five minutes and twenty seconds, the men alternated between silence and necessary chatter. The engine burned and the ship slowly began to climb that gravity mountain from the Earth to the moon.

Now toward the end of the burn, it was Lovell's job to keep his eyes fixed on the instrument panel clock. He called off the three-minute, two-minute and one-minute marks to shutdown.

"Thirty seconds to go," he called.

Then: "Ten seconds. Really fine."

Then: "Five, four . . ."

He trailed off.

Finally, three seconds later, just as suddenly as the engine had roared to life, it went completely still. The only sound that filled the cockpit now was the whirring of the cabin fan, the breathing of the three men and the crackle in their headsets from the command center. YetA resurgent Ernests Gulbis is ranked 19th heading into the French Open. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

When I caught up with Ernests Gulbis at the Italian Open last year, he was in the midst of a career resurgence after plunging to No. 136 and having his mom recommend that he retire. His renaissance has continued in 2014: The 25-year-old Latvian is 23-10 with one title (the Open 13 in Marseille, France) and two semifinal appearances, and last week he reached a career-high No. 17. He is ranked 19th ahead of the French Open, which begins on Sunday.

The outspoken Gulbis -- who has put his fans through the wringer with his erratic play and combustible temperament -- sat down for another interview in Rome last week, before his third-round loss to