The Ernie I See Before Me

Is this a Gulbis that I see before me, actually winning stuff?

Why, I do declare that it is. That's right - Ernests Gulbis is in the quarter finals of Delray Beach, not one week after he made a run to the semis in Memphis. Now this, THIS is what I'm talking about, Ernie! I think there might be a few more passengers on your bandwagon now... now that there appears to be something to cheer about. (Winners are grinners. This is a truth fact).

He beat Teimuraz Gabashvili comprehensively today - straight sets, and good ones too. Gabashvili is no slouch - he's had his share of decent winnage in his time - so this is a good result for Ernie. But it's not so much the quarter final appearance that I'm excited about, it's the fact that he's backed up a good performance from last week with a good one this week. This is no first round loss/first round loss double whammy, like we were so used to seeing last year. This is actually consistency.

Okay, so it's only two weeks. I'm getting a little excited over something that is just not that huge. But I have been on this kid's bandwagon for forever, and he's been giving me nothing. This is a whole lot of something by those standards. Has Ernie finally found his mojo?

We must remember that Delray Beach brought us a surprise young winner a few years back in Kei Nishikori. Wouldn't it be awesome if it could finally give some validation to this talented young Latvian? And, much more importantly, validate me for clinging to his bandwagon for so long?