There is a time and place for everything. Today at Indian Wells was not the time or place for Ernests Gulbis, who absorbed a brutal third-round beatdown at the hands of Novak Djokovic.
In a match more lopsided than a slam dunk contest between Ivo Karlovic and Dominika Cibulkova, Djokovic reeled off nine straight games to spark a thorough 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of the ultra-talented but extremely flaky Gulbis. The two-time Australian Open champion raised his record on the year to 14-0 and will take on either good friend and Serbian Davis Cup teammate Viktor Troicki or 24th-seeded Frenchman Michael Llodra in the fourth round.
Djokovic was solid as always, but it’s difficult to gauge his level in a match where the court looked as large as a chess board to Gulbis, who spit out shanked shots with little control and even less conscience. It all makes you wish tennis had a refund rule in place; it’s a shame people actually paid money to endure these 54 minutes of misery.
The 31st-seeded Latvian managed to win just 11 points in the first set, three of which came in the opening game, when Gulbis earned triple break point. Gulbis got up quickly to a mid-court ball and needed to do little more than put it in play to earn an opening break. Instead, he badly bungled a cross-court forehand, which sailed beyond the baseline. That major misfire sparked a run that saw Djokovic reel off 12 of the next 13 points.
When Gulbis blew a 40-30 lead with a pair of desultory double-faults, he punctuated it by slapping a forehand into net to fall into a 0-4 hole. The only question remaining was if Gulbis would actually win a game.
Gulbis upset Roger Federer last spring en route to the Rome final, where he took the opening set from Rafael Nadal before bowing. Though his net game, shot selection and sometime toxic temperament all require vast improvement, Gulbis is a titanic talent. Watching a player as gifted as him blow up before your eyes is like listening to a world-class singer with four-octave range select "Three Blind Mice" as sheet music—you wonder what in the world is he thinking, or, if he is thinking at all.
None of that mattered much to Djokovic, who played with the composure of someone fully committed to winning. Not only is he racking up wins the way Marat Safin once accrued code violations, he’s barely surrendering sets this season—the Serbian showman has won 39 of 42 so far. Currently the world No. 3, Djokovic can surpass Roger Federer for the second spot if he reaches the final, or advances to the semis and Federer falls before the quarters.
—Richard Pagliaro