Ernests Gulbis's season so far has not been going as well as he hoped. The 17th ranked Latvian lost today to Andreas Haider-Maurer at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters as his 2015 record has now fallen to 1-8. The Latvian has not been playing his best tennis, and this season has only defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver, at Indian Wells in the second round (bye in the first round). He would lose in the third round at Indian Wells to Adrian Mannarino in straight sets. These early losses Gulbis has suffered are not just in ATP Masters 1000s. This year, Gulbis has also lost in the Australian Open, ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (Rotterdam) and Dubai Duty Free Tennis, all in the first round. He was also defeated in the Miami Open second round, after having a bye in the first round.

Gulbis, the 13th seed, struggled to find a way to win and wasted all three of the break point opportunities he had. Haider-Maurer didn't make it easy, and Ernests won just ten points on his opponent's service games and seven points on his own second serve. He had six double-faults compared to one ace and put only 45% of his first serves in. While serving, Gulbis had the chance to get on the board at 1-6, 0-4 down, but wasted all three game point opportunities he had. The match lasted less than an hour. 

This upset was already expected by many fans, journalists and tennis followers due to the fact that Gulbis has been losing so many matches since the beginning of the season. Everyone is looking forward to see if the 2014 BNP Paribas Open and Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinalist can turn around his season and get back to winning ways. The French Open 2014 semifinalist is lucky he did not have any points to defend this year in Monte Carlo and his next tournament will probably be the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell​, as he's on the entry list.

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About the author
Pedro Cunha
I am from Portugal. I discovered tennis when I was nine years old and since then that I´m in love with this sport. The smell of the balls and the orange dust, of the clay where I practice, on my shorts and sneakers make my life better.