Gulbis Tops Karlovic To Win Maiden Title In Delray Beach

© CameraSportLatvian Ernests Gulbis wins his first ATP World Tour title.

Latvian Ernests Gulbis put a damper on Ivo Karlovic’s 31st birthday celebration, defeating the second-seeded Croat 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships to claim his first ATP World Tour title.

Gulbis earned 250 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points and $75,700 as the champion of the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tennis tournament, while Karlovic collected $39,780 in prize money and 150 points.

The 21 year old became the second first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season, joining American John Isner who won the Heineken Open title in Auckland. He also became the first Latvian to win an ATP World Tour title.

“Everything what I do now is first time for my country,” said Gulbis. “Of course it’s great. I hope it’s positive. I hope much more players will start to practise in Latvia. It’s good for tennis in Latvia. They see that a guy from Latvia also can make it and win an ATP World Tour event.”

Karlovic had held 46 of his 47 service games entering the title match, but was unable to maintain his form against the first-time ATP World Tour finalist. After denying Karlovic on his two break point chances, World No. 72 Gulbis won four straight games to race through the opening set in 34 minutes.

Gulbis grabbed another break to go up 2-1 in the second set, and earned match points on Karlovic’s serve in the ninth game. Though Karlovic dug deep to save three chances with aces, a double-fault set up a fourth match point for Gulbis, proving enough for the Latvian to close out the match in one hour and 20 minutes.

“I felt comfortable,” Gulbis said. “I like being in the final. I felt nobody’s giving me pressure. If I’m not putting pressure on myself, then it’s fine. I was relaxed. My coach told me before the match, ‘Just go on court. Enjoy, it’s your first final. You’re a young guy. Enjoy it, play good tennis.’”
 
“He was playing really good. Everything that he hit was in. As good as I was playing yesterday, this is how he was playing today,” said Karlovic, adding, “He was very cool, calm. Nothing could impress him. This year is going to be his breakthrough.”

Gulbis did not win his 10th tour-level match until mid-June at Wimbledon last year, but is off to a 10-4 start through the first two months of the 2010 season. He opened the year with a quarter-final showing at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (l. to Federer), and reached the semi-finals last week at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships (l. to Querrey). It was his first semi-final since his ATP World Tour debut, in 2006 at St. Petersburg, a stretch of 65 tournaments.

He is projected to return to the Top 50 of the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings following his title win. He reached a career-high No. 38 in August 2008.

Karlovic was looking to win his first title since 2008 at the grass-court tournament in Nottingham, and fell to a 4-3 record in ATP World Tour finals.

Despite the loss, the 33rd-ranked Croat stands alongside Marcos Baghdatis and Juan Monaco at No. 6 on the list of 2010 match wins leaders with a 13-5 record. He also reached the quarter-finals at Doha, Zagreb and Memphis, and achieved a personal-best fourth-round showing at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal).

“I was playing well all week,” said Karlovic, who fired 14 aces in the final to finish the week with a tournament-high 89. “Today it was a little bit worse. This is life. Sometimes you play good, sometimes you play not so good. What is important I’m healthy and overall I was playing well all this year. Next week is Davis Cup, after Indian Wells, so I will look forward to that.”