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ROLAND GARROSJune 1, 2014Ernests GulbisPARIS, FRANCE E. GULBIS/R. Federer THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. You didn't want to tell us earlier what your plan was. You said you didn't want to reveal your cards. Now, can you tell us how you pulled that off? ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't know (smiling). The plan was to play more to his backhand and then with my backhand down the line to go for down‑the‑line shots. That was the main plan, you know, to not go too much to his forehand, because he has, you know, the nicest and the most dangerous forehand I think in the world. Yeah, that was the plan. Plan is always to serve well. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes serve is half of the win already. Q. Was it your back? I mean, you took a timeout. ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, it was my back and the hamstring, they were getting a little bit tight. Yeah, I'm honest, I'm not big on medical timeouts. I don't like to take it, but I take it when it's really necessary. It probably was my third medical timeout in life. I didn't want to take it in the fifth set, so I took it in the end of the fourth set. Unfortunately it was before his serve. I don't like to do it, but I just had to do it. Otherwise I was scared a little bit to pull a muscle, and I had already a tear in the muscle in that area. So I just was being cautious. Q. On the last win and back in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2008. How does it feel and do you think you can go all the way now? ERNESTS GULBIS: What is all the way (smiling)? Q. Ernests knows best? ERNESTS GULBIS: Hopefully. Feels great. Not much to say how it can feel. Q. Were you surprised by how kind of flat Roger seemed to be after the medical timeout? After just coming out the rest of the match, it seemed like he was missing a little bit more than he was before. ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't like to see it that way. I like to see I went for my shots and I made winners. If you see those two games, I was really aggressive on my return, and I just went for the shots. I didn't want to go for longer, for long rallies, because I felt a little bit stiff right after the treatment. So I honestly don't think that he was that flat. Again, I know the feeling, you know, it's not nice to sit there for three minutes and to wait for somebody, but it's part of it, what can I do? Q. I think you said on court it was the best win of your career. Why would you say that? ERNESTS GULBIS: Probably the most important, especially because it was five sets, you know, because I had ‑‑I beat him before, but it was a three‑set match, you know. So for my confidence and just for me as a tennis player, a five‑set win over Roger Federer, it's really big. Q. How important was the end of the second set? Do you think that was the key to the match? ERNESTS GULBIS: There I was lucky, I have to say. I was really lucky then. In the second set he had a smash and I guess the place, the place where he could ‑‑ I don't know, I guess I just didn't move a lot. I stayed in one place. He smashed right onto me. So, yeah, that was a bit lucky. Q. Is it difficult to play against someone with the support of the crowd? ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes, it is. It is. But the crowd wasn't that bad. Of course, if you play Roger wherever in the world, you know, the crowd is going to be against you. That's just what you have to take. I know how Paris crowd can get, you know, but I just didn't ‑‑I was trying not to show too much emotion except one broken racquet, but one is nothing for me (laughter). So I tried not to give them too much things to whistle about or to ‑‑yeah, that was important for me was in the fifth set to get an early break, because if it would get tight, you know, the crowd can push you down. Q. You're very confident going into the match. You have said things in the past that got people a little bit riled up and bent out of shape. Are you gratified you can come through with a big win like this and sort of justify a lot of your outspoken, freewheeling comments? ERNESTS GULBIS: I didn't understand two words, "gratify" and "justify." My English is not... Q. Does it feel good to be able to get this job done on a big court when you speak so freely about your confidence and other things? ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, but I have to say what I think, you know. I cannot speak what I don't feel. I'm not ‑‑for me is the most easy thing in life, you know, just to speak the truth. Then if you lie, then you start to forget what did you lie, and then you go into lie and lying more. So for me it's real easy to speak what's on my mind. Even take the consequences. I like it. I like, if you ask me, I tell you my opinion. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. If I feel confident about the match, I tell you that I feel confident. If you ask me two years ago, you know, if I would play him here when I was ranked lower, was I confident to go in this match, I would say no. Simple as that. Q. Were you surprised at the loose game he played in the fifth set early on? Because he never was able to dig himself out of that situation. It was a very quick game with a lot of errors. Did that surprise you? ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't remember much about that particular game, honestly. I was just happy that I could serve it out. Yeah, it was an early break, but I don't remember really how did I get the break. I don't remember the feeling. Q. He made unforced errors. ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, but he's also a human being, you know. I had more or less the clear game plan, you know. I had to play on his backhand, you know. And from backhand he makes these unforced errors. Actually, you know, when it's a tight moment, you know, he's Roger Federer, but he also gets tight, you know. He's also, I think he gets, maybe he wanted to finish the point a little bit earlier. I remember actually he missed the forehand wide when he was going for the shot, and that happens, you know. He's probably gonna make 7 out of 10, you know. Other guys are going to make 2 out of 10. Mistakes happen. Q. Do you consider this an upset, your win? ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes, for sure. For sure. If you see the rankings, you see everything. It's a big upset. It's a big win for me. Q. Before you won the last point, did you feel at any point you had the match? ERNESTS GULBIS: No. Q. Do you feel that your racquets do something to you? Because you treat them really bad. Come on. ERNESTS GULBIS: Why bad? Q. You punish them. ERNESTS GULBIS: Yeah, yeah, but I have to respect every court, you know. I have to break at least one racquet on every court of the world. Otherwise if I would show too much disrespect to Paris center court and I cannot allow this to myself (laughter). I just had to do it. Q. Do you think in any way knowing that the crowd here was waiting for any chance it could get to boo you, do you think that kept you on better behavior and maybe your focus tighter than sometimes it can be? ERNESTS GULBIS: For sure I'm going to behave better here than I would behave in when it's 10 people watching. Yeah, it's a mental thing, for sure. This crowd is tough, you know. You have to keep your emotions more in line. It actually helped me. You know, the less I talk the better I play. I need tough crowd. Q. You are hoping they're against you again against Berdych or you want support? ERNESTS GULBIS: I love support. I want support. Of course I want support. I think against Berdych it's not going to be so much for him or for me. It's going to be more even. Q. Do you think it's a good symbol for a kid to smash a racquet not only with the hand but also with the foot and then give him as a gift, like it was a good thing like... ERNESTS GULBIS: I think... Q. You think it's a good gift? ERNESTS GULBIS: I think it's a great gift. I would be really happy if a tennis player gives me his broken racquet. He can refuse it if he doesn't want to take a gift, he can sit down and say, No, Ernests, I don't want it. It's all about choices in life. We all have choices. I can have a choice to break a racquet and get a penalty. The kid can have the choice to take it or not. I think he did a great choice (laughter). Q. Do you actually think that the clay would be your best chance of winning a Grand Slam? ERNESTS GULBIS: It's too early for me to say. I like grass also. I like faster surfaces. For me it is all about ways to get used to the surface. This year I was really happy that I had just one bad tournament on clay. It was Monte‑Carlo. Because usually, you know, I had two or three bad tournaments in the start of the clay court season. And I just kept ‑‑I just started to go, you know, only for Rome and Madrid time usually. And now I started already to play well in Barcelona. So this was really important for me. This was what I told my coach Gunther, I want to concentrate on the first tournament. If I can win a Grand Slam, hopefully I can win a Grand Slam on any surface. But if it's my best, I wouldn't say that, no. Q. Is there an element of older guy/younger guy? When you're pounding that backhand across the court to his backhand do you feel you've gotten to be a little bit too much for him? ERNESTS GULBIS:  I haven't played him when he was, let's say, at his complete prime time. The way he hits the forehand, it's unbelievable for me. You know, the wrist action that he has in this shot, this is something special. This is, let's say, what he has, what Rafa has in his wrist action. Not many players have it. This is special. But his backhand, I don't know if it was more stable or not. I consider my backhand ‑‑I honestly consider my backhand as one of the best shots on tour, the backhand cross court and backhand down the line. I feel the ball great on this shot. I went from my strongest position to his weakest position. But I cannot say, you know. I haven't played him couple years ago. Not couple years ago, but that many matches back then. Q. A lot of people are going to be wondering who is this guy who beat Roger Federer. We know you fairly well, but what do you want the casual tennis fan to know about you? ERNESTS GULBIS: Nothing (smiling). The less, the better. Element of surprise, it's always nice. Q. I'm sure you have been asked many, many times why, since 2008, you haven't been able to go farther in the slams and so on. How many times did you ask the question to yourself? What answer did you give to yourself? Another question is many people say that Ivanisevic and Safin were the best entertainers in the interviews. Would you like to beat them? ERNESTS GULBIS: That's not my priority at all. Again, I want to be myself. I'm not competing with anybody. Not to entertain you, not to give you great quotes. If it happens, it happens. If not, you can write that I am boring and that I don't like something, that's fine with me. About questions to myself, I did ask myself a couple of times, but once really seriously, and this was when I played ‑‑I exactly remember when I played challenger in Eckental I asked for a wildcard. I didn't get the wildcard. I had to play qualifying there. I made the final there, so it was an okay week, but it was just end of the year and in the middle of nowhere. In winter it was really depressing, and I thought honestly or I start to do something or this is for what I do it. So that was one big question. Q. And what was the answer? ERNESTS GULBIS: The answer ‑‑so this is the answer. Q. Novak is on his way to the court. Potential semis matchup. ERNESTS GULBIS: Could be a potential finalist (laughter). Q. You know each other for a long time, and you said the success kind of changed him. I wonder, what is your relationship today and do you think such a big win like today might change you too? ERNESTS GULBIS: Hopefully it's going to change me that I become more confident about myself, you know, on a tennis court. Change is good, you know. Just what kind of change? Everybody changes. How can you say that you were the same person five years ago? You know, how can you say that you were the same person yesterday? Something can happen in your life. Change comes, you know. With Novak, it's just a normal thing from being a young kid growing up in Munich Academy. We used to go out together, you know, in a nightclub, and then after all the success what he has he has to be more focused. You cannot spend your ‑‑I call it the life energy, you know. You cannot spend your life energy on so many stuff, you know, because everybody wants a piece of you then. The interviews, you know, the friends come up, you know, so you have to block yourself in a way, and you don't need to lose your inner beliefs, you know, and that's it. But if you can ask answer your own question that, listen, did I change or did I not change, it's all up to you, you know. And I cannot be responsible what, let's say, what you think about me, you know. This is your thoughts. I can just try to make an impression. But also sometimes you don't want to make any impression. Q. You have been improving on your game and your performance for the last year and a little bit more. What do you think is the key on these improvements, and what do you feel you need to improve more to achieve your further goals? ERNESTS GULBIS: Hard work and dedication, like Floyd Mayweather said in his interview. Hard work and dedication. That's the key. Q. Floyd Mayweather? ERNESTS GULBIS: Yes. These are good words. Hard work and dedication. It's all about hard work. You cannot have good results without hard work. That's what I understood. What else I understood is that I start enjoy, you know, things much more if I did my work. I don't enjoy life to the fullest if I didn't do my whole life, my job, you know. You know, this is for everybody of us. We did something good, we work hard for one week and then for sure on Saturday and Sunday we can enjoy that Saturday and Sunday much better. Or if we stay at home, you know, drink beer all day and not do nothing, Saturday and Sunday, what, it comes again? We get drunk again. It's only after hard work we can enjoy, we can enjoy life. That's what I found out. Q. What can you say about the next match? What will be the key to beating Tomas? ERNESTS GULBIS: I don't know. Now I don't know. I haven't thought about it at all. I just came from this match. So honestly I have no idea. We'll see. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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