Push off the ground, step forward, grab a step, and attack with a strong forehand——
In the previous shot, his forehand quickly rolled and repeated the landing point in a diagonal line, forcing Kei Nishikori to barely circle his forehand, and the parabola was obviously not under control.
With this shot, Gao Wen no longer waited, and took a big step to the baseline, increasing the rhythm of his shots, and hitting the ball with a strong topspin on his forehand.
straight line!
The tennis ball had just been hit, and Gao Wen did not wait at all. Following the inertia of the hitting action, he rushed forward and quickly went to the net to continue to exert pressure.
His 193cm tall body is like a wall, tightly blocking the hitting line. On the surface, it seems that he is preparing to block the diagonal line, but judging from the stability of the center of gravity, he should be preparing to block the straight line. His attention is completely focused on the opposite side, watching Kei Nishikori's defensive movements.
On the other side of the court, Kei Nishikori's second start was very quick and timely. He ran at full speed, and his flexible and light footsteps completely inherited Hewitt's hare legacy. However, in the blink of an eye, he had already flown from one end of the baseline of the court to the other, his speed increased to the extreme, and his body stretched to the extreme.
However--
Too slow.
It's still too slow after all.
The calf's pushing power is insufficient, and the starting speed of sudden stops and turns cannot keep up, even with a super long slide at the last moment, trying to cut and hit the ball.
Unfortunately, it was still a little lacking. He watched helplessly as the tennis ball flew out from the front of his racket head, missing the chance to score the winning point.
it's over.
The game ended just like that.
The final scores of the games were “6:2”, “5:7”, and “6:3”.
As the score showed, the decisive set saw a turning point after Kei Nishikori's "3:0" victory.
The fourth game, Gao Wen's serve.
In this game, Kei Nishikori had two break points in succession and had the opportunity to further expand the score and take a double break lead in the deciding set.
However, at the crucial moment, Gawain showed the big heart of a Grand Slam champion, not only in terms of improvement in strength and speed, but also in the suddenness of the layout. The improvement of the entire baseline hitting state once again broke the balance, broke Nishikori's inertia, and caught Nishikori off guard.
As a result, the situation of back and forth, strength of one and weakness of the other, and strong confrontation changed again.
After Gao Wen seized the second game point opportunity and successfully saved his serve, the trend of the deciding set tilted in another direction -
It's like a landslide.
Kei Nishikori's physical strength had reached its limit. He kept delaying, but eventually he had drained the last bit of energy from his body and suffered physical and mental backlash.
The entire batting feel and game state collapsed.
Moreover, it was not a slow collapse, but a spectacular collapse. Kei Nishikori didn't even have the strength to walk. When he moved to the serve position between each point, he could hardly stand. He needed to rest before he could walk a short distance.
Everything happened so fast, just like a car with brake failure, once it entered downhill mode, it could no longer be controlled.
Until the end of the game, Kei Nishikori finally recovered some strength and tried to fight back, but Gawain, who had accelerated his speed, left him no chance.
The first match point of the final set, which was also the third match point of the entire game, was converted neatly by Gao Wen with the winning point.
At this time, thirty-three minutes had passed since the last match point, but in the end, Gao Wen still won the victory without any danger.
The second half of the game was full of ups and downs and twists and turns.
First, Kei Nishikori stood on the edge of the cliff and turned the tide, winning six games in a row to reverse the situation, delivering an invisible egg, and establishing a leading advantage in the deciding set. It seemed that he had already won.
Then it was Gao Wen's turn to perform. He once again demonstrated his calmness and wisdom as a leader of the younger generation. He regained control of the game rhythm, resisted the opponent's counterattack at the end of the game and won six consecutive games. He also delivered an invisible egg and won the victory in one go, becoming the one who laughed last and the sweetest.
Such a roller coaster-like game with great ups and downs, openings and closings, is not common in men's competitions and it really made the Barcelona audience scream with excitement.
Bizarre plot, standard ending——
This sounds really familiar, just like the entire tournament in Barcelona this year. There were many upsets and surprises one after another, but the ending returned to the usual routine. If someone didn't watch the tournament, they might think it was another boring week.
In the end, the tournament's top seed Gao Wen withstood the impact and test of consecutive upsets and won the championship, which once again sparked heated discussions.
After winning the doubles title in Monte Carlo last week, Gao Wen won the singles title in Barcelona, winning the clay court championship for the first time in his career. He not only continued his upward momentum and extended his good form on hard courts to clay, but also silenced all the controversy.
Of course, those haters will always find reasons to attack as long as they want, and they will never stop -
For example, Nadal was eliminated unexpectedly, Djokovic and Federer did not come to Barcelona, and Gawain faced Kei Nishikori, a top 10 player in the world, during his championship...
And so on and so forth.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
but!
A champion is a champion! That trophy, those experiences, those memories, those games, they are all real.
Entering the clay court season, after a short period of adjustment and adaptation, and facing challenges and shocks, Gao Wen continued his good momentum this season, continued to improve, continued to rise, and continued to fight; then, he used a doubles championship and a singles championship to prove:
Even on clay, he is still competitive.
Those controversies, those attacks, those chaos, can finally calm down for a while, and the grumbling of a small number of haters can be completely ignored.
After all the events in Barcelona were over, Gao Wen set off for Madrid to rest and adjust for a week.
Although I still train on clay every day, the intensity has been slightly reduced to conserve my energy for the next two consecutive Masters tournaments.
For top players, it is very important to rest and accumulate energy at the right time.
At the beginning of the year, Murray gave up the warm-up match of the Australian season, flew to Melbourne, and finally made it to the semi-finals. This is direct proof.
This is not an isolated case.
This time, Djokovic also announced his withdrawal from the Madrid Masters.
It was not because of injury, but after winning the Monte Carlo championship, he felt that he needed some time to adjust both physically and mentally, so he chose to stay in Monte Carlo to relax and rest, and accumulate strength for the subsequent clay court season. This was a very necessary rhythm adjustment.
At the same time, Djokovic said that the schedule of the Rome Masters remains unchanged and the French Open is still his biggest goal this season.
After finishing second at Roland Garros for two consecutive years, the world number one is still looking forward to completing the important missing piece of the puzzle in his career and pursuing the Grand Slam. To do this, he needs to be in 100% condition, so he temporarily adjusted his schedule.
Undoubtedly, this was a small accident that sparked widespread heated discussion.
The clay court season is indeed an extraordinary test of physical and mental strength.