At 35 he made his farewell to tennis official. All the quirks of the talented and unfinished Latvian millionaire
He said enough at the age of 35, formalizing a retirement that in fact had already taken place a long time ago. A post on Instagram, in the third person (typical), and off you go. He will remain one of the greatest “What ifs” of the last 20 years of tennis, Ernst Gulbis, someone who, however, in all his healthy and sometimes sublime madness, managed to enter the top ten and play a Slam semi-final in Paris. Not only that: he beat Federer, he beat Djokovic, he came (more or less) close to beating Nadal too. He made all the big three suffer, and when they were at their peak or thereabouts. Gulbis was the typical talented player who never put tennis first, that he should and could have done more, and who didn’t keep his promises. He never had to be a tennis player for a living, Sir Ernst, as the fans called him, given that his father, Airnas, an energy magnate, is among the richest men in Latvia. So, while most of his young colleagues of the same age were struggling to cover their expenses and live with dignity while waiting to make it big, little Ernst went around tournaments on private planes, staying in luxury residences and certainly not sparing any expense.