Ernests Gulbis refused to bow to stress on Monday as the 13th seed exited timidly from the Monte Carlo Masters, a 6-1, 6-0 first-round defeat to Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer.
The admittedly slumping world No 17 suffered his eighth loss from nine matches played this season, which began with a shoulder injury carried over from 2014 which disrupted his 2015 preparation.
Nevertheless, the 26-year-old who shocked the sport with a Roland Garros semi-final last spring, is far from panic stations.
“Have I ever won more than two rounds in this tournament? No. Is it something new? No,” Gulbis said.
“I’m still ranked in the top 20 in the world. I have a lot of points to defend, but no problem. Listen, I won two tournaments in south of France (in 2014), Marseille and Nice. I always play well in south of France. It’s nothing.
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“I focus every match, every place. Maybe it doesn’t look like it, but I’m trying to give my best on every point.
“Unfortunately today was different reasons why I played like this. But, you know, no excuses. The guy won and that’s it. I don’t see the big problem. I’m playing well in practice.”
Gulbis lasted for less than an hour against Heider-Maurer, who plays Australian Bernard Tomic in the second round in Monaco.
The Latvian, son of one of his Baltic country’s major industrialists, finished last season in the ATP top 20 for the first time in his career. He played quarter-finals 11 times and won a career-high 41 matches, adding two more titles to comprise a total of six and a flawless 6-0 record in title matches.
But Gulbis remains calm as he works through his current situation.
“It’s a lack of preparation, it’s always tough for me to change from hard court to clay,” he said. “Especially if I had a (bad) season on hard court, to come play on clay, it’s even tougher.
“I need couple weeks, I need this week, I need matches. I need to go to Barcelona next week. I need to practise.”
In another first-round match, German Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-4.
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Honeymoonish
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