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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN

February 21, 2011

Ernests Gulbis

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

E. GULBIS/M. Berrer
6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Good to get off to a good start in each set, wasn't it?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Very good, yeah.

Q. Set up nicely for the rest of the set.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Rest of the year or for the rest of the week?

Q. Each set today.
ERNESTS GULBIS: No, I'm happy. It's first win after a long time for me, because I skipped Rotterdam because I was sick, and in Marseilles I didn't feel so well.
I came here a bit early, on Thursday, and practiced hard and good. So I reach some kind of condition which I'm able to play good tennis.

Q. Must be pleased with the way you played today then.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, it was tough in the beginning. I was lucky actually to win the first break, because he missed a lot of shots.
But in the end of second set, I was really pleased the way I played.

Q. Your serve seemed to be going well in the second set.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, slowly. Before the match and practice, my serve wasn't going really well. The more I play, the more I just stay on court with more hours, the better everything will get.
Now it's better than three days ago by like 200%.

Q. You said you were feeling sick. Coming out of the match, do you feel like you could have gone longer?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, sure. Today I felt good. I mean, yeah, in Marseilles, I couldn't -- I lost the first set, and then second set I just physically broken down.
Now I could do go more because, yeah, I did good practice.

Q. What was your illness? Was it a flu or something?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Virus, drip virus. Drip, you know, when you have here (indicating his chest) full, and nose, everything.

Q. Why, Ernests, did you not play in the States this spring? You did very well, didn't you, last year in Memphis and you won Delray Beach, didn't you?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah.

Q. You obviously had a lot of points to defend.
ERNESTS GULBIS: First of all, I'm from Europe. I enjoy a lot to be in Europe more than I do in America. In Europe I can go between tournaments to home. For example, after this tournament I'm going to go two days home at least.
If I would play Delray Beach, I would have to go longer stretch, like two months in USA. It's not that much, but in the end it still affect you in the end. Last week of Miami, if you're there, already you're sick of traveling.
So basically that's the most important point. And also, here is the 500 tournament; Delray Beach is 250 this week. So my ranking allows me to play here. I'm seeded here by the chance. A little bit lucky that I got seeded, but that's the two points.

Q. Have you before played three different German player in first round of three tournaments in a row? It's happened before?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't know.

Q. Serious question. People always say how talented are. I'm curious, because talent is intangible. Cannot be measured quantitatively. In tennis, how did you tell if a player is talented or not?
ERNESTS GULBIS: If you're inside of tennis, you see a kid growing up, you immediately can tell if he has a feeling for the ball or not.
There are kids - sorry to say - but they cannot catch a ball. Somebody a natural, they are catching the ball and throwing the ball. I was dribbling already at the age of two with the basketball.
So you can see right away if a kid's got some skills or not. If you see somebody playing, you see after five minutes if he has feeling, if he has touch. That's it. Very easy to say.

Q. How important talent in tennis is? Do you think it's most important thing, or it just can carry you for a certain amount of distance?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No, I think nowadays more important is the hard work because it's so physical, the game. Talent, of course, I mean, if you look top 10, all of them are talented guys. There is nobody who is not sports guy who reach the top. You have to be, of course.
Has to be a lot stuff just combined. Everything. Everybody is going to answer you the same.

Q. Obviously you are seeded here, and I think Michael was a wild card. When you saw the draw, is it a concern when you face a wild card or a qualifier?
ERNESTS GULBIS: I prefer not to look at the draw at all. My coach tells me who I play. I had no idea what's Michael's ranking. I know maybe top 10 players by ranking, but the rest, if it's 40 or 70, I have no idea because the ranking changes every month. So I'm not a freak who's looking on the Internet the ranking. So I know that he's a wild card just before the match. I saw the draw in the player lounge and I saw he's a wild card. But I wasn't sure.
I played him twice already before; twice I win. I know him as a player. I was happy that I play against him, because his game style suits me well. He's hitting the ball with spin, and I can go with nice altitude for me. I like to play against him.

Q. What about the court? It's seemingly quite fast.
ERNESTS GULBIS: It's strange, because when it's sunshine it's very fast. The balls are fast and the court is sliding a lot.
When it's no sun, in the end of second set, it was all the balls and no sun when it was -- we had a long game when I was serving, and then I had a breakpoints chances, next game, second set, 4-2 or 4-3, something like that, and then the balls didn't fly at all. It was really slow.
When they changed to new balls and the sun is up, it's really fast. So it's during the match changes a lot.

Q. Obviously Andy Murray has withdrawn with a wrist injury, and the top two seeds are at opposite ends of the draw. You're a seed here; a talented player. Do you have hopes to go far in this tournament?
ERNESTS GULBIS: No, I don't. (Laughter.) Yeah, I prefer to lose the next round.

Q. Go home.
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah.

Q. When I talk to you in Sydney, you talk about in the hotel in China there are 20 people in the front desk to help you. You remember that?
ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah.

Q. The hospitality and service in Dubai must be even more amazing.
ERNESTS GULBIS: It's nice. It's nice. I really like these two tournaments. First time I'm here. I really enjoy Doha tournament. It's a bit similar. Same climate, similar courts, similar conditions.
This one also. Very nice hotel. I mean, I like the climate here. For me it's important the climate, because in China the climate a tough for me. It's very humid and very foggy sometimes and it's tough.
Here it's perfect. Similar like in Latvia in summertime. Doesn't get much hotter than this. It's perfect.

End of FastScripts

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