towards living up to his potential with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ivo Karlovic in the final of the Delray Beach International Championships on Sunday. With the victory, Gulbis becomes the first Latvian ever to win an ATP tournament.

“Everything I do it’s the first for my country. I was first one in top 300, first one in top 200, first one in top 100.” Gulbis said. “I think winning a title is a big accomplishment.”

Gulbis realized the importance of his victory for those back home in his native country.

“Of course it’s great. I hope it’s positive. I hope much more players will start to practice in Latvia. It’s good for tennis in Latvia. They see that a guy from Latvia also can make it and win an ATP World Tour event.”

While many will hail this as a defining moment in Gulbis' young career, it is important to look at the quality of the competition he defeated before jumping to conclusions. Karlovic was the only player ranked inside the top fifty that Gulbis had to defeat on his way to the title. 

Still, Karlovic was full of praise even in defeat towards his opponent.

“He was really cool, calm, like nothing could impress him,” said Karlovic, “This year he’s going to make a breakthrough.”

The twenty-one year old has had a strong start to 2010 by taking a set off Roger Federer in Doha and then reaching the semi-finals in Memphis just over a week ago before his victory in Delray Beach.

Now ranked 45th in the world, it will be up to Gulbis to take this confidence and experience to the next level at the larger tournaments on the schedule later this month.

Comments

I've thought since his matches against Blake and Djokovic at the 2008 French Open, that Ernests Gulbis was clearly one of the most talented players in the ATP. Glad to see him finally win a title and I hope he continues to work on his mental game. He's got the potential to win many, many majors.

I don't like his style very much. I don't think we'll see more of this any time soon.