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  • Indian Wells Second Round: David Nalbandian vs. Ernests Gulbis

    3/16/08 4:10 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Tennis fans should be prepared for anything and everything in the second-round Pacific Life Open showdown between David Nalbandian and Ernests Gulbis. The talent level on the court will be off the charts, but both players at times can just as easily self destruct.

    Both David Nalbandian and Ernests Gulbis are wildly talented players capable of extreme hot streaks. Both, however, are also prone to imploding when things are down. They are momentum players in the truest sense of the word. When they're on fire, they are completely on fire. But when they are mired in slumps, it's hard for them to emerge from the funk. With neither player in particularly great form at the moment, will Sunday's first-ever matchup between Nalbandian and Gulbis produce a remarkable display of winner after winner, or a nonstop flurry of unforced errors?

    We have a much smaller sample size of tennis from Gulbis than we do from the veteran Nalbandian. Gulbis, a 19-year-old from Latvia, has only bee a mainstay on the ATP TOur for about a year now, but it's already apparent then he is a baby version of Fernando Gonzalez or Marat Safin. He boasts a massive game that can be nothing short of unbeatable at times, but more often than not he fires uncontrolled errors and then loses it mentally. Last summer Gulbis stormed out of nowhere to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Gulbis won his first three matches all in straight sets and that surge included a stunning display of shot-making in a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 destruction of Tommy Robredo. Save for a Challenger title in Belgium and a quarterfinal appearance in St. Petersburg, it’s been mostly downhill since then. Gulbis’ 2008 campaign began with a minor knee injury to go along with a dismal 1-4 match record. He began to turn things around last week in Las Vegas, however, where wins over Nicolas Massu and Peter Luczak propelled him to the quarterfinals.

    Nalbandian is playing solid tennis right now, but it's nothing compared to the streak he enjoyed last fall. The Argentine, ranked No. 7 in the world and seeded seventh at the Pacific Life Open, stunned the field at the Masters Series Madrid, beating Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic in consecutive matches to take the title. Two weeks later Nalbandian pulled off another shocking title at the Masters Series Paris. He took out Federer and Nadal in that one as well; Federer in the third round and Nadal in the final. Nalbandian kicked off this season with a disappointing blowout loss to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round of the Australian Open, but he has since righted the ship. He won the title in uenos Aires and then finished runner-up in Acapulco (lost to Nicolas Almagro).

    Obviously if one player is hot on Sunday and the other is having an off day, whoever is playing well will win this one with ease. All things being equal, however, Nalbandian should have the edge in this matchup. Gulbis likes to finish points quickly with huge forehands, but Nabandian is rock solid off both sides from the baseline and will put enough balls back in play to make Gulbis work harder than he wants to. If nothing else, it will be extremely interesting to see how this match develops and progresses.

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