Sports in brief - 2011-11-03

 Latvian tennis player Ernests Gulbis will end 2011 with a lower ranking than what he began the year with after bombing out in the opening round of his two most recent tournaments. Last week Gulbis lost to world no. 78 Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, 3-6, 4-6, in his first match at the St. Petersburg Open before moving on to Valencia this week where he fared no better, falling to American Sam Querry on Tuesday afternoon in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6. The 23-year-old’s world ranking now sits at 52, after starting the year at 24 before reaching an all time high of 21 at the beginning of February. Gulbis has a chance to finish the year within the world top 50, but will need to travel deep into the draw in his final tournament next week in Paris. However, just to make the main draw, the Latvian will first have to navigate his way through qualifying. It has been an up and down year for the inconsistent Gulbis. After starting the year in promising fashion with a quarterfinal and semifinal appearance in consecutive weeks, Gulbis has ridden a rollercoaster ever since, making just one more quarterfinal appearance before winning the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles in July, suggesting form had returned. But in his eight subsequent tournaments he has failed to make it past the round of 16.

Dinamo Riga has signed 34-year-old Finnish forward Ville Nieminen until the completion of the 2011/2012 season. The experienced Nieminen will be a welcome addition to a Dinamo Riga lineup currently missing four of their frontline forwards to injuries. Nieminen was drafted into the NHL by the Colorado Avalanche in 1997, being picked up 78th overall. First appearing for the Avalanche in the 1999/2000 season, Nieminen went on to play 385 NHL regular season games and a further 58 playoff games for seven different teams across 11 seasons, lifting the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2001. The Finn returned to play in Europe in 2007/2008 and last season experienced his first taste of KHL action, appearing in 53 regular season and four playoff games for Dinamo Riga rivals Sibir Novosibirsk. During the regular season Nieminen picked up 12 goals and 35 assists before adding a further goal and assist post-season. Nieminen also has an Olympic medal to his name, having been a member of Finland’s silver medal winning hockey team at the 2004 winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

The Latvian men’s rugby team has produced a woeful performance in their latest European Nations Cup Division 2A match on Saturday afternoon in Riga, losing to Malta 28-0 to leave them languishing near the bottom of the five-team ladder. Having defeated Malta 32-28 earlier in the season on their opponent’s home ground, Latvia had been expected to compete strongly in their own backyard, but with trainer Vladimirs Nikonovs making a number of interesting selections in his team – as well as playing a number of people out of position – Latvia found themselves on the back foot before the match had even kicked off. Latvia now travels to Split, Croatia this weekend for a bottom of the table clash which may ultimately decide which team will be demoted to Division 2B. Latvia sits a mere point in front of Croatia on account of having secured one bonus point to go with their solitary victory. The situation is somewhat better for Latvia’s southern neighbors Lithuania, who currently sit second in the group, six points behind Sweden, who they tied with when the two teams met back on Oct. 22.