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MONTE-CARLO ROLEX MASTERS


April 13, 2015


Ernests Gulbis


MONTE CARLO, MONACO

A. HAIDER‑MAURER/E. Gulbis
6‑1, 6‑0 


THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  It doesn't look like you at all on the court at the moment.
ERNESTS GULBIS:  Who it looks like?

Q.  What is the reason, in your opinion?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  Who do I look like on the court?

Q.  Someone who is searching for his game and complaining.
ERNESTS GULBIS:  You answer yourself.

Q.  Is better if it comes from you.
ERNESTS GULBIS:  I agree with you (smiling).

Q.  How do you fix it?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  How do I fix it?  I have my ideas (smiling).

Q.  Is it strange or is it normal or is it easy to face?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  Have I ever won more than two rounds in this tournament?  No.  Is it something new?  No.
I'm ranked top 20 in the world still.  I have a lot of points to defend, but no problem.

Q.  Do you feel like it's the place?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  No.  I love the place.  Listen, I won two tournaments in south of France.  I won Marseille and Nice.  I play always well in south of France.  It's nothing.
You know, lack of preparation.  It's always tough for me to change from hard court to clay.  Especially if I had a shitty season on hard court, to come play on clay, it's even tougher.
So I need couple weeks.  I need this week.  I need matches.  I need to go to Barcelona next week.  I need to practice.
This week, I emphasize on practice.  Didn't matter for me I play a match today, I change nothing in my practice routine.  The priority was practice and just to get feeling.
In practice I played very well.  I'm lacking confidence now on the court for the match.

Q.  Last year you had a huge breakout on clay, semifinals at Roland Garros.  Do you think you will try to build on clay good results to get back from this bad period?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  No, I will try to lose everywhere first round (laughter).

Q.  Will you focus on clay?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  I focus on any surface.  A court is a court.  It doesn't matter.  A match is a match.  I focus every match, every place.  Maybe it doesn't look like, but I'm trying to give my best on every point.
Unfortunately today was different reasons why I played like this.  But, you know, no excuses.  The guy won and that's it.
I don't see big problem.  I'm playing well in the practice.  We'll see.

Q.  Thomas Enqvist didn't get through the second round here, as well.  What did he tell you before the match?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  What does it have to do with his matches and my matches, that he didn't pass the second round?

Q.  What did he tell you?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  How to not pass?  He did not tell me how to not pass second round.

Q.  Can you tell us a bit more about your new coaching setup, how you work with Thomas, and how it can affect your early results this season.
ERNESTS GULBIS:  About coaching setup?  I started to work with Thomas Enqvist a week ago here in Monte‑Carlo.  Everything is new for me.  I think he's a very smart, intelligent guy who understands tennis.  That's enough for me.
I think it's still a lot to get to know each other.  It's just a matter of time.

Q.  Is it wrong to think maybe you're struggling with your forehand, especially since past months, and can you explain a bit why?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  If you watch what I said, for example, in the States in my press conferences, you're going to find answers for this.  I told why this year isn't so good as the beginning of last year.  I gave all these answers already.  I just don't want to go and repeat.

Q.  It's not like it's getting better.
ERNESTS GULBIS:  Yes, but it's not to change from one day to another.  It's a process.  It's going to be a process for maybe one month, maybe half a year, maybe one year, two years, three years, maybe never.  I explain you why.  I can give you a short explanation again.
One reason was I had shoulder problems since end of last year.  Off‑season wasn't great because of that.  I couldn't spend so much time on the court as I wish to.
Second thing is that I got sick in the beginning of the year for 10 days.  I skipped Doha and I came only to Auckland, played bad there, played bad in Australia.
Slowly this lack of confidence has started to play on.  I had not a great match in Marseille when I played Chardy.  Who knows, maybe in any of these matches if I win, I would go on and win.  Unfortunately I lost.  That's the situation.  It's very easy to analyze it, but...

Q.  You know the situation.  How do you gain the confidence back?
ERNESTS GULBIS:  Practice, practice.  Good systematic practice and good state of mind.
I was in a great state of mind this week practicing.  Every change is a good change.  With Thomas, it was really positive environment on the court.  He gave me a boost.  He pushed me.
Everything was really good, except the match.  This one last hour was bad in Monte‑Carlo.  All the rest of the week was really unbelievable.  It was just this one hour.
So I cannot take this 1% of my time, which was bad, to destroy my whole mood and all find.  The practices were going well.  Unfortunately I couldn't win.  Unfortunately I could win only one game.  Next time I go for two games, three games.  By 2016, I might win a set, so...

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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