Ernests Gulbis on Rotterdam: 'I like that the marijuana here is legal'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zFqBfa2oPSo#! When Ernests Gulbis is winning matches, he gets interviews. When he gets interviews,

Courtney Nguyen | Feb 13, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zFqBfa2oPSo#!

When Ernests Gulbis is winning matches, he gets interviews. When he gets interviews, entertaining things usually happen.

Spoiler alert: Gulbis won a match in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Entertaining things happened.

After beating Robin Haase on Tuesday at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament to earn his first ATP Tour match victory since October, Gulbis was asked what he enjoyed about the city of Rotterdam.

"I like that the marijuana here is legal," he told the tournament website, laughing. "I'm for that. Unfortunately, tennis players cannot do that. We get checked every week. But I like the way of thinking." (Marijuana is illegal but tolerated in the Netherlands.)

The 24-year-old Latvian skipped the Australian Open (he would have needed to qualify) to stay in Europe to train for an extra month. Gulbis, whose ranking of No. 132 is a far cry from his career high of No. 21 in 2011, says he's confident he can crack the top 20 this year. Why so confident? He's in the midst of a lifestyle change that includes quitting smoking.

Published Feb 13, 2013

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.