Chapter 1217 is interesting
"40:AD".
Break point, it appeared.
Puyi, full of question marks.
Subconsciously, he looked down at the racket. Puy didn't understand. He handled the previous two strong topspin shots well, but why did this flat shot go flying?
This shouldn't happen.
Across the court, Gawain did not clench his fist to celebrate, but stared at the point where the ball had just landed with bright eyes, a hint of amusement in his expression.
It's just like... a nerd whose eyes light up after seeing a math problem, revealing an enthusiastic spirit of research, but making people want to roll their eyes.
Don't understand.
Puyi didn't understand at all, what was going on with Gawain's expression?
In fact, it literally means -
Gao Wen thought that red soil was quite interesting.
In terms of tactics, there is nothing new. It is similar to hard court. The balance is broken by the distribution of landing points and changes in rotation.
But the interesting thing about clay is: first, its rotation; second, its changes; and third, its potential unknown factors.
In other words, in the same formula, as the number of variables increases, the possibilities naturally increase as well.
Moreover, many people believe that the slower speed of clay courts gives more time to think and more space to hit the ball, which should be a good thing.
Actually, it is not.
Batting requires decisiveness. Once you have more time to think, you are prone to hesitation, just like having a fear of making choices. The more choices you have, the more flustered you become. On the contrary, when there is no way out and there is only one way out, burning your boats and going all in can often result in better batting.
However, this is clay court, which requires thinking, gambling, facing changes at all times, preparing a second, third, and even fourth plan, responding on the spot, and being aware that there may still be variables before a dead ball is formed.
Just like this point just now.
From the landing point to the rotation to the opponent's response, every shot hides traps and keeps changing; although there is no winning point in the end, it breaks the opponent's inertia and wins the point by creating a mistake.
This is something worth pondering carefully. Should this point be considered an unforced error by Pouille?
Slowly, Gawain was digging the joy of the red soil, and it felt like—
That morning, he opened his eyes and returned to his freshman year, preparing for training with MacDonald. Everything was fresh, wonderful and full of vitality.
Of course, Gao Wen still has not lost his passion for tennis, but standing on the red clay, he has opened a whole new door and discovered completely different interests.
So, how should we play the break point ?
This was Gao Wen's first break point in the entire game. He was not sure about Pouille's tactical choice at the critical moment, but he was not prepared to passively take the beating.
There is nothing wrong with staying constant in the face of change; however, this is Gao Wen's first clay court match, and he needs to make more attempts. Even if the results may not be satisfactory or even lead to the loss of the entire match, some attempts still need to be made. In the long run, this is the only way to understand clay court.
After all, he is a student now.
Puy, serve.
…inner corner.
Pouille did not use the classic outside corner backhand tactic in the second zone, but sneaked an inside corner and aimed at Gao Wen's forehand.
At least from the beginning, Pouille's serve was more focused on Gao Wen's forehand.
Moreover, this time, the ball speed was directly increased.
199 kilometers per hour.
puff.
The tennis ball hit a ball of red clay sparks and was hit flat.
This time, Gao Wen did not start early, but it was not surprising. His feet started very timely, and with a big step, his forehand was extended.
One touch.
A package.
Gawain handled this ball carefully. He did not risk launching a direct attack, but wrapped the tennis ball and hit it back into the court along the middle.
Moreover, the landing point is slightly shallow, and there is still a large step of space from the baseline.
Puy immediately seized the opportunity, took a series of small steps to adjust, turned sideways and fired directly with his forehand.
Like most players whose forehand is significantly stronger than their backhand, Pouille often uses his forehand sideways, relying on the power of his forehand to launch attacks and exert pressure.
Backslash.
Aim for the big triangle at the bottom line and hit it.
It can be seen from the landing point that Puy tried to press the deep area instead of tearing the angle open, which also gave Gao Wen an opportunity.
But is this really an opportunity?
Gawain remained alert.
Take a step forward, sprint your body's center of gravity to the right, pause and push, then move sideways to the left.
In the next step, my fast-moving feet couldn’t grip the ground, and I could clearly feel that my footwork control was still not precise enough—I didn’t have enough practice time.
Gao Wen kept his attention 100%, and used the same two-handed backhand technique again, hitting a super topspin deep ball from the baseline to push the tennis ball back.
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Diagonal blind spot.
During the fast movement, the accuracy of the shot will inevitably decrease because of the unstable footwork. So Gawain simply gave up exerting force and hit the ball with rotation. This not only increased the insurance but also bought himself time to adjust. However, the landing point could not be random and Puy's subsequent attack had to be limited.
Finally, Gao Wen aimed at the big triangle on Puy's backhand baseline and hit a super topspin moon ball, which was very similar to the hitting strategy in the previous point.
Puy was not fooled.
At this point, Pouille's batting talent can be seen. Faced with a strong topspin deep-zone landing point, he did not choose to retreat to create space to complete the shot. Instead, he stood half a step behind the baseline, raised his backhand directly with both hands, and quickly rolled it up in a nearly rebounding manner to complete the shot.
One bullet.
A collision.
In a flash, Puy forced down all the rotation, and with a backhanded pull of both hands, he rolled out a diagonal line and rushed back.
Just from this one shot, one can vaguely see Djokovic's style. Of course, the styles are different, but the effects of the shots are somewhat similar.
The tennis ball didn't stay there for long before it hit Gawain again.
The return ball was deep, spinning, heavy and pinning.
It was almost equal to the rotation of Gawain's shot plus the speed and power of Puy's shot, and then all of them came towards Gawain.
The tennis ball landed within one step of the baseline, and with strong rotation and tail power, it returned to Gao Wen's backhand position.
Small steps.
Retreat.
Adjustment.
Gawain did not insist on standing at the baseline because he could feel the power of Pouille's shot, but Pouille compressed the entire rhythm and did not leave Gawain much room for adjustment. He took small steps and retreated slightly, half a step to one step, and completed the backhand while retreating with both hands.
A meal.
From the field of vision, one could see that Gawain paused briefly, then he pushed forward with his feet that had just stabilized, and actually took another step forward.
Go and come back.
Face it head on.
This...what’s going on?
In fact, when Gawain finished the previous shot, his footsteps were not adjusted properly. Pugh's ball was fast and urgent, which made Gawain a little flustered and affected the adjustment of his footsteps. So, Gawain simply made an adjustment on the spot, and everything happened in a flash.
Step forward.
The footsteps are racing against time, but the backhand of the hands is lagging behind.
Stagnation.
Although he was ready to hit the ball, Gao Wen paused for a moment before hitting the ball. Instead of hitting the ball, he passively waited for the tennis ball to come to him.
Everything happened so fast, so what was Gawain planning? (End of this chapter)