Gulbis chastises reporter over gambling story in Wimbledon presser

LONDON -- Ernests Gulbis would like to set the record straight: No, he did not gamble all his French Open prize money away at the blackjack tables.  In an
Gulbis chastises reporter over gambling story in Wimbledon presser
Gulbis chastises reporter over gambling story in Wimbledon presser /

LONDON -- Ernests Gulbis would like to set the record straight: No, he did not gamble all his French Open prize money away at the blackjack tables. 

In an interview with BBC, Gulbis joked that after he made the semifinals of the French Open, he lost some of his prize money at the blackjack tables. But that didn't stop some media outlets from reporting that the Latvian gambled his entire prize purse away.

But when a reporter asked about it on Wednesday after his second-round loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky at Wimbledon, Gulbis said that the reports are not true. 

"That's bulls---," Gulbis said. "You can write it. That's bulls---. If you do your job better, then you're going to know what I said exactly. I never said something like that. People try to get words out of context, and sometimes they even dream something together.

"Of course I went to play blackjack, but there was no word how much I won or how much I lost," he said. "They asked me how much I lost. I said, 'A lot.' I was joking. I was smiling. There was one‑on‑one interview. Next day in Latvia they say I lost all my winnings. My mother sends me message next day. Maybe I'm a little bit crazy, but I'm not stupid."

Ernests Gulbis confuses umpires for vampires in Wimbledon press conference


Published
Courtney Nguyen
COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.