Chapter 1292: Riding the Wind and Waves
This year's Barcelona is a little bit "cold".
Although the participating lineup is very good, the draw list has sparked heated discussions, and everyone is looking forward to seeing high-quality matches this year.
But the actual progress of the game was full of upsets and accidents one after another, which was disappointing and the draw list became unrecognizable.
Players including Cilic, Tsonga, Gulbis, Thiem, Kyrgios and others were all eliminated in their first match.
There are the middle-aged generation who have returned from injuries and the new generation that have attracted much attention. However, either they lost unexpectedly in the first round, or they were eliminated in the second round after having a bye in the first round. Before the third match day was over, the attrition rate of the seeded players had exceeded 25%.
Objectively speaking, clay courts have always been a hotbed of upsets, and the French Open is the tournament with the most dark horses winning the championship among the four Grand Slams.
However, the large-scale elimination of seeds was still spectacular and caused a lot of exclamations.
Later, facts proved that this year's Barcelona seemed to be experiencing an invasion of "cold air", and this wave of upsets did not end there: in the round of 16, Anduar unexpectedly defeated Lopez; Fognini unexpectedly defeated Nadal, and the lower half encountered a cold wave, which caused a lot of exclamations.
By the way, Nadal has won all four encounters against Fognini in his career, but each match was very difficult. Fognini's playing style is exactly the rhythm that Nadal is very uncomfortable with. He cannot be said to be his nemesis, but he is also a nemesis.
This year, Fognini defeated Nadal for the second time in a row in Barcelona after Rio de Janeiro, and both times were on clay.
From this one detail, we can see that Nadal, who is in a slump, is still having a bad season and is still unable to get out of the predicament.
And then, the upsets were not over yet.
In the quarterfinals, Klizan upset Robredo and Anduar upset Ferrer, and the unseeded players took over this year's event.
With the continuous cold waves, Barcelona this year is indeed unusual, and the final four lineups are full of surprises.
In the top half, Gawain and Krizan.
In the lower half, Kei Nishikori and Anduar.
Amidst one upset after another, No. 1 seed Gao Wen and No. 3 seed Kei Nishikori were able to stand firm and defend the honor of the seeded players.
Having said that, both Gawain and Kei Nishikori also broke expectations. Both players are not experts on clay courts, and hard courts are the surface they are best at. Coming to Barcelona, despite their high world rankings, no one expected before the game that they would be the ones to stay in the cold wave.
In comparison, Klizan and Anduar can both be considered clay court experts, and their advancement is more convincing. Some clues can be seen behind the upsets, but it is still a surprising result that they were able to defeat two Spanish clay court masters and advance to the semi-finals.
This also further proves that this Barcelona tournament is full of surprises and accidents, repeatedly breaking speculation, and obviously cannot be viewed with common sense.
So, in this unusual tournament this year, which player will win the championship? And then -
The two seeded players both defended their honor and successfully blocked the unseeded players from entering the final with their strong performance.
Gao Wen and Kei Nishikori will meet in the final.
At this point, Barcelona's draw, which had been completely messy and in tatters in the wind, has miraculously returned to normal. The final lineup of "top seed VS third seed" has gone around in circles and taken countless detours, but has finally returned to the right track. It can definitely be called a roller coaster ride.
Perhaps, the "Gawain VS Nadal 3.0" that local fans expected did not happen, but the "battle for the top player in Asia" is also worth watching.
Since the encounter at the US Open last year, Gao Wen and Kei Nishikori had no idea that their joint rise would actually change the entire tennis landscape. The two Asian male players both ranked among the top ten in the world and firmly occupied a place, successfully changing the global layout of tennis forces.
Now, Kobe and Kei Nishikori have become two flags of Asian men's players, writing a new history.
However, there is also competition between the two players. They both have their own battles waiting for them and their own careers to break through.
So far, Kovan and Nishikori have met three times, once in New York, once in London, and once in Indian Wells. Kovan won all three matches without losing a set.
Especially London.
In last year's year-end finals, "6:1", "6:2", Gao Wen showed his top competitive state and swept Kei Nishikori to victory without any bloodshed.
However, if they meet again, Gao Wen will never take it lightly.
Firstly, Kei Nishikori is still in his rising period. Under the guidance of Michael Chang, he continues to transform himself, and every game and every encounter is brand new.
Secondly, although both players are more suitable for hard courts, clay is good for Kei Nishikori because the restraint brought by the serve is weakened.
It is not so much that the power of Gawain's serve has been weakened, but rather that Nishikori's serve weakness has been hidden. The characteristics of clay slightly spread out the weakest link in all of Nishikori's technical aspects, and gave Nishikori the opportunity to lay out the baseline and start a round, so the situation is slightly different.
Although Kei Nishikori's best performances are the Australian Open and the US Open, a careful study reveals that the facts are a little different from what we imagine: the tournament in which he performed worst is Wimbledon; and the tournament in which he performed most stably is the French Open. His average performance of two quarterfinals and two fourth rounds is basically on par with that of the Australian Open, or even better than that of the US Open.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
The progress of the game also proved this.
“6:2”.
The first set was uneventful, with Gao Wen winning quickly and once again demonstrating his firm confidence. On the contrary, Kei Nishikori seemed a little impatient and anxious.
At this time, almost everyone believed that Gao Wen would defeat Kei Nishikori again and expand his lead over Kei Nishikori without any suspense.
But Nishikori said "no".
In the second set, Kei Nishikori saved two match points, "7:5", and successfully turned the tables at the last moment, relying on his tenacity and perseverance to continue the game.
This was also the first set that Kei Nishikori won against Gawain. It not only proved that Kei Nishikori could also perform well on clay, but also proved the infinite possibilities of tennis games. Every meeting and every confrontation is a new beginning. Past battle records can only be used as a reference and are not counted.
At the same time, it can be clearly felt that on clay, Gao Wen's dominance is obviously not comparable to that on hard court. The more crucial the points, the more his background can be seen. The shortcomings of lack of experience in clay court events were also exposed by Kei Nishikori's continuous pressure and efforts.
More importantly, missing the match point means that the belief in victory will be further shaken, and the shortcomings of lack of experience will be further magnified.
The balance of victory and defeat will also undergo subtle changes.
Therefore, the 2015 Barcelona champion will be decided through the deciding set.
(End of this chapter)