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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 7, 2018

Ernests Gulbis

Wimbledon, London, England

E. GULBIS/A. Zverev

7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You had some ups and downs in your career. How does this victory today rate?
ERNESTS GULBIS: As an up (smiling). Definitely an upside.

Q. He said he was sick in the previous match. Did you notice in the fifth set?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I saw that he was getting tired in the fifth set. I was feeling physically really, really good. I started to play smarter. I tried to move him more. I realized that he was getting tired, yes, so...

Q. What did you do well today against Zverev?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Well, if I talk about the fourth and the fifth set, I started to return much better. I started to go further back on the return. The sun went down. The courts got a little bit slower. I think it played in my favor.

Then, yeah, as soon as I could get the return in, the game started. I wasn't going for every shot winner. I think that was smart.

Q. It seems that you're quite composed any time something isn't going well for you in matches recently.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Recently (laughter).

Q. Is that something you're particularly proud of?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Of course, I'm proud of qualifying here. I'm proud of winning three five-set matches. Of course, in this match in particular because I was two sets to one down.

The fourth set, if I'm not mistaken, it was 2-All and Love-40 on my serve. I mean, doesn't matter how he felt the day before, sick or not sick, if he would break me in that game, he would win the match. He was playing really well.

Of course, I'm proud of just hanging in there and not giving up after also losing the third set, when I was serving for the set. Of course, I'm really happy about it.

Q. Can you sum up your journey from semifinals Roland Garros and to where you're at now? What happened in all that time?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Follow me. You should follow my results. I was talking to a lot of press during this time. It's not like I was somewhere completely out of zone. I just was struggling with some injuries. I was half a year completely out. I didn't play. It was last year.

Yeah, I was on and off with my coach, Gunter Bresnik. Now we're back together. As soon as we're back together, put in the work for at least half a year, the results are coming. It was the same story in 2013. The results started to come after approximately half a year of work. This time it's the same thing. I started to work with him last year little bit before Wimbledon, then we weren't completely back together. Then after US Open I started to work with him almost full-time, as much time as he could give me. So yeah, this is the story I think.

Q. He's ranked more than a hundred spots ahead of you, but you have a lot more experience winning matches at Grand Slams than he does. How much do you think that helped today?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I think that he's a future Grand Slam winner. I mean, the way he plays. He will find his way. Of course, today I found a way better than he did. Probably the experience kicked in. Probably the fitness level kicked in. He's going to find his way. Everybody does.

He has a good team around him, people who know how to work, who know what to give him, these extra things. I think that he's going to be able to do it.

Q. A week ago you were in qualifying. You compared the lawn to your back garden.
ERNESTS GULBIS: The practice courts. The match courts were really good.

Q. You couldn't get cold water. A week later you beat the world No. 3 on Court 1. The last week, has it felt long or short?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Time is relative. Of course, it felt like another tournament. If you play qualifying in Roehampton, it really feels like another tournament with everything. With how they treat players, with the stuff which you're able to get, just like day and night.

Yes, it is what it is. I'm glad that I went through it. It makes me stronger mentally. Yeah, it is what it is.

Q. Compared to the level of players you played, say, in qualifying, how different is the level right now? We're seeing a lot of upsets. Does it feel like things are more equal than they have been?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I think that a lot of players who would be thrown in the challenger tour right now from the top 100, a lot of players would struggle because there is so many good players ranked from 100 to 200, even 250 to 300. They all can play.

Of course, if you play against them on a big stage, on a center court where you're used to, then a guy comes ranked 200 in the world, he's not used to the big stage, he's not going to feel in his zone of comfort. He's going to feel in some way maybe nervous.

If you go to their turf, to their challenger level, it's not easy. All the guys can play, yeah.

Q. You just said Sascha will find his way. What is missing at the moment?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't know. I'm not his coach.

Q. Is there something you could see today, a lapse of concentration, was it physical, experience?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't know really. I was so, so focused on myself. I just saw that he was getting tired in the fifth set. This is what I saw. It's the only thing what I can say. I don't know what was going through his mind. This I don't know. I was really focused on my own thoughts.

Q. Fourth set fifth game you fought hard. Felt like there was a little momentum change. You came in a few times. Were you trying to do anything different at that point?
ERNESTS GULBIS: To be honest, I don't remember now the game on 2-All. I asked my coach now. He told me. I don't remember. I don't remember what I was thinking. I have to see the video, then the memory is going to come back.

Really, I think in the end of the fourth set, like I said, I was just trying to return the first serve further back, and it was working. That was the biggest change.

Q. Talk about your possible next opponents, Nick or Kei. Nick is quite exciting for some people to watch. What are your thoughts?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I have no thoughts really. I go match by match. Whoever comes, it's good. 6-1, 5-4. They're both really good players. Both have strengths and weaknesses. Maybe Nick is a bit more dangerous on grass court as Kei. Kei is probably more solid, so...

Q. It's the first time in history that there's more than one Latvian player in the second week of a Grand Slam. How cool is it?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Cool.

Q. Do you think people back home notice something like that?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Back home it's big, of course, because we don't have a lot of athletes. We're a small nation. Not a lot of people in general in our country. Whatever happens, it's big, whatever sport it is. If it is basketball, football, running, whatever. It's just big, so... It's not like every week we have 10 different results of athletes. It's big.

Q. You have one of the more unique forehands in the game. Have you developed a lot of comfort with it? Are you still tinkering with it? Is it still the same as four or five years ago?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I never cared the way it looks. I only care the way it feels for me. I was always saying that I always tried to find that my stroke is just relaxed, the swing is relaxed. This is what I've been focusing on. How it looks, if it's here and there some changes, I don't pay attention to it.

After a while, when I was starting to play worse, I had some shoulder problems, I was trying to compensate some motions on the forehand side. It went downhill. The motion wasn't any more relaxed. That was, yeah, two years ago.

Q. Roger Federer said he'd like to play as long as he can so his kids will realize that he played. Are you planning on playing six or eight more years?
ERNESTS GULBIS: We have YouTube (laughter).

I don't know. I haven't been thinking about it. Yeah, I haven't been thinking about it really.

Q. You talked about challengers. Your ranking is going to go pretty far up, might avoid challengers for a while. Is that happy news for you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: That is really happy news. It's tough in the challengers. There is a lot of good players. I mean, I didn't win a challenger. I've been playing a lot of them lately and I didn't win one. My best result was in Bordeaux before Paris. It was semifinal. That's where I started to play well in matches. First time I won three matches in a row after more than three years' break. I did the same in Paris. I did the same in Wimbledon, here. This is where it started.

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