Chapter 1181: Don’t underestimate
Adapting to red soil is not easy.
In Graf's opinion, three seasons may not be enough. One season to adapt, two seasons to adjust, and three seasons to be officially started. After all, the clay court season is too short now, and there is not much time to breathe. So how is it possible to be completely reborn in just three days?
From a theoretical perspective, Gao Wen's rich, diverse and flexible playing style is indeed very suitable for clay, but this is just talk.
From a practical point of view, Gao Wen is a typical hard court player. His way of thinking is still in the hard court mode, so he naturally cannot quickly adapt to the rhythm of clay court.
It's like learning a language.
Perhaps, someone is truly a genius, with a natural sense of language and an excellent memory, and from any perspective, he can easily learn a new language.
In fact, this is indeed the case. They are proficient in grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing, and have no problems with anything. They seem to have completely understood the new language. However, when it comes to the communication stage, that is, speaking, they are easily stuck, including listening, and can never keep up with the indigenous people.
What's going on?
In fact, it is a problem of thinking style. Maybe your mind is full of knowledge of this new language, from grammar to words to structure and so on. But if your way of thinking is still your mother tongue, you must go through a process when switching, and this is the moment of getting stuck.
For example, in a Chinese-English conversation, if the other person says something in English, you need to convert it into English in your mind before you can understand it. Then you need to think of a response in Chinese and then convert it back into English. Not to mention that the grammatical structure is completely different, even the reaction time cannot keep up with the speed.
Way of thinking, that's why --
It is also because of this that many people often stumble when communicating in a non-native language because a conversion process is required in their minds.
If it's a three-way switch like "Chinese-English-German/Spanish/Italian", it would be even worse, and your brain might freeze on the spot.
Only by changing your way of thinking and thinking in English will things become smooth.
The same is true for tennis.
Gao Wen is in the initial stage now, so he habitually thinks about clay courts in the same way as hard courts. Even though his playing style and tactical weapons are very suitable for clay courts, it is not necessarily possible to integrate them on clay courts.
He needs time and games, many, many, many games, to truly feel the ever-changing situation on the court and experience the ever-changing red clay.
In the past few days, Graf has witnessed Gawain's progress, as well as his "confusion and struggle". She knows that this is a necessary process.
This is only the case in the first professional season. Once Gao Wen truly matures, switching between different venues each season will not be so difficult.
"...But I think you are ready." Graf looked at Gawain and said with a smile.
Gao Wen was a little surprised, "You mean, against Rafa?"
This afternoon, Gao Wen will step onto the clay court for training and face the "King of Clay" Nadal.
Graf nodded slightly in affirmation, "Training is never-ending. You still have too many hard court hitting habits and ways of thinking that need to be changed. Even if you spend a week on the court training, it is still not enough. Only when you step onto the court, compete and really get involved in the game, will the training content become your own."
Gao Wen thought about it seriously and said, "Well, that's true, but the first training match is against Rafa?"
A serious face.
He paused for a moment, stretched out the last syllable, fell into deep thought, and then -
Gao Wen's smile instantly bloomed, "This is too exciting!"
The eager look of rubbing his hands together and trying hard made Graf stunned. She turned her head with surprise to look at Sampras, Agassi and others on the sidelines.
Agassi shrugged innocently and spread his hands: I don't know either.
Rafael Nadal is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in tennis history.
Let's put aside the battle between the Big Four for the best player in history, and let's put aside the fact that Nadal's excellent performance on hard courts is no less than that on clay. But if we say that Nadal is "one of the best in history", this is beyond doubt. Among them, it can be said that Nadal was born for clay.
There is no need to wait until 2022, even now in 2015, Nadal has already raised the historical record on clay to a new height.
Except for Vilas' incredible number of clay court wins, which makes him the top player, almost all the records on other clay courts belong to Nadal.
Consecutive clay court wins, career clay court winning rate, total number of clay court championships, Masters and Grand Slam winning streak, French Open wins, etc. If I were to list them all, it would probably take some time, but it is certain that these records all belong to Nadal.
"The King of Clay" is well deserved.
As of 2022, Nadal has won the Roland Garros for the historic 14th time, once again breaking his own record for winning a single Grand Slam title.
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You should know that apart from Nadal, no other player has won more than double the number of Grand Slam titles in a single event. The closest to this record are Djokovic and Navratilova, the former of whom has won nine titles at the Australian Open and the latter at Wimbledon.
There is another record. As of 2022, Nadal has an incredible 112 wins and 3 losses in the French Open. Both the number of wins and the winning rate are ranked first in the history of the four Grand Slams. So who are the second and third in history?
Second in history, Federer, Wimbledon, 106 wins and 14 losses, winning rate 88.2%.
Third in history, Djokovic, Australian Open, 85 wins and 8 losses, winning rate 91.4%.
In addition to Nadal's French Open and Federer's Wimbledon, Federer's Australian Open also has over 100 wins.
A simple comparison can once again show Nadal's unparalleled dominance in the French Open. No wonder the French Open officials erected a statue for Nadal at Roland Garros in 2020. This is also the first time in history that a statue has been erected for a player while he is still active in the professional arena.
In fact, overall, the clay court season is a barometer of Nadal's condition. The performance of Nadal on the clay court can be used to determine Nadal's condition curve for the entire season.
For Nadal, clay is always special, and the French Open is even more important. If the clay season does not perform well, it also means that Nadal's competitive state has fallen to the bottom, which just proves what Graf said:
Nadal, his understanding of clay is second to none.
In a way, this is the same as Federer's understanding of grass.
Maybe Federer will lose on grass, just like Nadal will lose on clay, but their understanding of this surface is unique, which also means that it will be very, very difficult for any player to beat them, and may even require 200% effort.
(End of this chapter)