A semifinal run at this week’s French Open guarantees Ernests Gulbis of Latvia a place in the world’s top ten for the first time. However, he said that he wants to become world number one and will work harder as he’s now a part of the elite top 10.
Gulbis advanced to his maiden Grand Slam semifinal and this was made possible with upset wins over higher-ranked players – Roger Federer (fourth round) and Tomas Berdych (quarterfinals). He lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
“I’m not going to celebrate,” Gulbis said despite the achievement. “It’s not enough. I need to reach more now. Now I’m addicted to success, really. I need to make this extra step now. I’m extra motivated.”
“The more I play these kinds of matches, the more I’m going to get used to these situations. For me, I take only the positive stuff out of it. I need to be in these situations once, twice, three times and then I can maybe make that extra step. I enjoyed it.”
“Now let’s say I feel relieved. I’m not happy that I lost, but I feel in a way relieved, that I have at least not another match for a couple of days, until the grass-court season.
“The overall experience is just that I understood it much more than I did the previous time I was in the second week of a Grand Slam,” said Gulbis. “The previous time I reached a quarter-final, I had no idea what was happening.”
Gulbis reached the quarterfinals of French Open six years ago but also lost to Djokovic back then.
“Now I really understood every feeling and I learned from it and I tried to enjoy it. And even if it’s like negative emotions, like being nervous and being tense, I tried to even enjoy that and understand it, to understand how I can be better next time.”
