It was close but no cookie for the Latvian tennis star. Photo by Charlie Cowins.

DOHA, Qatar — Latvian Ernests “The Gull” Gulbis pushed no. 1 Roger Federer to the edge Thursday before going down fighting 2-6, 6-4, 4-6.

The first set was one-way traffic as Gulbis resorted to the erratic tennis that he became synonymous with last year. At times he simply looked uninterested and it was not so much the fine tennis of Federer but rather the silly unforced errors of Gulbis that saw the Swiss man take the set in a breeze. Too often when Gulbis should have simply returned the ball he looked more content at trying to force a winner of every shot.

It made for frustrating viewing as Gulbis showed signs of having the complete game to match it with Federer only for the unforced errors to slip in time and time again.

Thankfully Gulbis showed much more integrity in the second-set, forcing uncanny errors from Federer and frequently beating Federer with his powerful first serve. For the first half of the set, the two were evenly matched as neither looked troubled at holding serve.

It looked like the telling moment in the match had come in the fifth game in the second set. Up 3-2 and 30-40 Gulbis had the prime opportunity to break Federer, which he looked as if he had only for his  shot to be ruled out. Gulbis called for hawk-eye, only to realize he had already wasted his challenges earlier in the set. Replays showed that if the challenge was still available to him he would have in fact won the point and just broken the world no.1.

However, Gulbis was not to be deterred and although he lost the game  he went on to easily hold service and again push Federer to deuce when the Swiss stepped up to serve again. This time Gulbis did not leave his chances in the hands of the umpire, forcing a rare mistake from Federer’s forehand to claim advantage, before again forcing Federer to make the mistake on the back of two punishing forehands. The break point handed the Latvian the set 6-4, forcing the game to a deciding third.

Serving first in the third set Gulbis continued where he left of in the previous, showing that the mistakes of the first set may have been nothing more than nerves. His confidence continued through the next three games but when Federer broke the Latvian on his third service game, it seemed that this would be the end of Gulbis’s evening. However this was not to be the case. Down 30-0 in the sixth game, Gulbis came back strong, winning the next four points to break straight back.

The next two games went to serve but the pressure finally told as Gulbis served in the ninth game with the set tied 4-4. Three unforced errors turned into three costly points as Federer easily broke the Latvian. Federer then quickly rushed out to 40-0 on his next serve, only conceding one point in taking the game 40-15 and ultimately the set 6-4.

Although he could not pull of the upset, Gulbis should nonetheless be commended for producing some fine tennis, particularly after such a poor start to the match.

The signs from Gulbis, in this the first tournament of the season have been extremely promising. It now waits to be seen if he can build on this good form when he next appears  in the Australian Open in two weeks time.