Chapter 1187 Youthful and energetic

Small ball?

It was actually a small ball? When facing the king of clay, it was actually Gawain who first used the small ball tactic, and his delicate and clever touch control was amazing.

Nadal was slightly stunned. He had never expected that Gawain would be the first to use the small ball today. He had apparently temporarily forgotten this technique.

He braked and stopped, then Nadal smiled, raised his racket, tapped the racket face lightly with the base of his right palm, and applauded Gawain.

Unexpected! Totally unexpected! But!

Absolutely wonderful!

On the side of the court, Toni Nadal, who was watching the training match, also grinned, turned his head to look at another coach next to him, Francisco-Roig, and shook his head repeatedly to express his admiration. It seemed that he also praised Gawain's use of this small ball.

When people mention Nadal's coach, Uncle Tony is undoubtedly well-known to everyone. After 2016, it was the 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya. These two coaches made Nadal's glory one after another.

Moreover, Nadal is a well-known obsessive-compulsive disorder patient who does not like change, so once he has decided on a coach, he does not like to change the model frequently. In Nadal's view, the coach is indeed very important, but the real key to training and competition lies in the players, and internal factors are the key to victory or defeat.

Therefore, Uncle Toni and Moya have become the representative faces of Nadal's coaching team, but in fact, he has another long-term coach: Roig.

This is also a Spanish tennis player who once specialized in doubles. His highest world ranking in singles was 60, and his highest world ranking in doubles was 23. His best record in Grand Slams was reaching the third round in singles at the French Open, and reaching the quarterfinals in doubles once. That's all the glory.

Although he chose to retire in 2001, Roig actually partnered with Nadal in a doubles match in 2004.

That doubles partnership became an opportunity, and in 2005, Roig joined Nadal's coaching team, responsible for Nadal's frontcourt technical training; at first it was only a part-time job, but slowly, little by little, Roig played an increasingly important role in the coaching team.

Later, after two consecutive seasons of lows in 2015 and 2016, countless industry insiders suggested more than once that Nadal should change his coaching team because Uncle Toni had nothing new to teach Nadal; but Nadal always refused, thinking it was unnecessary.

Players should still rely on their own efforts and hard work.

Instead, it was Uncle Tony who opened up the possibility. He personally found Moya and persuaded Moya to join Nadal's coaching team.

After a season of running-in, Uncle Toni decided to retire and spend more time at Nadal's tennis school. Moya will serve as Nadal's head coach. At the same time, Roig will also play a more important role and officially become Nadal's second coach, working with Moya.

It was only at this time that people finally realized the existence of Roig, but in fact, Roig had been in Nadal's coaching team for more than ten years.

It is somewhat ironic that there are still many professional tennis media who do not know Roig and have mistaken him for Uncle Tony many times.

When Gawain made a wonderful shot, Uncle Tony turned to look at Roig, because the midfield and frontcourt was Roig's area of ​​work.

From Federer to Djokovic, to Thiem, and then to Zverev and Tsitsipas, generation after generation of top clay court players have been looking for ways to beat Nadal. Small ball is undoubtedly a very important tactic, but they always have difficulties when facing Nadal:

First, the ability to move; second, the ability to predict, always be alert to the small ball; third, the handling method.

In addition, we need to be vigilant against Nadal's small balls at all times.

Nadal's personal abilities and technical characteristics can always be fully demonstrated on the clay court, which also means that Nadal is not afraid of small balls.

If you want to score the winning point directly through small balls, the quality needs to be very, very good, but with that comes the risk of control.

That’s why Gao Wen’s small-ball winning points are so rare.

Roig could sense the amusement in Uncle Tony's eyes. He spread his hands helplessly and raised his chin slightly to gesture to the person beside him:

Agassi crossed his arms over his chest, looking intently at the court, with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes, expressing his satisfaction with Gawain's shot.

Uncle Tony smiled faintly, and then, not long after, both Uncle Tony and Roig looked towards Sampras again.

What's going on?

“15:0”.

In the next point, Gawain and Nadal started a tug-of-war at the baseline. Nadal had a slight advantage and suppressed the opponent through super topspin.

Gawain's backhand withstood the impact, but he never found a chance to counterattack; moreover, this time, Gawain was obviously much more patient and did not rush into an immediate attack.

Later, Gawain seized an opportunity, took half a step, and completed the line change by increasing the speed of the racket head. However, slightly different from the previous attack, Gawain did not go for the winning point. He still focused on controlling the line and the landing point. One shot was in a straight line, and one shot was in a diagonal line. Two consecutive backhands fully mobilized Nadal.

Nadal demonstrated his excellent defensive ability, innate defensive sense and accurate prediction, and pushed back Gawain's two consecutive attacks that turned the situation around.

Evenly matched.

Not giving an inch.

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Although the offensive and defensive situations were constantly changing, the balance of advantages and disadvantages between the two people was not broken, and no one found an opportunity to overturn the situation.

Then, Gawain struck—

A small forehand diagonal shot pressed a deep area, and for the third consecutive shot, he fully utilized the entire court space by controlling the landing point and hitting the ball lightly.

At the same time, along with his own stroke, Gao Wen went directly to the net.

Follow the ball to the net.

At this moment, Nadal realized that the three consecutive shots were all preparations. Gawain's tactical intention was not to break the balance, but to distract Nadal's attention.

One thing that must be noted here is that Federer has used this tactical combination countless times, and Nadal has never been afraid of it.

Precisely because Federer has used it countless times, people are able to see Nadal's rich and diverse net-breaking techniques. He is known as the "No. 1 net-breaking player" in contemporary men's tennis, and can even be said to be the best in history.

In other words, Nadal is not worried about his opponent going to the net at all, because he is in a passive situation and his ability to defend and counterattack is indeed unparalleled in the world.

So, what was so special about Gawain's net play this time? Was it different from Federer's? Wasn't Gawain worried about Nadal breaking the net?

If Gawain rushed around in a daze, Uncle Tony and Roig would have just sighed that young people are indeed full of passion and youthful vigor, completely forgetting Nadal's ability to break the net and forgetting that Federer's pressure at the net can rarely put enough pressure on Nadal.

But here’s the point—

Gao Wen, is it really just a case of hot-bloodedness? (End of this chapter)