BARCELONA, Spain — Latvian Ernests Gulbis has returned to form after last week’s forgettable performance in Monaco.

Weather has played havoc with the Barcelona Tennis Open tournament to date, seeing Gulbis on court on back to back days, but the lack of turn around time does not seem to have affected his game, with his game improving in the second round.

Up against Aussie and world no. 72 Peter Luczak in the first round, “The Gull” took time to warm to his work, with Luczak pushing him to a first set tiebreaker before Gulbis was able to prevail 7-6 (4).

Once he settled into his game in the second set, Luczak was unable to trouble the Latvian too much, with Gulbis breaking the Aussie’s serve once to take the set 6-3.

The first round victory set up a second round match up with Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. Currently ranked at 46, two places below Gulbis in the world rankings, Gulbis would have still been well aware of the potential of his opponent who has been earmarked as a player of the future.

Chardy was appearing  in the second round, courtesy of a solid performance that saw him knock out tournament no. 14 seed Albert Montanes in his first game (6-3, 7-6 [1]).

But Gulbis showed that his demise in the second round last week had been nothing more than an off day, completing dominating Chardy this afternoon.

Gulbis wasted no time in taking the first set 6-3, on the back of a dominant first serve performance, winning 16 of 19 first serve points.

Whilst it was Chardy who was hitting the aces, Gulbis was was instead relying on flawless tennis, racing out to 4-0 in the second set before Chardy could even get on the board.

When Chardy could finally manage to win a game, it came with renewed confidence, as he backed it up to break Gulbis’ serve for the first time in the match.

However, Chardy’s good work was  quickly undone with Gulbis again breaking him on his next trip to the service line.

With Gulbis now serving for the game Chardy’s game took on something of a nothing to lose attitude, again pushing the Latvian to break point. But Gulbis was about to make the same mistakes of his previous service game, keeping his cool to hold his serve and take the game 6-3, 6-2.

It is now likely that Gulbis will meet no.4 seed and world no.12 Chilean Fernando González in the third round.

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