Latvian Teenager Gulbis Throws Down the Gauntlet

Thunder rolled like a drum around Roland Garros yesterday, sending the players scurrying for cover from several torrential downpours and leaving Rafael Nadal, the three-time French Open champion, fighting the gathering gloom as much as his luckless fourth-round opponent before taking a 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 victory over his fellow Spaniard and left-hander Fernando Verdasco. Meanwhile Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the world No3, was safely in the dry having wrapped up his quarter-final place with a straight-sets win over Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.

"Even though Novak says clay is not his favorite surface, I think his game is perfectly suited to it," said Mathieu, who two years ago gave Nadal one of his toughest tests in the early rounds. "It's a question of whether he could play five sets against Rafa but he has everything he needs to beat him here."

Djokovic, this year's Australian Open champion, completed a hat-trick of Serbian victories on the Philippe Chatrier main court after wins by Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Perhaps they should rename it the New Vic. He next plays Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, who reached the last eight with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 win over another Frenchman, Michael Llodra.

Winning in Melbourne, where he defeated Roger Federer in the semi-finals, has added another layer of confidence to Djokovic's make-up, not that he was short of it before. "I believe much more in myself now," said the Serb, who lost in the semi-finals against Nadal here last year. "You have more pressure and more responsibility but I'm dealing with it pretty good so far."

Like Gulbis, Djokovic spent time in his youth at the Niki Pilic academy in Germany: "Ernests and me know each other on and off the court. He is a great guy. He was always very powerful and was destroying me in practice two or three years ago. He makes life very difficult when he is serving well but he's not consistent."

Gulbis, at 19 the youngest player left in the men's draw, first caught the eye here last year when his huge ground strokes demolished Tim Henman in the first round. Prior to that Gulbis had been a star performer on the lower-tier Challenger circuit and it was always likely he would make his mark at a higher level. Unsurprisingly he is the first Latvian singles player to reach a grand slam quarter-final.

"Tennis in Latvia has never been a popular sport but once I got into the top 100 the interest grew - and after I did well at the US Open last year the courts started to get booked up," said Gulbis. "Now, if I go to practice at home, I can't find one. Our federation is gradually getting bigger sponsors to help some of the younger players but it is tough for them."

Instead of attempting to qualify for the Masters Series tournaments in Rome and Hamburg prior to the French Open, he decided to get in more practice with his coach. His previous best grand slam showing was the fourth round of last year's US Open. Only Djokovic, Nadal and Federer in the last 10 years have reached the quarter-finals, or better, at Roland Garros as teenagers, and this run will take Gulbis back into the top 50.

Last October he reached a career-high No46, although he had been struggling badly with his form prior to arriving in Paris. "Last year was my first on the ATP Tour and the second year is always tougher. At first I was just a newcomer but now people know me. I also had injury problems at the beginning of this year. Everybody told me to be patient but it is very difficult when you are young."

"He played a beautiful match," said Llodra. "You can't see exactly where he's going to serve, so I had a hard time adapting, and he also returned extremely well." The French call Llodra "The Last of the Mohicans" because of his serve-and-volley style, a manner of play that has diminished to the point of becoming obsolete in today's baseline-dominated game, though there are some signs of a reflowering, with Britain's Andy Murray eminently capable of placing it into his mix.

Gulbis, who patrols the baseline with a fierce intensity, said he found Llodra's play "strange" but not strange enough to upset him unduly. The teenager has reined in his aggression a little for the clay, choosing his moment to attack, as he had against James Blake, the No7 seed, in the second round. Djokovic will be a different matter.

Nadal, in his quarter-final, will play his fellow Spaniard Nicolás Almagro, the conqueror of Murray, who defeated France's Jeremy Chardy 7-6, 7-6, 7-5. Almagro has been the second most successful player on clay this year behind the world No2 but has lost their two previous meetings and will have to serve out of his skin in order to trouble the champion, who in his last three games has dropped only 13 games.