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3/15/11 9:58 PM | Ricky Dimon
Novak Djokovic sprints past Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday to reach the Indian Wells fourth round. He awaits fellow Serb Viktor Troicki.
Novak Djokovic barely broke a sweat in extending his 2011 record to a perfect 14-0 on Tuesday afternoon in Indian Wells. Djokovic hammered Ernests Gulbis 6-1, 6-0 after a mere 54 minutes at the BNP Paribas Open to set up a fourth-round meeting with countryman Viktor Troicki.
Gulbis seized a 0-40 advantage in the first game of the match, but he squandered all three break points and to say it was downhill from there would be an understatement. The 34th-ranked Latvian did not win a single game until the latter stages of the second set, and he converted none of his five break chances while saving only one of six.
"He's unpredictable," Djokovic said of his opponent. "He has a very strong serve and he has a powerful groundstroke, but if he's not patient and not hitting the right balls like today, he can he can miss a lot. That's what happened. I was just trying to keep the ball in the court, not doing too much, just returning a lot and making him play an extra shot and changing the pace. He was not feeling comfortable, obviously."
Just how uncomfortable was Gulbis? He finished with a shocking ratio of one winner to 28 unforced errors. The No. 30 seed fired no aces and double-faulted five times, while Djokovic finished with four aces and zero double-faults.
Troicki made it a fine day for Serbia with a routine 6-3, 6-3 victory over Michael Llodra later in the afternoon.
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was about to say that atg. he just had to keep the ball in court and gulbis was sure to make an error. i think there was only one rally that got me interested, one.
mriiidula , 3/15/11 11:05 PM
Isn't it 14-0, Ricky? 7 at the AO, 5 in Dubai and 2 here.
If you include Hopman cup, 17-0.
If you include DC (which would count towards the streak but not 2011), 19-0.
stu , 3/15/11 11:25 PM
^^^ i like.
mriiidula , 3/15/11 11:36 PM
i know mriiidula, only 25 more to go to break Roger's record :P
stu , 3/15/11 11:38 PM
atg and mriidula are correct. Had nothing to do with Djokovic. I simply did not have the heat (or the necessary space) to say "Gulbis embarrasses himself in Indian Wells third round by striking 1 winner against 28 unforced errors."
and it's 14-0. Hopman Cup is an exho.
RickyDimon , 3/15/11 11:40 PM
WTF did gulbis think he was doing? Quite frankly, I am disgusted at his performance. This wasn't a win for djokovic, it was a loss for Gulbis. The serb had to do nothing more than keep the ball in the court, and gulbis self destructed.
tj600 , 3/16/11 1:50 AM
Gulbis has so much promise a few years ago...such talent, but it's obviously all gone to waste...pretty sad. SD in Atl.
scoot , 3/16/11 1:59 AM
I am expecting a Djokovic Nadal or Nadal Federer final.
tennis2011 , 3/16/11 3:36 AM
That was a pitiful effort from Gulbis. Painful to watch, really.
cherylmurray , 3/16/11 3:50 AM
I was embarassed for Darren Cahill and Gulbis' father , because it was obvious Gulbis didn't care to put forward any effort. Ernests kept lookikng over at his box, but it was obvious he couldn't remember any of the coaching he received. I think he kept about 4 balls in play for the entire first set. Additionally, it appeared that after he let the break opportunity go by in the first game, he decided to call it quits. All the Joker did was keep the ball in play and let Gulbis self-destruct. I don't know if I've ever seen such a poor performance from any other ATP player who's not playing with an injury. OUCH
Von , 3/16/11 4:32 AM
Djokovic himself has stated that he was mainly trying to keep the ball in play and wait for Ernests to make the error, so I guess we can all finally agree on something!
stu , 3/16/11 4:55 AM
What a waste of talent!! Gulbis is one of my favorite players and I keep expecting some results from him... and nothing is happening :(((. True, I wanted Novak to win slightly more, but this was no contest by all means.
danica , 3/16/11 5:00 AM
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I don't think Novak had anything to do with Gulbis embarrassment. Actually Novak performance was giving Gulbis oportunities a lot to make up for the errors. Novak had almost all his sets with 0-30. Seeing this Novak performance, I am not so sure that he can go past QF
atg , 3/15/11 10:59 PM