Isner compares Gulbis to John McEnroe

Written by: Staff on 13th March 2014

Isner compares Gulbis to John McEnroe

epa04122426 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia hits a return against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain at the BNP Paribas Open tennis in Indian Wells, California, USA, 12 March 2014. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

By Ricky Dimon

With one title and a 15-4 record to his credit this season, Ernests Gulbis is playing arguably the best tennis of his life. You could almost say this is a new Gulbis.

The Gulbis of old, however, looks like he will never go away. The racket-smashing, arguing, and mental jousting with opponents (at least opponents named Roberto Bautista Agut) have remained alive and well. He decimated one racket in a BNP Paribas Open third-round win over Grigor Dimitrov and went through several sticks during a heated fourth-round affair against Bautista Agut.

Gulbis’ antics are nothing new to his colleagues and they are certainly not lost on John Isner. After all, the 6’10” American has played Gulbis three times and he saw more than enough of his upcoming opponent’s previous match to know it’s the same ol’ Gulbis.

“You never really know what you’re going to get with him out there,” Isner said. “He’s a shot-maker. He hits the ball extremely hard. He can sort of go crazy out there, too.

“But it’s kind of like, I don’t know…. Equate it to like a John McEnroe crazy. He does it but he stays with it. He did that out there today (against Bautista Agut). I hope that he cracks some racquets against me tomorrow. That means I will be doing a couple things right.”

Isner has done a couple things right against Gulbis in the past, but not on a consistent basis. Gulbis leads the head-to-head series 2-1, but they split a pair of meetings in 2013. The Latvian prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on the clay courts of Monte-Carlo before Isner scored a 7-6(4), 7-6(2) victory in their only previous hard-court encounter, indoors in Valencia.

Fasten your seatbelts for Isner-Gulbis number four on Friday afternoon. Serves will be flying fast. Rackets might be, too.

Topics: 10sballs, BNP Paribas Open, Ernests Gulbis, GRIGOR DIMITROV, Indian Wells, John Isner, John Mcenroe, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

March 13, 2014 at 9:23 pm

Isner compares Gulbis to John McEnroe – http://t.co/28Ge7e1DtE @JohnIsner @ErnestsGulbisFC @PatrickMcEnroe #Tennis #News #IndianWells
RD_Tennistalk says:

March 13, 2014 at 10:35 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: Isner compares Gulbis to John McEnroe – http://t.co/28Ge7e1DtE @JohnIsner @ErnestsGulbisFC @PatrickMcEnroe #Tennis #News …
samuelconnell says:

March 13, 2014 at 10:37 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: Isner compares Gulbis to John McEnroe – http://t.co/28Ge7e1DtE @JohnIsner @ErnestsGulbisFC @PatrickMcEnroe #Tennis #News …