Chapter 1141
The "Youth Storm" is coming, burning to the end.
Since Gao Wen won the US Open championship, the younger generation born in the 1990s and 1995s have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain and rushed to the professional stage to shine.
In response, all major media outlets welcomed the move with raised hands and feet, and applauded loudly.
The media has been looking for an opponent of the new generation who can be compared with Gawain. It is not Kei Nishikori or Wawrinka, but young players.
Because they are looking forward to epoch-making rivalries such as "McEnroe vs. Borg", "Sampras vs. Agassi" and "Federer vs. Nadal".
From Raonic to Dimitrov, and then to the younger Zverev, the media tried their best to fan the flames and try to create an atmosphere. They started to create a "rival" atmosphere early on, hoping to find a place for the new generation in the overall chaos of professional tennis in 2015.
However, the reporters did not have the ability to foresee the future. They could not have imagined that the final rivalry would be formed by other people: "Gawain VS Thiem".
At least, in the first meeting between the two players at this year's Miami Masters, people could not see any traces and everything seemed normal.
Thiem can be seen as a smaller Nadal, not in terms of playing style or strength, but in terms of his professionalism and attitude towards the game:
Diligent, focused, dedicated, wholehearted, unreserved, and full of tenacity.
Of course, some similarities in playing style are also a clue.
Thiem is the second player after Nadal whose average batting speed can easily reach 4,000. In his peak period in 2018 and 2019, Thiem's batting speed could even suppress Nadal. This is undoubtedly a feat and also established Thiem's status as the "Little Prince of Clay".
At the same time, Thiem, like Nadal, is a training fanatic. He is either training or on the way to training every day.
However, the biggest difference between Thiem and Nadal is that Thiem's tennis is particularly "violent", in the same category as Wawrinka and Rublev.
When playing tennis, Thiem exerts force with every racket and throughout the entire court. He is not only "stubborn" but also "obstinate". He firmly believes that he needs more power and more rotation to suppress his opponent. Therefore, when he is in a difficult situation, he tends to exert more force, and both forehand and backhand are no exception, and he exerts full force throughout the entire court.
It is precisely because of this that when watching Tim’s game, the “burning feeling” is particularly obvious, not only on the mental level, but also on the physical level.
This also proves Tim's outstanding physical talent. With his playing style, he may not be able to maintain a full season, but Tim stayed at his peak for more than five seasons, and then slowly began to suffer injuries. The impact of a series of injuries and improper subsequent treatment led to him falling into a trough.
Because Thiem is always trying to increase power and speed, his shots often require a larger swing, more space and more preparation time, which also means:
On the one hand, this requires Thiem to have excellent footwork to buy himself time and space to hit the ball. Naturally, the physical energy consumption is also more severe.
On the one hand, Thiem is often easily exhausted on hard courts because the hard court speed is faster, which compresses his swing and power accumulation time. This is also an important reason why he is more adapted to clay courts. He is not only stable, but also has a higher ceiling.
However, the first breakthrough in Thiem's career came on the hard court: he reached the round of 16 at the US Open last year and appeared in the public eye for the first time; this year he reached the quarterfinals in Miami and regained his form from a brief slump.
The reason is not complicated.
Thiem's shots are heavy and spinny, with excellent quality, and balanced forehand and backhand. Coupled with his youthful vigor, he relies on excellent footwork to buy himself the time and space needed to hit the ball. His violent offensive style is combined with excellent defensive feel, making him highly competitive even on hard courts.
From 2016 to 2019, Thiem defeated Nadal at least once on clay for four consecutive years, and he was also the first player to accomplish such a feat.
In addition, from 2019 to 2020, Thiem achieved a record of six wins and one loss on hard courts against Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
The only defeat came in the 2019 Australian Open final against Djokovic, when he lost the game and missed the championship despite leading 2:1.
With just a few strokes, it can be seen that Thiem is a player with a particularly strong "burning sense". His explosiveness and impact show his youthful passion to the fullest.
But with such talent and ability, why did he only achieve success late? It was not until the 2019 season, when the Chilean player Nicolas-Massu, the singles and doubles champion of the 2004 Athens Olympics, joined the coaching team, that he ushered in a complete transformation?
It's because Tim is an honest man. In the game, he relies heavily on his body and uses his body to rush, bump, fight and break through.
In the early stage of his career, Thiem had been learning how to use his body more scientifically and reasonably, but this was enough. He reached the French Open semi-finals for three consecutive years. After Masu joined the team, she brought Thiem richer content in terms of tactics and psychology, prompting him to upgrade.
As of now in 2015, Thiem is still in the stage of self-exploration. Although he has figured out some things, they are still not coherent enough.
The match against Gao Wen is a typical example.
In the first set, Thiem put unimaginable pressure on Gawain, which could basically be regarded as Wawrinka at last year's Australian Open. The entire attack was not only violent but also smooth, and more importantly, the hit rate was extremely high.
Facing Zverev, Gawain was able to turn the situation around through defense, but facing Thiem, the suppression of the ball quality caused Gawain's defensive quality to decline.
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Thiem's balls are heavy, spinning, sinking and powerful. In terms of ball quality alone, they are comparable to Nadal's. Especially in the two encounters between Gawain and Nadal, Nadal was not in the best condition, so Thiem's ball quality has a longer lasting effect than Nadal, with layers of impact.
Not only did it compress Gawain's hitting time and space, but the strong confrontation between strength and strength could also suppress Gawain, and as a result, the tactical layout was also affected -
The difficulty of changing lines, returning the ball, and layout all increased.
This also vividly illustrates that tennis is a game of strategy. Whether those returns are easy or difficult depends on both yourself and your opponent.
"6:3".
Thiem won the first set.
In this set, although Gao Wen also fought for some opportunities and got five break points in Thiem's serve, Thiem was always better at the critical moment.
Not only was he bold, but he was also resolute, and his entire batting strategy was very clear. It was not that Gawain did not play well enough, but that Thiem's performance deserved applause.
It was a fierce duel between the two teams, with neither player giving an inch and the other fighting to the bitter end. The winning points were amazing, and there was one wonderful shot after another. Even the mistakes were due to the strong suppression from the opponents. The fierce confrontation with sparks flying everywhere ignited the heat of the whole stadium, and the cheers from the audience could not be stopped at all.
This is the "youth storm" that people have been expecting, which is much more exciting than the match between Gawain and Zverev.
Young people are passionate, tough, and enthusiastic! They must burn to the end! (End of this chapter)