By Joshua Rey

Winning tennis tournaments never gets old, whether you’ve just conquered your first or your 58th.

Just ask 21-year-old Ernests Gulbis, who Sunday fulfilled his long-debated potential by becoming the first Latvian to win an ATP World Tour title.

Joining him in the Delray Beach winner’s circle were Bob and Mike Bryan, whose 58th-career doubles title together allowed them to pass John McEnroe and Peter Fleming as the winningest American team in the Open Era. The twins’ 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) win over first-time finalists Philipp Marx and Igor Zelenay also drew them three titles shy of the world record held by Aussies Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.

“Everyone’s talking about it and we’re even thinking about it now,” said Bob Bryan. “We were in this final and we saw on paper that it was a pretty good matchup for us.

“But the last four or five matches we’ve played, we’ve played guys with no pressure. Last night, Taylor [Dent] and [Ryan] Harrison had the biggest smiles on their faces the whole match. We were like, ‘Jesus, this is going to be a career loss, and for them it’s going to be a career win.’ So we’re getting kind of used to that pressure and hopefully we’ll be able to deal with this record in the same fashion.”

Like the Bryans, Gulbis did not have his serve broken Sunday, spoiling the 31st birthday of 6’10” intimidator Ivo Karlovic, 6-2, 6-3. He cracked the Karlovic code by breaking in four of the Croat’s nine service games, winning 19 of 26 points when Karlovic missed his first serve.

Even when Karlovic landed his lightning-like first delivery, Gulbis rapidly reflected returns at the Croat’s feet. Of Karlovic’s 43 first serves made, Gulbis returned 20 into play and won 14 points, negating the 14 aces Karlovic hit

“I knew what I had to do against him,” said Gulbis. “I didn’t go back when he was serving first serves; I tried to step in and take the ball early. And if I could do it, he didn’t have any time to hit the next shot… I was returning perfectly.”

Karlovic earned the first two break points of the match, which could have been considered set points because of the potency of his own serve. But Gulbis saved both, held, and then broke Karlovic in the next game after winning three points off Karlovic’s first serve. Gulbis added an insurance break two games later by slapping a down-the-line forehand return winner off a 111 mph slingshot from the Croat.

“He was returning really well, but it was windy and I didn’t feel really comfortable at all on the court today,” said Karlovic, who didn’t face a break point in his semifinal win Saturday over defending champion Mardy Fish. “It was different because yesterday it was night and cold. Today it was warm and windy, and I don’t know. I just didn’t play good.”

Gulbis hit a 127 mph ace to close the first set in 34 minutes. From there, his shotmaking  seemingly cut Karlovic down to size.

The Croat stared dumfounded at his opponent in the second game of the second set after Gulbis squeezed a squash forehand in for a winner at an extremely acute angle. When the Latvian bulleted a return off a 127 mph serve in the next game, Karlovic put his hands on his hips and paused for a few seconds.

Again Gulbis got a hold of Karlovic’s famous first serve and again the Latvian broke, taking a 2-1 lead in the second set.

“He was playing really good,” said Karlovic. “Everything that he hit was in, even with the frame.”

Down 1-3, Karlovic held serve after he fended off a break point with a 130 mph ace, raising his hands and blowing kisses to the crowd as if hitting his serve past Gulbis was a more difficult task than Gulbis faced returning it.

Indeed, it was. Karlovic double-faulted two straight times to give Gulbis his first career title in his first career final: an impressive accomplishment for a player whose emotions have gotten the better of him to the tune of 50-60 broken racquets per year.

“I felt comfortable; I liked being in the final,” said a smiling Gulbis, the seventh player to win his first ATP title in at the ITC. “Nobody is giving me pressure. If I’m not putting pressure on myself, then it’s fine. I was relaxed. My coach told me before the match, ‘Just got out there and enjoy it.’ My father never puts pressure on me. He’s happy that I’m doing what I like to do. I think that’s what’s important.”

Prior to the singles final, the top-seeded Bryan brothers broke routine at the start of their doubles final.

Because of the location of the sun and the direction of the wind, right-handed Mike served first, foregoing Bob’s lethal lefty spin until the third game. The twins’ decision paid off when Mike held at love, and then dipped a forehand pass to break Marx for a 2-0 lead.

Mike was again on the service line at 5-3 when Marx forced a deciding point by running around his backhand for a forehand return winner into the alley. Hot off his last shot, Marx elected himself to return at Deuce. But when the German tried the same play, Mike jammed him with a wider serve to draw an error and allow the Americans to claim the first set.

“It was a nerve-wracking moment,” said Mike Bryan. “I served him two straight to his forehand and he hit good ones, so obviously the backhand was the way to go.

In the second set, it was Marx and Zelenay who defended their serves easily, winning 19 of 20 service points at one stretch. They made inroads on Bob’s serve in the eighth game, but failed on back-to-back break points when Mike uncorked an overhead and poached for a put-away.

Bob again dodged trouble at 5-6, hitting a pair of wide aces past the Slovakian Zelenay to recover from a Love-30 deficit and force a second set tiebreak.

“It was huge to get to the breaker,” said Bob Bryan, “because if you get to the breaker, they have to win two breakers on you, which is like two coin flips in a row. Mike said, ‘They can’t hit what they can’t see,’ at Love-30, so I just went for the aces and I got them. That was huge.”

The tiebreak was a tail of two players, with Bob nailing four winners and Marx contributing three errors as the experience of the twins prevailed.

Following their ITC triumph, the Bryans were bound for Belgrade, Serbia, with a 7:55 p.m. flight scheduled Sunday night. Next weekend, they will team with John Isner and Sam Querrey in a Davis Cup tie against the Novak Djokovic-led Serbians.