Ernests Gulbis, who is without a win so far this season, says he was hurt from last August through the end of 2014 because of a shoulder injury.
The world No. 14 has only won eight matches since Wimbledon last summer. He cracked the Top 10 after Roland Garros, where he upset Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych in reaching the semifinals.
“The shoulder didn’t affect me in Wimbledon. In Wimbledon I lost in the second round] because I played bad. But then later on it affected me during the USA swing, including the US Open,” [he told Sport360.
“And then afterwards, end of last year, it was just bad. I was trying to deal with playing tournaments and healing the shoulder but it didn’t work. So I had time in the off-season to heal it more or less. Now it’s almost 100 percent so that’s a good thing. The rest [is down to] matches, you win some, you lose some. It’s a matter of one tournament to win one or two rounds, the confidence will be back. I don’t see a big problem with it.”
In Dubai on Monday, Gulbis lost to Denis Istomin in the first round. At the Australian Open, he lost to 18-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis, 8-6 in the fifth set.
Gulbis says he is not feeling his shots at all. “I have no timing,” he said. “In practice I have been playing worse than in the match … I’m making everybody very calm, distracted by my bad results and then I’m going to shoot. One good result and I’m coming back.”
He then laughed: “This is a distraction, it’s the calm before the storm.”