Chapter 1210 Waiting for Good News
"You think you're friends, but are you really? Are you sure?"
"Have you ever thought that he might just be a pawn in John's business empire, and so are you, and then you are forcibly bundled together and sold."
"You were kept in the dark and became a tool for him to build his brand image."
"Think about it, since you two met, all the focus and all the glory have shifted to him. He is the media darling, but what about your situation?"
"They are all using you. I am the only one who truly stands by you and considers you wholeheartedly."
Rashid, that's over the line.
As a coach, he shouldn't interfere with Dimitrov's off-court life, but Rashid was obviously too emotional to care about that.
Dimitrov, who usually had a kind character, got angry for the first time since they started working together. He turned his face away from Rashid and ended the conversation with a cold face.
Of course, Tobias would not tell anyone else about these things, including Sampras and Agassi, let alone Gawain, so they knew nothing.
But at this time, Gao Wen's team also encountered a little unexpected situation. Gao Wen received a call from Tim -
Ask Gao Wen if he can play doubles with him.
Because of the recovery in Miami, Thiem canceled his plan to go to Casablanca for warm-up, but this also means that he needs more time to adapt to the clay.
Even for clay court masters, it takes some time to switch from hard court to clay court. Nadal is probably the only exception, who can make a seamless transition.
Gao Wen was very upset.
From a purely technical and tactical perspective, it should be more interesting to play doubles with Thiem on clay, after all, Thiem can be considered a clay expert.
But Gawain had already promised Dimitrov, so he spoke the truth and expressed his regret sincerely, "...It seems that we can only wait until next time."
Similar situations are very common in the tour, especially for singles players. Doubles competition is random, and there are countless cases where different players invite the same doubles partner at the same time. As for the decision, it depends entirely on the player who has the right to choose, which is purely personal freedom.
There are quite a lot of sensational gossips arising from the invitation of doubles partners.
For example, someone invited a player to play doubles, but the player said that he was not going to play doubles in this tournament. However, when the other player turned to leave, the player accepted another player's invitation to appear in the doubles match, which resulted in a war of words at the post-match press conference.
For example, a fixed doubles partner broke up due to disagreements. As a result, the two partners blamed each other in the locker room, and turned to look for new doubles partners, but both found the same player and asked the other party to make a choice, so that an innocent third party was involved in the bloody drama of this pair of partners.
Anyway, in the final analysis, doubles is a kind of cooperative relationship. There is no signed contract. It is more of an agreed etiquette and the choice is free.
What's more, Thiem also knows "first come, first served". He said he understood it 100% and could only look forward to the next opportunity to pair up with Gao Wen in doubles.
However, the story does not end here.
Later, Thiem turned to look for other doubles partners, but unfortunately, he failed to find a suitable one and missed the registration deadline.
As a result, Thiem's plans to warm up with doubles in Monte Carlo were shelved and he had to make up more time for adaptation through training.
After learning about this, Dimitrov and Gawain later expressed regret and apology when they met Thiem on different occasions.
Although, this is not anyone's fault.
It was precisely because of this that Tim had just made a little joke and teased Dimitrov; but he did not expect that Dimitrov would turn the tables on him, leaving the honest Tim dumbfounded and looking at Gawain for help.
But what was even more unexpected was that all this was actually the beginning of Tim and Dimitrov teaming up to play a prank on Gawain.
It's really rare.
So, is this a case of "the closer you are to the good, the better" or "the closer you are to the bad, the worse"? The only thing that is certain is that Rashid is not satisfied, very, very dissatisfied -
Although he didn't understand why, Sampras could feel the alienation and resistance from Rashid.
During the training, Rashid wore a pair of sunglasses the whole time, and acted as if he kept everyone away. Even his instructions to Dimitrov were very formal and purely official. The sharpness and stiffness in his words made bystanders feel uneasy.
Gawain also noticed the subtle atmosphere and asked Dimitrov privately, but Dimitrov didn't seem willing to say more.
“…There were some differences of opinion.”
Since Dimitrov said so, Gao Wen did not ask any more questions. After all, the relationship between coach and player is rather special.
From a work perspective, coaches need to guide players, and their professional opinions are an important means to help players improve their level and find competitiveness.
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But in terms of a partnership, the players are the ones who hire the coaches. Simply put, the players are the bosses and they have the final say.
Therefore, when cooperation begins, there are bound to be bumps and bruises. Perhaps interpersonal conflicts are not as serious as those in football or basketball, but the locker room always has its own problems.
Soon, this group of young people turned their attention to the game——
The draw for the Monte Carlo Masters was released on Friday, and countless experts and reporters have been eager to analyze it.
In the upper half, No. 1 seed Djokovic faces No. 4 Nadal.
In the lower half, second seed Federer and third seed Gao Wen face off.
In other words, if Federer and Gawain can successfully meet in the semi-finals, then the competition for the world's second place may be decided in the first Masters Tournament.
The situation is actually very simple: last year, Federer reached the final in Monte Carlo, but unfortunately lost to Wawrinka, so coming here again this year, he needs to defend the 600 points for the runner-up.
Assuming that Federer is eliminated in the first round and loses 600 points directly, then Gawain can reap the benefits without even having to compete and rise to the second place in the world.
Of course, this is an extreme situation. Reporters and fans do not want to see a situation where "the winner is decided without a fight". Their attention is still focused on the potential head-to-head confrontation between the top four, just like in a western movie, a head-to-head confrontation between "kings of kings" in which the ranking of the world's second place is determined by a single victory or defeat.
Masters semi-finals, that's 360 points; and now Gawain is only 215 points behind Federer, so the answer is very clear:
If Gawain wins in the semi-finals, he will directly replace Federer and become the new world No. 2; if Federer wins, it will still not be enough, because Gawain has secured 360 points by reaching the semi-finals, so Federer must win the championship to maintain his position as the world's No. 2.
Overall, Federer must perform better than Gawain to maintain his position.
Obviously, in this battle for the "world's second" title, Gao Wen has already seized an absolutely powerful position, but people are still looking forward to a head-to-head battle to decide the outcome.
(End of this chapter)