Match report

Ernests Gulbis © Tennistalk.com
Wimbledon
2nd round
6/26/08 1 2 3 4 Tot
lv  Ernests Gulbis 7 2 6 2 3 1
es  Rafael Nadal 5 6 7 7 6 3
Rafael Nadal © Tennistalk.com

  • Rafael Nadal scraps his way to victory

    6/26/08 8:22 PM | Cheryl Murray
    Ernests Gulbis gave Nadal a stiff test on Thursday, but Nadal was able to weather the storm to win in four.

    Little came easily for Rafael Nadal in this second round match. Ernests Gulbis came out swinging both on the ground strokes and his return. So dominant on serve was the young Latvian that Nadal did not win a single point on his first two service games. Nadal began the match trying to return serve standing right on top of the baseline. This more aggressive positioning on grass generally works well for the Spaniard, but Gulbis hit his serves with such pace that Nadal did not have time to complete his swing on the return.

    Nadal had no opportunities to break in the first set as Gulbis smacked winner after winner past him (17 in all for the set). A loose game by the Spaniard at 6-5 gave Gulbis the first set.

    As is often the case with Gulbis, he had a little bit of a letdown in the second set. Nadal made an adjustment in his return game, stepping back a bit on the second serve to give himself more time to get the ball back deep, as he has done so often at Roland Garros. The tactic worked like a charm. He broke Gulbis twice as he rolled through the set, striking just one error along the way.

    Gulbis got back on track again in the third. Both he and Nadal held serve to force a tie break. Nadal was the clearly superior player through the breaker and tucked the third set in his pocket to go up two sets to one.

    The thing that Rafael Nadal does better than almost any other player on tour is ratchet up his game at the important moments of the match. He did so again in the fourth set. At 4-3, he got a break chance on Gulbis' serve, and made no mistake converting to give himself the opportunity to serve out the match.

    Nadal plays German Nicolas Keifer in the third round.

  • Thumbs up

    Both guys played an excellent match. Gulbis is future top ten material for sure.

  • Thumbs down

    Gulbis needs to find a little more consistency in order to compete with the very best.

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Comments

I enjoyed the match. I'm happy Nadal won but would definitely like to see more of the young Latvian who was great to watch.

tenstar , 6/27/08 7:54 AM


Absolutely. Gulbis aquitted himself nicely. It was just unfortunate that he ran into Nadal so early. I think he would have beaten about anyone else. That one has future top ten written all over him.

cherylmurray , 6/27/08 3:16 PM



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