By Chris Oddo

(March 11, 2013) -- Qualifier and former World No. 21 Ernests Gulbis is getting lots of attention at the BNP Paribas Open, and one of the biggest reasons for that is, well, because he's still in the draw. That may sound funny at first, but for a player with Gulbis's natural ability, deep runs at Masters 1000 tournaments have been relatively few and far between.

Watch: Gulbis Smashes Racquet "For a Fan."

The Latvian hasn't been to the round of 16 at a Masters event since late 2011, and he didn't get past the first round of the two that he actually made the main draw in last year, losing in the first round of qualifying at two others.

But in recent weeks, Gulbis's fortunes have taken a turn for the better. He's won 13 straight matches (including five in qualifying) and he won his first title since 2011 last week in Delray Beach. Additionally, Gulbis been beating good players in tight matches. He has notched four top 25 wins, three top 20 wins, and a top 10 win in his current streak.

Gulbis, still only 24, really does appear to be getting a fresh start under the tutelage of new coach Gunter Bresnik, and even though tennis fans have read those "Gulbis Foregoes Partying Well for Playing Well," headlines before (and many times), there really does seem to be a new level of commitment coming from Gulbis at the moment.

Today he coughed up a first-set lead to Andreas Seppi with some sloppy play, losing five straight games to the Italian. He smashed a racquet and appeared to teeter on the brink of temporary insanity. As the set closed it was easy to imagine Gulbis dropping the second set without a whimper, but he rallied, bought time with some strong service games, and didn’t give Seppi the errors he was looking for.

Eventually, after a long, hard struggle, it was Seppi who cracked when he tried an ill-conceived drop shot and double-faulted on subsequent points to give Gulbis a look at the first break point of the set.

Gulbis took it, and lucky 13 was in the books soon thereafter.

Today’s hard-fought three-setter was the type of match that Gulbis would normally go down in flames in. But battles like these are becoming a proving ground for Gulbis these days. Can the good times keep rolling for Ernests? Or, is this just another tease like his sparkling run to the semifinals in Rome in 2010, in which he nearly took out Federer and Nadal in the same event?

"I want to be in main draw in every tournament, I want to play main draw in all the Masters events, and that's it," Gulbis said in a television interview with Mark Knowles on Monday. "If I win one or two rounds, then I'm dangerous."

Is he really that dangerous? Things have been going well for Gulbis, but are they going well enough for him to knock off Nadal in their fourth-round match this week?

Gulbis isn't intimidated, that's for sure. "I played him a couple times, and I'm confident," he said. "I like to play against him, his game suits me, and we'll see."

Gulbis has lost all four of his previous matches with Nadal, but he has taken a set in three of them. And when they next play, thanks to a walkover that he received today when Leonardo Mayer withdrew from the tournament with a bad back, it will only be Nadal's second hard court match in nearly a year.

Knowles, who called the match with Seppi on Tennis Channel, thinks Gulbis has a shot to beat Nadal, too. "If that were to happen, I really feel it would be an interesting match," said Knowles, before Gulbis had finished off Seppi. "There is a benefit to getting a walkover, but the downside is that it's one less match. Rafael has not played many hard court matches, as we know, in the last year. Gulbis is on a 12-match winning streak, if he wins this it will be 13.

"He's full of confidence. [If he plays Nadal] I will really like his chances."

Knowles, a former World No. 1 doubles player who recently retired, also went on to discuss some of the things that are contributing to Gulbis's success at the moment. Namely, that big, booming serve. "He has such great leg action, really thrusts his body into it, and generates a lot of power through the legs and the hips."

Knowles is also a fan of Gulbis's second serve, which dug him out of trouble many times against Seppi, most notably at 5-4, 30-all, while Gulbis served for the match. "We've seen over the last few weeks, he's been in some big moments and he's not afraid to go for a big second serve at a crucial time," he said.

It’s always been clear that Gulbis can serve, and crack winners with the best of them. But questions still persist as to whether or not he can be strong enough mentally to win ugly when he needs to.

He did it today.

Even if he loses tomorrow against Nadal, Gulbis doesn’t plan on ending his run of fine form yet. “It’s okay, even if I lose tomorrow, it’s not a problem," he said. "I just want this experience against the top guys. If I start to get wins over top ten players, I think anything can happen. I can get more confidence and, win, win, win. Go to quarters, go to semis, who knows?”

(Photo Credit: Yellowtennisballs.com)