Chapter 1040 Tian Ji Horse Racing
"198, 298, 319, 365, 399..."
In such a pile of numbers, a single digit, "3", suddenly appears, standing out easily, and it is very difficult to ignore it.
There is no doubt that in the Davis Cup match of "China VS New Zealand", Gao Wen is a variable, and how to deploy the troops becomes the key.
Whether it is China or New Zealand, they all understand one thing: the Davis Cup is a team competition. Even if Gao Wen can handle multiple roles by himself, two singles and one doubles, his energy is limited.
New Zealand can make a bold assumption that having lost both singles matches against Gowan, they will have greater confidence in the doubles match.
Then, the importance of the other two singles matches becomes apparent. Only if both singles matches are won can the doubles match become the key to breaking the balance.
This is also the charm of the team competition. Even if China has a "3", New Zealand can also make this "3" sit in the rest area helpless.
In the final analysis, team competitions test overall strength and average strength, just like in table tennis team competitions, the real key to victory or defeat is often the third singles, not the first singles or the third singles, but the third singles who is "not valued by people" and demonstrates the team's solid foundation.
Li Zhe also has a clear understanding of this. Gao Wen is their trump card, but the team competition cannot rely on only one player, otherwise it will not be a team.
Therefore, the game between the two sides has already begun from the stage of deploying troops.
China sent out a lineup of Gao Wen, Li Zhe, Zhang Ze and Wu Di.
Gao Wen, responsible for two singles.
Zhang Ze and Wu Di will each be responsible for a singles match.
Zhang Ze and Li Zhe played doubles together.
Of course, the singles lineup for the next day can be changed at any time, and they can respond flexibly after the first day of competition, but the key point is that they need to do their best to win every victory.
The reason for choosing Li Zhe instead of Wang Chuhan was because of doubles. They also had no intention of giving up the doubles victory. Among this group of players, Li Zhe and Zhang Ze both spent a lot of time on doubles courts and could be considered to be good at both singles and doubles. They were more familiar with doubles than Wu Di and Wang Chuhan.
Li Zhe and his teammates all know that Gao Wen is currently under tremendous pressure, and the upcoming "Sunshine Double" is attracting much attention. They hope to share the pressure with Gao Wen, and also hope to become teammates fighting side by side and strive for the Davis Cup victory together, rather than taking advantage of Gao Wen's opportunity.
This means that they need to put a lot of thought into doubles to ensure everything is possible.
It also means that Zhang Ze and Wu Di need to create opportunities in singles.
As long as Zhang Ze or Wu Di can win a singles victory, they will be able to disrupt New Zealand's layout, and the pressure on Gao Wen's shoulders will be reduced.
Who knows? Maybe they can win 3-0 on the first day, so that Gao Wen doesn't need to play again the next day to save energy for Indian Wells.
It is precisely because of this that today, after Zhang Ze came on stage, he was full of fighting spirit and performed well.
However, New Zealand, at home, was also well prepared:
The gap reflected in the world ranking is not a real gap in strength; the support from home games has become a source of confidence in the battle.
Even the weather was on New Zealand's side, highlighting the home advantage.
The first game had just started for less than fifteen minutes when it was interrupted by a sudden downpour.
Everyone thought that this should be a summer afternoon rainstorm, which would come and go quickly like a child's changing face, and would be over in thirty minutes at most; but in the end the game was interrupted for three hours, and the sky was covered with dark clouds, looking like the end of the world, with a hole in the sky.
While waiting for the players to return to the court, the sky was still gray and the wind was blowing coldly, which obviously had a direct impact on the players' performance.
At this point, we can see New Zealand's ingenuity in deploying its troops.
According to common sense, Venus has a higher world ranking, so she should have a better chance by avoiding Gao Wen and facing Zhang Ze. This is the correct way to play the Tian Ji horse racing game.
Before the game, Li Zhe, Zhang Ze and others all prepared for the game with Venus as their target.
But New Zealand didn't, they chose Statham.
Statham is a strange player, not a typical hard court player, nor a typical clay court player, but a mixture of different styles.
When it comes to hitting the ball, it is not mainly flat, but rather has more spin, so it seems that this should be more suitable for clay; but the key point is that he often goes to the net, and even serves and volleys, and receives and volleys, which is a completely grass court style of play; occasionally, the baseline shots can also be used to hold the game in a stalemate for a while.
Simply put, omnivorous and changeable.
Statham's tactical combinations vary greatly. Regardless of whether they work or not, it can be seen that he has been seeking change and breaking inertia.
Such players are indeed difficult characters in the challenge, because opponents often do not have the absolute suppression strength, and Statham can easily break their rhythm.
However, his skills are too diverse and chaotic, and his tactical system is not clear. Without a system, he often just hits whatever he thinks of, and even he cannot control himself. Moreover, he does not have a killer move like Brown, whom Gawain faced in Doha at the beginning of the year, and he also lacks instantaneous explosive power.
Naturally, the ups and downs of the game were particularly obvious.
Statham is like a double-edged sword, he doesn't know whether he will hurt his opponent or himself.
For Zhang Ze, who lacks the strength to suppress others, it is indeed very difficult to fight against such an opponent, because there is no routine and the tactics are constantly changing throughout the process.
Can't settle down.
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"2:6", "7:6(5)", "7:6(0)", "3:6".
Zhang Ze lost the first set, then won two tie-breaks in a row, but lost the fourth set again. Then, the two of them fought all the way to the deciding set.
Even in the deciding set, they still couldn't pull away from each other, and the game dragged on until the long set.
This also means that one side must win two games in a row to win.
"8:7".
Zhang Ze, who served first, saved three break points and held his serve again, continuing to put pressure on Statham.
Statham must hold the next serve.
But is it really that easy?
Pay attention to the score. In the whole game, Zhang Ze got a total of nine break points, but only broke Statham's serve once in the second set.
On the contrary, it was Statham who broke Zhang Ze's serve in the first, second and fourth sets, so the situation was still unfavorable for Zhang Ze.
After a short break between games, Zhang Ze came on the court again.
"Focus! Aze, focus!"
Gao Wen shouted at Zhang Ze, just like a coach cheering for a boxer beside the boxing ring.
Zhang Ze turned his head and saw Gao Wen's bright eyes at a glance. He nodded heavily, then trotted into the "boxing ring" in front of him.
Li Zhe moved closer to Gao Wen and asked, "Do you need to go warm up?"
The next singles match is Gao Wen's match, and it is not certain when it will start, because no one knows when the long set will end.
In fact, Gao Wen had warmed up three times before and after. This time, it was less than 30 minutes after he came back from warming up. Every time he felt that the game was about to end, but after coming back from warming up, he found that the game was still going on.
Gao Wen showed a faint smile, "Wait a little longer, it's okay, there are still 30 minutes of warm-up time before the next game starts."
(End of this chapter)