Ernests Gulbis edges past Juan Carlos Ferrero to reach the second round – Rogers Cup 2011
Rated at number 55 in world rankings, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, outplayed the former world number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, in the opening round of Rogers Cup on Monday afternoon.
Being a part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series, the competition took place on the hard courts of the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Canada, with the wildcard entrant winning the three-set thriller at
3-6, 6-1, 7-5, after a stiff contest. Gulbis laboured for one hour and fourteen minutes of play to route Ferrero from the competition in the very first round.
Ferrero took the opening set early to get his hold over the contest but lost his way through the rest of the game to finish on the losing end. Gulbis made a terrific come back in the second set and absolutely blew away the Spaniard
to level the contest with one set a piece. A hard fought final set was witnessed by the crowd present at Montreal and Gulbis took the better of his opponent in the last moments of the game to come out as the winner.
The Latvian banged in 13 aces in the matchup and coughed five double faults, while bagged 44 out of 56 first serve points en route to victory. Gulbis suffered an early serve break from the unseeded Spaniard to trail 0-3 in the
opening set and never recovered from the early damage in the rest of the set. Ferrero wrapped up the opener at 6-3 to pet one up in the contest but went through a terrible slump in the following set to let Gulbis back in the game.
The Latvian blasted his way through the second set, breaking his opponent twice to race away to 5-1 lead. Gulbis secured nine out of 10 first serve points and served out of the second set at 6-1, levelling the matchup at one-all.
The nail biting final set went to the wire, with both men failing to register a serve break in the opening 10 games. Gulbis finally made the all-important move to break Ferrero’s serve and sealed victory at 7-5 to move in to the
second round of Rogers Cup.
The Latvian will face the winner of the match between the 11th seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Michael Llodra of France, in the second round of the tournament. Gulbis’ victory over Ferrero equalised his head-to-head
record against the Spaniard at 1-1, as Ferrero defeated him back in 2007 in Valencia.
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