Gulbis, in 1st ATP final, to face Karlovic

DELRAY BEACH - Ernests Gulbis could be only one match away from wrapping his arms around his first ATP Tour winner's trophy.

The 21-year-old Latvian has been whacking tennis balls on the ATP Tour since 2006, but it took him beating Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Saturday to journey to a final.
Unfortunately for Gulbis, he's going to have to tame birthday boy Ivo Karlovic - the Delray Beach second seed turns 31 on Sunday - and that's one tall order. At 6-10 and the tallest player ranked in the top 100, Karlovic's supersonic serve is most often an untouchable weapon.
The 33rd-ranked Karlovic, who led the tour with 890 aces in 43 matches last year, ended defending champion Mardy Fish's shot of a second consecutive title courtesy of a 6-2, 6-3 semifinal win.
Gulbis might take some encouragement from the fact that Karlovic only served seven aces against Fish. In his previous matches this week he was serving aces in the double digits.
"It was a bad day for my serve," Karlovic said. "It was cold which is why it [my serve] was not so fast as other days."
Gulbis' win took patience, a trait that he used to not possess. He was about to serve for the match at 6-4, 5-4 when he was forced to wait out a three-hour rain delay before taking care of unfinished business.
Then, skies cleared and court dried, Gulbis needed all of two minutes to serve out the match, unleashing a 125 mph ace on the final point.
The rain interruption didn't disturb the 72nd-ranked Gulbis. He enjoyed the downtime, switching from tennis balls to basketball while killing time.
"I scored 18 free throws in a row during the break," Gulbis said, then jokingly adding, "Usually I do a couple of hundred."
The hype was huge around Gulbis when he first arrived on tour. He had game; that was easy to see.
But it took him until recently to show signs of consistency and an ability to perform to expectations. In the past two weeks he reached the Memphis semifinal, following that result with at least a final appearance at Delray Beach.
What was missing? Focus.
"Basically, I used to win or lose matches by myself," Gulbis said. "I was the one guy on the court. The other guy just put the ball in, that's all he had to do if I had a bad day."
Practicing was tedious, whereas just playing matches, win or lose, was fun. Friends were out-and-about having good times, while he was supposed to be seriously working as a high-end athlete.
"I'm getting a little bit older," he said. "A couple of years ago I was playing tennis but I still had dozens of other interests in my head, which were even more important than tennis."
Gulbis' poise in the final set was evidence of a new maturity. He didn't panic after surrendering a 3-2 lead with a service break in the final set, nor did he lose his composure after initially going down 0-15 in the final game.
"I think the players have long felt that Gulbis is one of the most talented players," said the 109th-ranked Nieminen after the match. "He's found something to help him play with more courage, at least the last two weeks."