Once a former Top 10 player and Roland Garros semifinalist, Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis is now an unseeded, 80th-ranked sort of no-name. The 27-year-old tells Sport 360’s Reem Abulleil that there’s more than a financial price to pay for dropping in the ATP rankings.
Read Abulleil's Full Interview with Gulbis Here
“It’s such a different world when you’re playing well, when everybody wants you in their tournaments, when everybody puts you on the good courts, when everybody tries to please you,” he said. “Two years ago I played semifinals here, and this year, players who play on Court 18 they’ve been treated like s***,” Gulbis told Abulleil after his first round win in Paris..
Gulbis has never been shy about speaking his mind. He’s always been a candid interview, and he’s developed a reputation for being a creative, deep thinker. But his role as a man of the people, voicing the muffling grievances of the underprivileged, is a new one.
We can expect to hear more from Gulbis if he manages to continue his run in Roland Garros. He’ll face France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Court Philippe Chatrier on Saturday, hoping to book a spot in the second week of a major for the first time since he reached the semifinals in Paris in 2014. Gulbis had gone 3-7 at majors since that 2014 breakthrough, and after achieving a career-high ranking of No.10 in the world in July of 2014, he slithered down all the way to 117 last October.
The drop in ranking has left him among the rank-and-file again, and the experience has been eye-opening for Gulbis. He’s back on the tennis treadmill and finding it hard to make progress because of the politics.
“People in my situation have to beg for practice courts to get a court alone for one hour anytime during the day,” he said. “And then you see seeded players who are there for two hours alone with a coach. How can you compete? We have one hour with four people on court against a guy who has prepared well, everything perfect…” he said. “I don’t know how the system works. Are we living in a democracy where everybody is the same or how does it work? If somebody explains this to me then I will understand then maybe when I reach top-10 again then I will act accordingly. But I don’t want to do it.”