Chapter 1248: Losing the East
Some people say, "If you love the right person, Valentine's Day is every day." In fact, the same is true for competitive sports, "If you find the right person, singles and doubles are equally exciting."
Everyone is looking forward to Federer and Nadal partnering in doubles, but such a dream cannot be realized for the time being. Gao Wen and Dimitrov are also a good partnership.
Obviously, in today's game, the two new generation players satisfied the fans' wild fantasies. In fact, not only the fans and spectators, but also both sides of the game benefited a lot today.
The Bryan brothers are still in poor form this season and have not won a single match on clay. There is still some time before the French Open and they need to slowly adjust, but what is certain is that today's match has brought their form into shape. However, there is still room for improvement in their performance in key points and their adaptation to clay.
The competition is a kind of test, and when they return to training, they can carry out targeted training.
It is 100% certain that their careers are not over yet, they still enjoy the game, still look forward to challenges, still desire victory, and will continue to fight.
A wonderful wisdom condensed from a long professional career is that, having experienced highs and lows, reaching the top and facing difficulties, the Bryan brothers know the difficulty of climbing to the top again, but this difficulty is precisely the charm of competitive sports, achieving self-breakthrough in challenges.
The same goes for Dimitrov and Gawain. They faced different difficulties, but both needed the training of this game. More importantly, they won the victory: in terms of confidence and state, this is a very important step.
Victory always brings positive effects at any time, not to mention that this is the first Masters tournament of this year's clay court season and they have made a good start.
Later, the doubles pair of Gawain and Dimitrov extended their impressive form to the singles arena.
In the second round, Dimitrov defeated Fognini in straight sets, and then showed his hot hand again, defeating Wawrinka in straight sets. After winning two consecutive games, he advanced to the quarterfinals.
Among them, in the match between Dimitrov and Wawrinka, his opponent only won three games. His competitive state recovered strongly and the upward momentum was indeed gratifying. It could be deeply felt that the doubles arena had revitalized his state and slowly returned to the right track, showing a style that was completely different from the North American hard court season.
On the other hand, after defeating Pouille, Gawain encountered a small challenge and defeated Isner in three hard-fought sets, losing a tiebreak in the second set.
Logically speaking, Isner is not good at clay court. Because of the venue, the power of his serve is weakened, and his advantage is not so obvious. But don't forget that Isner is the first player to drag Nadal into the deciding set at the French Open. The fundamental reason is:
His serve is still a problem on clay, and he can even overcome the clay court factors and continuously output powerful serves.
Compared to Gawain, Isner sticks to his own style of play and has achieved good results on clay.
But in the end, Gao Wen still showed his versatility and flexibility against the big players, and won the match with a break advantage in the deciding set. The score of the deciding set was "6:3".
Following Dimitrov, Gao Wen also successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.
Little by little, both Gawain and Dimitrov are adapting to the clay courts, and the clay court season is off to a good start.
However! The quarterfinals——
Dimitrov faces Monfils who has returned from injury.
Monfils, who missed the Sunshine Double, finally returned in the clay court season. He played with a wild card and showed excellent touch. In the last round, he defeated Federer in straight sets.
Of course, Monfils has excellent personal abilities and is always a tough nut to crack. He has forced the Big Four into desperate situations before. He is a talented player with a very high ceiling. He has a wild imagination in his batting and tactics, and is very difficult to deal with.
As it turned out, Monfils was in good form indeed. Facing Dimitrov, he only lost four games and once again had the last laugh, advancing to the semi-finals.
For Dimitrov, this is undoubtedly a pity, as his form was improving and he did not have to face Federer, but he failed to seize the opportunity; but from another perspective, Monfils is indeed ready for the clay court season, as evidenced by his consecutive wins over Federer and Dimitrov.
At the same time, Gao Wen also encountered the first severe challenge of the clay court season. He can be said to be a true clay court master:
David Ferrer.
This match was not easy, to be more precise, it was very difficult. Compared with Pouille and Isner, Ferrer is a typical clay court player. Although he performs very well on hard courts, clay is Ferrer's territory. The only Grand Slam final in his career took place at the French Open.
Previously, Gawain and Ferrer had faced each other once, and Gawain won easily, but Ferrer's biggest advantage lies in stability.
Maybe the upper limit is not high, but the lower limit is very high. No matter what the venue, what the opponent, or what the round, Ferrer can always remain stable and continue to put pressure on his opponent. Therefore, Ferrer once held a record of remaining undefeated against players outside the world ranking of 30 for five consecutive seasons.
This stability is amazing.
Coming to the clay court, Ferrer's understanding, tactics and skills are all ahead of Gawain. There is no doubt that this will be a tough battle.
In Gao Wen's view, this is an opportunity to test his adaptation and adjustment to clay.
Strictly speaking, Gao Wen has only played two singles and two doubles matches on clay so far, which is nothing compared to the real clay masters. But that's what competitive sports is all about, constantly moving forward amidst tests and challenges, examining yourself through games, and then making adjustments and continuing to improve.
On the clay court, it was obviously a bit too hasty to play against a "stable guy" like Ferrer after only four games, but this is the Monte Carlo Masters. As the rounds go deeper, the confrontation will become more and more intense. From another perspective, playing against a stable guy may be a good thing.
After all, all of Ferrer's skills are relatively average, neither the best nor the worst, which makes him the best opponent to test Gawain.
The game was very, very difficult.
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As expected.
Although Gao Wen has gradually learned something about clay, he can realize when he stands in front of Ferrer that he still has not mastered the essence of clay:
It's just getting started.
Tactical layout is one aspect, and subconscious conditioned reflex behaviors such as batting habits, batting techniques, batting selection, etc. are another aspect.
Even though Gao Wen has been adjusting and learning, the hard court style that is deeply ingrained in his bones is definitely not something that can be adjusted in just a few games.
“6:2”.
Ferrer won the first set, while Gawain lost two service games and lost by a large margin. What's worse, he missed all four break points.
"7:5".
In the second set, Gao Wen scored a goal.
This set was very intense. Ferrer broke early, showing his experience and stability on clay. But in the middle of the set, Gao Wen made a strong effort to break the balance and completed the break with a wonderful backhand diagonal winner. The two sides returned to a balance and continued to be in a stalemate.
As the match was about to enter a tiebreak, Gao Wen seized the opportunity at the end of the set, breaking and defending his opponent's serve, and won the second set with great momentum.
The game enters the deciding set!
(End of this chapter)