Unseeded Ernests Gulbis defeated three of the top six seeds, including No. 1 seed Mardy Fish in the final, to claim the title at the 2011 Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz. On Sunday, Gulbis claimed his second career ATP World Tour title with a 5-7 6-4 6-4 win over Fish.
The path to the title for Gulbis included a first round win over No. 6 Xavier Malisse and a quarterfinal victory over No. 2 Juan Martin del Potro before his showdown in the final against No. 1 Fish.
After an even opening 11 games, Gulbis donated the first set to Fish with a double fault on the third break point he faced of the day to give the American the set 7-5.
There was just one break chance for either player in the second set, and Gulbis took advantage to take a lead in the seventh game.
Gulbis left the court after the second set, and came back with a stepped up game. He broke Fish to open the third set, and got another break in the fifth game to open up a 4-1 lead.
With a 5-2 lead, Gulbis seemed to tighten, and was broken in his first attempt to serve out the match.
Serving up 5-4, Gulbis was against tested as he faced a break point that would have allowed Fish to level the match. However, the Latvian fought off the attack and held to take the title after 2:43.
Gulbis is now 2-0 lifetime in finals after having also won the title at Delray Beach in 2010. Fish, who won last week in Atlanta, falls to 6-13 in finals.
The victory of World No. 9 Fish gives Gulbis a 7-28 lifetime record against Top 10 players, but this was his first-ever Top 10 win in a match from the quarterfinals or later in a tournament in 10 tries.
Gulbis is the ninth player in the Open Era at Farmers Classic to defeat the first and second seeds en route to the title, and the first to do so since Wayne Ferreira beat both No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt (in the final) and No. 2 Sebastien Grosjean (in the quarterfinals) in 2003.
Fish maintains his Olympus US Open Series lead with 115 points, while Gulbis moves into second with 70 points.
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