Chapter 1039 Davis Cup

Snap! Snap!

The dull sound of the ball swirls and echoes over the ASB tennis court. The entire court is completely silent, and the air is almost burning.

Zhang Ze, preparing to serve, looked up at Jose Statham across the court, took a breath, and then -

Throw the ball! Push off the ground! Hit the ball!

District 2.

One shot, and it went in.

Outside corner, suppressing Statham's backhand.

Sure enough, Statham's return ball did not follow the arc, the parabola was completely pulled up, and the landing point was not well controlled. Zhang Ze followed up quickly.

Standing at the baseline, Zhang Ze swept the ball with his forehand, aiming at the empty space in the straight line and exerting full force.

but!

At the critical moment, Zhang Ze was still a little conservative. He didn't push the line and landing point to the extreme. In addition, he lacked strength and burst, so the speed and quality of the ball did not improve. He wanted to score a winning point, but unfortunately -

Lacks a little bit.

Statham, still sprinting sideways, caught the ball with his forehand and actually managed to touch it, barely defending it. The hearts of the audience were hanging in their arms again.

The sight, watching the tennis ball draw a full parabola, flying, flying, and finally...

Fly out of the baseline.

The defense was ultimately unable to control it!

Out of bounds!

Zhang Ze managed to win the point without any danger. After saving three break points, he held his serve on his second game point.

Boom! The whole place was boiling.

The local audience in Auckland all held their heads, unable to believe their eyes, with frustration and amazement colliding and burning.

On the sidelines of the court, Gao Wen could no longer hold back his emotions. He raised his arms, roared, cheered, and waved his fists to cheer for Zhang Ze.

The others were no exception. They clenched their fists and roared towards the court, completely igniting the air.

"8:7".

Zhang Ze continued to maintain the lead in the deciding set, putting pressure on his opponent. Next was Statham's serve, which he had to defend.

Zhang Ze turned around, clenched his fists secretly, and cheered himself up:

"you can!"

"Believe in yourself, you can do it! You can win!"

In a trance, Zhang Ze seemed to be back in Melbourne Park again, facing the host team amidst the overwhelming cheers from the audience. The pressure made his blood boil.

The atmosphere of a team competition is different after all. There is more pressure but also more motivation because they are a whole and work towards the same goal. Naturally, the air is more tense, the emotions are more turbulent, the morale is higher, and everything becomes different.

Zhang Ze turned back and saw Gao Wen, Wu Di and others waving their fists at the edge of the court. They were filled with passion and enthusiasm. They were the strongest, most solid and most reliable backing.

He is not fighting alone.

Zhang Ze clenched his fists again, gritted his teeth, and jumped lightly on the spot to stimulate his energy.

After three hours of fierce battle, the game is still not over, but has entered the most difficult and tense moment. He needs to continue to mobilize the remaining energy in his body and let his little universe explode.

Davis Cup, Asia-Pacific group one, the first round of the match, "China VS New Zealand", officially kicked off.

The Davis Cup competition system is not complicated. It is different from the NCAA. It weakens the home advantage and the game between captains. It is relatively simple:

overall, the Davis Cup has a total of five games. The first team to win three games wins, including four singles and one doubles.

On the first day, there were two singles matches and one doubles match.

The next day, two singles matches.

Before each round, the captain selects four players and decides what positions they will play. The order of the first day's matches is not determined by the home team, but by drawing lots.

In the past, players could only be replaced if they were injured or sick and verified by an official doctor, but now the rules have been slightly changed to allow the captain to reselect players for the two singles matches on the second day after the first day's competition, as long as the two teams do not overlap with the first day.

The Davis Cup lineup has no restrictions on the types of matches that players play. Generally speaking, it is often a configuration of two singles and two doubles, with the two singles players ranked first and second singles respectively; while doubles experts focus on doubles.

However, in some countries and regions, there are not many professional tennis players, or their strength is not strong, and doubles experts play in singles, and singles players play in doubles. Similar situations are not uncommon. In addition, due to rule changes, the changes in players participating in the singles match the next day are also more frequent than expected.

Moreover, the Davis Cup does not have any rigid rules for the ranking of the first and second seeds, which means that the "Tian Ji Horse Racing" strategy is completely feasible.

In other words, like the NCAA, captains also have to decide on the order of appearance, but the overall game is slightly less complex.

However, "game" mainly occurs between teams of similar strength. Otherwise, the gap in strength is too large and any game strategy will be useless.

The Chinese and New Zealand teams are in the same situation in the Davis Cup, and their overall strength is comparable:

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World Group? Too much effort, almost no chance, even the World Group play-offs are difficult.

Asia-Pacific Group 1? More than enough. Even if we occasionally perform poorly and fall into Group 2, we can quickly return to Group 1 the following year.

Simply put, not as good as the best but better than the worst.

Currently, the highest ranked player in the New Zealand team is Statham, who is currently standing on the court, ranked 319th in the world; and the other singles player is Michael-Venus, who is currently ranked 399th in the world.

actually--

Both players are better at doubles than singles. Statham is currently ranked 179th in the world in doubles, while Venus is ranked 62nd in doubles.

The development of tennis in New Zealand has always lagged far behind that of Australia. It was not until the rise of Venus in the doubles arena that they left their names on the world map. Venus not only won the French Open men's doubles championship in 2017 and the men's doubles bronze medal at the 2021 Olympics; but her doubles world ranking also reached ninth.

Overall, the ranking of Chinese players is one level higher: Zhang Ze, 180; Wu Di, 298; Wang Chuhan, 365.

But the key lies here. Although the ranking numbers are very different, in fact, the strength gap is not that obvious.

It has been mentioned before that the huge gap in world rankings cannot be seen as a gap in strength.

The top 100 in the world are basically the first echelon of the pyramid, and everyone has the ability; similarly, the gap between the world rankings of 100 to 300 or even 400 is also very small.

The points difference may be just 50 or 100 points. In the tour, challenge tournament, or 250-game level, it's the difference between winning a few more or a few less games. If the form is particularly good or bad for a period of time, the ranking fluctuations are basically like a roller coaster.

Therefore, China has an advantage against New Zealand, but it is not obvious. In the end, it still depends on the on-the-spot performance.

Until Gawain's appearance.

Ranked third in the world.

Winner of two Grand Slam titles.

Defeated the Big Three consecutively to reach the Australian Open.

All these achievements are really too brilliant. In this Davis Cup, they are the key to breaking the balance. Therefore, Gawain is a key to both teams.

In the game of "Tian Ji's Horse Racing", it all depends on whose layout is more superior.

(End of this chapter)