Chapter 1118 The next wave is coming

Rublev, this is a player whose playing style is worth studying carefully.

Since he was a child, he trained on clay courts, following the Spanish youth training style. His career idol is Nadal, and he grew up completely on clay.

In 2014, Rublev won the French Open junior men's singles championship and became the world's number one junior, which prompted him to decide to turn professional.

However! Rublev's achievements as an adult are almost all from hard courts.

In terms of Grand Slam performance, the first breakthrough in his career was at the US Open, and his best results were at the US Open and Australian Open. It was not until the 2022 French Open that he reached the quarterfinals for the first time.

Masters performance: Although he has reached the finals in the Monte Carlo clay court tournament, his best and most stable performances are on the hard courts of Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati.

Championship trophies, of the eight singles championship trophies as of 2022, six are from hard courts, and even the number of finals is overwhelmingly ahead on hard courts.

Strange! Just like the young Spanish player Busta, he was born on clay, but his style is more suitable for hard courts and flourishes on hard courts.

To some extent, Rublev's game is similar to Del Potro's, not in terms of playing style, but in terms of their reliance on the forehand.

Rublev's attacking strategy all relies on his forehand, which is like a cannonball. It is heavy and powerful, and can be output continuously. He stands near the baseline, continuously sweeps and continuously applies pressure until he breaks through the opponent's defense.

Of course, as a player born in the Spanish youth training system, Rublev can still be seen to have the typical Spanish tactical style represented by Nadal: one is the running style.

The second is the sideways forehand. As long as you find an opportunity, you must adjust your footwork in the backhand position, attack sideways with the forehand, and complete the pressure across the entire court.

This kind of tactics started with Moya, and was mastered by Ferrero, Ferrer, and Nadal. Nadal even promoted the sideways forehand. This is a very important basic skill in Spanish youth training, and it has been implemented into the tactical system bit by bit.

Coincidentally, Rublev has a strong forehand, so he is often able to fully utilize his forehand advantage to win the game.

Rublev's forehand swing is concise, powerful and not dragging. This not only creates a higher speed and stronger power for the forehand shot, but also makes it difficult for the opponent to predict in advance through hidden hitting movements.

At the same time, Rublev's forehand has the ability to penetrate the entire court diagonally, and also has the ability to hammer in a straight line, with great force and coverage of the entire court.

Therefore, when facing opponents with one-handed backhand or weak backhand ability, Rublev can often gain the upper hand and continue to exert pressure to complete the breakthrough.

However, facing opponents with strong and tenacious two-handed backhands, or opponents who dare to change the line with both hands, Rublev's forehand attack lacks changes in rhythm and methods. As a result, he may expose the gaps in his forehand due to his habitual routines, which in turn turns into opportunities for the opponent to counterattack.

It is precisely because of this that in the new generation duels, Rublev always loses to players with excellent two-handed backhands. Facing Medvedev, he lost four games in a row, and it was not until Cincinnati in 2022 that he defeated his compatriot for the first time. Facing Zverev, he lost all five games and has never won a game.

From all these, we can see that Rublev is a relatively "straight" player. He plays without any tricks and wins by relying on his strength.

But if his powerful shots hit a wall, he often lacks other means to change the situation. Compared with Del Potro, his style is closer to Sharapova's.

This year, after the end of the Australian season, Rublev officially ended all his youth competitions and fully turned to the professional arena.

The "Sunshine Double Crown" is certainly not to be missed.

Last week in Indian Wells, Rublev was unfortunately eliminated in the final round of qualifying; but coming to Miami, he passed the test of two rounds of qualifying, which also earned him the opportunity to enter the main stage of the Masters for the first time in his career.

The first round opponent is... Busta.

It was that Spanish "oddball" who, like Rublev, came from a clay court background but performed even better on hard courts.

Busta, who was born in 1991, is more of a late bloomer than a gifted person. Although he turned to the professional arena in 2009, he was plagued by injuries in his early days and had to play on and off. It was only in the past two years that he gradually found some form and slowly began to emerge. It may take more time.

Facing Busta, Rublev lost the first set at 1:6, but he quickly adjusted and won two sets in a row to advance smoothly.

He advanced to the second round in his first Masters tournament in his career. Maybe his aura was not as high as Zverev's, but Rublev did attract some attention.

Next, Rublev won the opportunity to challenge Gawain.

For the media, the "youth storm" always attracts attention because they represent the future, not to mention that the recent situation is slightly different.

From Coric in Dubai to Rublev this week, players born after 1995, like Gao Wen, are coming into the spotlight.

In the previous "Youth Storm", Gao Wen was always the younger one, challenging Raonic, Dimitrov and other representatives of the "post-90s" generation.

But now, Gao Wen has successively welcomed a new generation that is younger than himself, and coupled with the halo of the Grand Slam Masters, he has undoubtedly become the target of challenge and impact of the youth storm of his peers.

If it was only Cilic or Rublev, the media would at most use keywords to add some gimmicks. But in the spring hard court season, within just three weeks, they encountered players born after 1995 in a row. Step by step, the media's emotions were also mobilized step by step.

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Isn’t it interesting? Look, Gao Wen himself is still a challenger, challenging the “post-90s” and the “Big Four”. From his sudden emergence to the attention of the public, this amazing challenge journey has just begun in less than a year.

Soon after, younger, more energetic and more youthful challengers emerged one after another, each of them with great ambitions to defeat Gao Wen.

So, how should Gao Wen adjust his position?

In competitive sports, the importance of mentality and psychology is far beyond imagination. If you cannot put yourself in the right position, the possibility of suffering a Waterloo will increase sharply.

"The proud man falls behind" does not just have a literal meaning, but can be interpreted in more detail.

Especially considering Gawain's youth.

For other players, they have more or less been working hard on the tour for many years, going through ups and downs, and finally getting to where they are now.

But Gao Wen did not make a brilliant debut like a comet and then continue to strive for the peak. This is even more so now. He just won the championship in Indian Wells last week, and in a blink of an eye, the media put him together with unknown up-and-coming players.

If Coric in Dubai has defeated Nadal, his boasting can be excusable, but Rublev this week seems to be a dim star, and has not even achieved any results worth mentioning in the professional arena. Isn't the media's fanfare a shame?

So, can Gao Wen adjust his mindset?

(End of this chapter)