Barcelona marks Gulbis' first quarterfinal qualification on a clay court.

BARCELONA, Spain — Ernests Gulbis has earned himself his first quarterfinal appearance on clay this season on the back of this afternoon’s third round victory in the Barcelona Tennis Open.

Yesterday Baltic Reports predicted that Gulbis would be meeting Chilean fourth seed Fernando González, but that was not in fact the case after Gonzalez was upstaged by unheralded Spaniard Albert Ramos-Viñolas (4-6, 7-6 (8), 3-6).

Ranked 161 in the world, the Spanish qualifier Ramos-Viñolas had never before made it past the first round of an ATP tour event. So to first achieve that, then knock out González in the second round spared Gulbis any thoughts of an easy trip to the quarters.

But Gulbis needn’t have worried too much as he quickly wrapped up the first set 6-1, breaking Ramos-Viñolas twice, with his first serve again proving to be a decisive factor, converting 14 of 17 (82%) first serve points into winners.

Ramos-Viñolas was able to lift his service game in the second set but Gulbis was still able to get the crucial service break on the Spaniard’s second trip to the service line.

Serving to stay in the match 5-3 down, the Spaniard was unable to hold serve for the second time in the set as “The Gull” wrapped up a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 victory.

Gulbis will now either meet no. 11 seed Jürgen Melzer of Austria or no. 5 seed Fernando Verdasco in tomorrow’s quarterfinals. He has never before played either of his two potential opponents.

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