Ernests Gulbis won his first title of his career. Gulbis is actually a peer of Novak Djokovic but has struggled due to lack of focus and training. The 21 year old went through a hot mess period, but it now looks like the Latvian could be looking forward to a new era.

This fall, Gulbis hired Hernan Gumy, who was Marat Safin’s last coach and turned the Russian champion around after he lost focus. The current world no. 72 had never been past the quarterfinals of a tournament until last week in Memphis where he made it to the semifinals.

Gulbis was able to mount another impressive run this week in Delray Beach. He made it to the final without dropping a set. Despite drawing the always-troublesome Ivo Karlovic, he made easy work of the Croat with a 6-2 6-3 victory to secure the first title of his career.

Hopefully, Hernan can continue to turn the Latvian’s career around. It would be a shame if Gulbis did not live up to his potential.

(Image: AP)

Ernests Gulbis took out third-seed Radek Stepanek 7-6(5) 7-5 in their second-round matchup. The Latvian secures a spot in the quarterfinals against the winner of the Russell-Berdych match. The 21 year old has yet to make it to the semifinals in an ATP event so far in his career.

The Latvian showed promise a few years ago when he was at a career-high of 38, but there has not been a lot to write about the Latvian ON the tennis court in the last year. Off the court, he was embroiled in the case of the mystery tennis player busted for solicitation of a prostitute in Sweden last year. Oops.

The Latvian started off this year with a good run in Doha where he lost to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He then lost in the opening rounds of the Australian Open and San Jose. This week, the current world no. 99 is off to a good start with two-straight wins.

In the other upset of the day, Xavier Malisse upset fourth-seed Tommy Haas 6-4 3-6 6-4 in the German-American’s Memphis debut. The Belgian now has a large task of dealing with Ivo Karlovic and his big serve in the second round.

Malisse missed most of his 2007 year with a wrist injury. Since the time off the Belgian has struggled on the main tour and played mostly on the Challenger tour for much of 2008. Last week, he sent home Radek Stepanek, the defending champion in San Jose, in the first round but then lost in the following round. This week his victim is Tommy Haas. Now, all the Belgian has to do is follow up his upset with some more wins.

Preview:
City: Memphis, TN, USA
Surface: Indoor Hard

Championship Points: 500
2009 Singles Champion: Andy Roddick
2009 Doubles Champion: Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles
Draws: Singles | Doubles

Wednesday’s Results
Singles First Round
1 Andy Roddick (USA) def. James Blake (USA) 6-3 4-6 7-6(3)
Xavier Malisse (BEL) def. 4 Tommy Haas (GER) 6-4 3-6 6-4
8 Sam Querrey (USA) def. Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-2 6-3
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) def. Mardy Fish (USA) 6-4 6-0

Doubles First Round
WC S. Lipsky (USA)/D. Martin (USA) def. B. Becker (GER)/J. Chardy (FRA) 7-5 6-2

Singles Second Round
Ernests Gulbis (LAT) def. 3 Radek Stepanek (CZE) 7-6(5) 7-5
6 John Isner (USA) def. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4
Philipp Petzschner (GER) def. Evgeny Korolev (KAZ) 7-6(5) 7-6(5)

Thursday’s Order of Play

(Image:[Irina])

Alejandro Falla denied Ernest Gulbis from qualifying yesterday. He beat the Latvian 7-6 (5) 7-5. The Columbian now draws Israeli Dudi Sela in the first round. Sela has been on a roll of sorts lately, so the matchup should be interesting.


The Qualifiers Are . . .
Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP), Julien Benneteau (FRA), Jesse Levine (USA), Milos Raonic (CAN), Jan Hernych (CZE), Alejandro Falla (COL) and Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA)


Monday’s Order of Play


(Image: Denise/tennisfiend)

Not known for his consistency, Marat Safin – pictured keeping it real – rallied to prevail over Latvian Ernest Gulbis 2-6 6-3 6-4 in Los Angeles today. The Russian, who is retiring this year, has now won two matches in a row to advance into the quarterfinals. Let’s hope he continues his winning ways this week.

(Image: Getty Images/Stephen Dunn)

The Germans are off to a good start. Nicolas Kiefer rallied to defeat Ernest Gulbis 2-6 6-3 6-2 after 92 minutes of play. The Latvian youngster has shown promise in previous years. Gulbis continues to struggle this year and recently fired his coach.

As for Kiefer, he now advances to play Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, who handled Evgeny Korolev pretty easily. The two players have never met in ATP competition. It will be the battle of the veteran versus the youngster.

The other German Philipp Kohlschreiber, who won the singles and doubles titles in 2007, advanced over compatriot Bjorn Phau after Phau had to retire due to a hand injury. He awaits the winner of the Cilic-Kindlmann match.


Sunday Results
Singles First Round
Nicolas Almagro (ESP) def. Jan Hernych (CZE) 6-3 6-4

Doubles First Round
E. Gulbis (LAT)/I. Kunitsyn (RUS) def. P. Starace (ITA)/M. Vassallo Arguello (ARG) 6-3 6-4

Monday Results
And The Qualifiers Are . . .
Thiemo De Bakker (NED) def. Marco Crugnola (ITA) 4-6 6-1 6-2
Dieter Kindlmann (GER) def. Stephane Bohli (SUI) 6-2 6-4
Alexander Peya def. Lamine Ouahab (ALG) 6-4 6-2
Sascha Kloer (GER) def. Amer Delic (USA) 7-5 4-6 7-6(0)

Singles First Round
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) def. Ivo Minar (CZE) 6-3 7-6(5)
Nicolas Kiefer (GER) def. Ernest Gulbis (LAT) 2-6 6-3 6-2
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) def. Bjorn Phau (GER) 6-2 2-1 Ret’d
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) def. Evgeny Korolev (RUS) 6-3 6-3

Doubles First Round
WC D. Gremelmayr (GER)/ D. Meffert (GER) def. Alt P. Marx(GER)/F. Moser (GER) 3-6 6-3 10-1
4 R. Bopanna (IND)/T. Parrott (USA) def. N. Almagro (ESP)/S. Prieto (ARG) 6-4 5-7 10-8

Tuesday’s Matches
Singles First Round
2 Marin Cilic (CRO) vs. Q Dieter Kindlmann (GER)
4 Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs. Q Sascha Kloer (GER)
5 Rainer Schuettler (GER) vs. Q Thiemo De Bakker (NED)
7 Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) vs. LL Lamine Ouahab (ALG)
8 Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) vs. Potito Starace (ITA)
WC Andreas Beck (GER) vs. Mischa Zverev (GER)
Martin Vassallo Arguello (ARG) vs. Denis Gremelmayr (GER)
Q Alexander Peya (AUT) vs. Julien Benneteau (FRA)
WC Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs. Philipp Petzschner (GER)
WC Daniel Brands (GER) vs. Stefan Koubek (AUT)
LL Stephane Bohli (SUI) vs. Simone Bolleli (ITA)

Doubles First Round
2 A. Fisher (AUS)/J. Kerr (AUS) vs. Alt M. Crugnola (ITA)/C. Haggard
N. Kiefer (GER)/M. Zverev (GER) vs. J. Cerretani (USA)/J. Chardy (FRA)

Tuesday’s Order of Play

(Image: dpa)

A pastry shop in Barcelona makes a life-size sculpture of Nadal out of chocolate cake in time for Easter in the video above (Rafael Nadal)
Roger Federer gets married (Roger Federer)
Tommy Robredo organizes a wheelchair tennis tournament in honor of a friend (Tommy Robredo)
Ernest Gulbis parts ways with his coach (Importance of Being Ernest)
Richard Gasquet pulls out of Monte Carlo due to a shoulder injury (Reuters)
Federer take a last-minute wildcard for Monte Carlo (CBS)
Davis Cup venues announced (ESPN)
Ivo Karlovic will make a hip-hop album (Croatian Times)
Marat Safin's sister will be the women's number one (BBC)

City: Houston, Texas, USA
Surface: Outdoor Clay
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Marcel Granollers
2008 Doubles Champions: Ernest Gulbis/Rainer Schuettler

Marcel Granollers will be on hand to defend his title. James Blake, Mardy Fish and Lleyton Hewitt will also be there. The tournament is on clay, so there will probably be no trouble from them. Look for Jeremy Chardy to cause a little bit of trouble in the top part of the draw. Also, there is always a possibility that Guillermo Canas could awake from his tennis slumber and surprise someone.

Ernest Gulbis and Rainer Schuettler will not defend their title. The Bryan Brothers, Fisher/Kerr, Ker/Damm and Huss/Hutchins will all be in the mix. Parrott/Polasek are having a good year, but Filip Polasek is not playing in the tournament. Travis Parrott is instead teamed up with the big, serving John Isner. This pairing could be interesting.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

Monday’s Matches
Qualifying Third Round
Donald Young (USA) vs. Scoville Jenkins (USA)
Michael Russell (USA) vs. Filip Krajinovic (SRB)
Alexander Peya (AUT) vs. Jesse Levine (USA)
Amer Delic (USA) vs. Giovanni Lapentti (ECU)

Singles First Round
3 Juergen Melzer (AUT) vs. Robert Kendrick (USA)
8 Maximo Gonzalez (ARG) vs. Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)
Wayne Odesnik (USA) vs. Kevin Anderson (RSA)
Evgeny Korolev (RUS) vs. Leonardo Mayer (ARG)

Doubles First Round
D. Martin (USA)/S. Querrey (USA) vs. J. Isner (USA)/T. Parrott (USA)
J. Blake (USA)/M. Fish (USA) vs. A. Delic (USA)/R. Kendrick (USA)

Monday’s Order of Play

(Image: Emily Jaschke)

Top-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia lost to a qualifier, Ivan Dodig from Croatia. Two other Croatians, Mario Ancic and Ivo Karlovic move through to the next round.

The match-up of the day was the up-and-coming Ernest Gulbis from Latvia and Russian Dimitry Tursunov. The match lasted almost two hours with the Latvian besting the Russian veteran. Gulbis meets Dodig in the next round.


Singles:

Ivan DODIG def. Igor ANDREEV 6-1 6-4
Ernest GULBIS def. Dimitry TURSUNOV 4-6 6-4 6-4
Mario ANCIC def. Lukas Lacko 6-4 6-7(6) 7-5
Jan HERNYCH def. Nikola MEKTIC 6-3 7-5
Mischa ZVEREV def. Andreas SEPPI 7-6(4) 3-6 6-2
Viktor TROICKI def. Simone BOLELLI 6-3 6-4
Sergiy STAKHOVSKY def. Dominik HRBATY 6-2 4-6 6-1
Ivo KARLOVIC def. Philipp PETZSCHNER 6-3 6-4
Evgeny KOROLEV def, Jurgen MELZER 6-4 6-0

DOUBLES:

M. DAMM/R. LINDSTEDT def. I. DODIG/E. ELESKOVIC 6-3 4-6 10-8
F. SKUGOR/J. TOPIC def. M. GICQUEL/P. MATHIEU 4-6 6-4 10-8
C. KAS/R. WASSEN def. M. CILIC/L. ZOVKO 6-4 7-6(11)