Personal Life
Gulbis comes from a very wealthy family. His book-collecting parents named him after Ernest Hemingway. His father, Ainārs, is an investment banker, while his mother, Milēna Gulbe-Kavace, is a theater actress. His maternal grandfather, Uldis Pūcītis, was a popular actor and film director.
The second of six children, Gulbis has three sisters and two brothers, one of whom is training in Florida to become a professional tennis player, as well. Gulbis comes from a sporting family in general, and his paternal grandfather, Alvils Gulbis, was one of the starting five players on ASK Rīga, the Soviet Union basketball team that won the European Championships. He first started playing tennis with his grandmother and considers basketball, association football, and ice hockey to be his favorite sports.
Gulbis is known, both by his fellow tennis players and the media, as one of the funnier personalities on the tour. When Gulbis stunned World No. 1 Roger Federer, 2–6, 6–1, 7–5, at the 2010 Italian Open only after throwing away six previous match points, he told reporters after the match, "I shit my pants a little bit there . . . excuse my language," and has also bragged about his racquet-throwing "skills" in an on-court interview. On a telecast during the 2010 Western and Southern Financial Group Masters from Cincinnati, broadcasters Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Chris Fowler all compared Gulbis to former World No. 1 Marat Safin, in terms of both playing style and attitude on and off court. Also like Safin, Gulbis often comments about his own lack of discipline and/or interest in practicing, but is very forthcoming about his aspirations of entering the top 10, 5, or even No. 1 in the ATP rankings.
In 2009, Gulbis was arrested in Sweden for allegedly soliciting prostitutes. He called it a misunderstanding. After paying a small fine, he was released in time to play in the Stockholm Open.
Gulbis speaks Latvian, Russian, English and some German.
Read more about this topic: Ernests Gulbis
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