London: The Universe According to Ernests Gulbis; it's a little weird.
Gulbis has shown during the past month that he is the most dangerous young player on the men's tour.
In Rome he eliminated Roger Federer and took a set off Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, and he was a set and a break up against Federer in Madrid in the last eight.
Yet he isn't sure whether he even likes tennis, and he is adamant that he doesn't care for fame or money.
As for the night that he spent in a police cell in Stockholm after he was arrested for soliciting prostitutes during a tournament, he regards that as a hilarious and wonderful adventure.
"It was great," he said.
"It was great fun. A very funny time."
He is the ‘Trustafarian' of the international tennis scene, the kid from the Baltic who previously appeared to have more wealth and talent than he knew what to do with, who is now starting to apply himself.
On the Roland Garros clay and the Wimbledon grass this summer, Federer and Nadal could be troubled by Gulbis, who is too intelligent to be a "tennis freak" or a grey obsessive, whose father is an oligarch and one of the richest men in Latvia.
He is also rumoured to travel to tournaments in his dad's private jet.
Was that true about daddy's jet? "Yes, and I have a helicopter, a submarine and a spaceship," he joked. That didn't exactly amount to a denial by the 21 year-old, who recommended that everyone should try to spend at least one evening behind bars, just for the thrill of it.
At times, Gulbis sounds as though he has stepped straight out of the teen film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Career high
Gulbis, who is at a career high of 27 in the rankings, and whose preparations for Roland Garros have included reading The Revolution of the Ants, a science-fiction novel by the French writer Bernard Werber, said there had been a misunderstanding in Sweden last autumn.
He did not know that he was with a prostitute as he walked into a hotel, as when he meets girls he was not in the habit of asking them what they did for a living.
"It was great, it was great fun, but I'm never going to go to Sweden again in my life," he joked.
"If you go out and meet some girls, and immediately you're put in jail; that's not normal," said Gulbis, as he discussed his encounter with the vice police for the first time.
"When I meet a girl, I don't ask her what her profession is, I don't ask if she's a hairdresser or something else.
"I just meet her. And she meets me. She maybe doesn't ask what I'm doing.
"Anyway, if she does ask, I usually lie; I say that I do nothing or I'm a musician or something.
"Suddenly, the police come and take me to jail, so I spend the night in jail for nothing, really nothing.
"So I'm upset with the Swedish government."
Ashamed
For Gulbis, a night in a cell was educational, not something to be ashamed of. "It was very funny. I think every person should go to jail once, as it's interesting. It's really interesting, as they are very strict. I was in jail for one night, about six hours.
"I slept a bit. Then the prosecutor came and he asked me what happened, and then he said, ‘Sorry, we didn't know that it was this'.
"And he let me go after I paid a fine. I paid 250 or 300 euros to get out of jail, as I had a match to play in just a few days."
