Chapter 130 Psychological Confrontation
Lipitis was slightly stunned. He immediately moved towards his forehand position and tried to return the ball, but the speed and power of the ball were beyond imagination. Even though he had reacted, he still couldn't touch the ball.
ACE opens the show! A bit unexpected.
It’s not that ACE is surprising, but the way ACE is done.
As the entire spring season came to an end, the information and status of each team have been displayed to the world. The Brown Bears' Gawain has risen like a comet, naturally attracting countless attention. Coaches and players have conducted in-depth research on him and sought appropriate response strategies.
Gao Wen's serve is not strong, but flexible and varied. The combination of landing point and rotation is dazzling. Especially in key score situations, his performance can also create huge threats, often making it difficult for opponents to judge.
However, powerful flat serve is not Gao Wen's strong point. In other words, the shortcomings in speed and strength are no secret, just like Gao Wen's forehand is not very stable, which is a situation that everyone can see.
In other words, when people mention Gawain's serve, "powerful" and "super fast" are definitely not the first impressions that come to mind.
However, the ACE just now was a standard flat serve, with a speed of 182 kilometers per hour.
Lipitis had made the correct judgment, but he was unable to catch up. Speed is one thing, and the angle of the outside corner is another. It can be said that this was a nearly perfect outside corner serve.
So... Gao Wen doesn't know how to hit the serve flat, but just chooses a variety of serves? Or is it that his energy and physical strength are at their peak in the opening stage, so his serve is particularly brave?
With doubts, Lipitis walked to the other side of the court, preparing to receive the serve for the second point.
Bending over and arching his back, Lipitis shook his body to keep his center of gravity flexible, his eyes fixed firmly on Gawain's serve, making predictions.
Inner corner!
Still in forehand position!
Lipitis' knees stretched out like springs, throwing his body out, and his accurate prediction allowed him to successfully touch the tennis ball.
but!
Still a flat serve? The serve was fast and heavy, breaking Lipitis's expectations again. It hit the racket quickly, but because it had no rotation, it bounced back without staying on the racket. This also meant that Lipitis' swing was not complete, and he only had time to do a knock and block action, barely sending the tennis ball back.
Obviously, this kind of return has no rotation, no power, no angle, and absolutely no control.
The tennis ball drew a parabola high up in the air, and then you could see that Gawain's footsteps were very agile and timely, and he stepped forward to the baseline in the first possible moment.
Without waiting for the tennis ball to land, Gawain took small steps to adjust his position, stretched his whole body completely, and with a forehand volley, he hit the tennis ball diagonally with all his strength, aiming for Lipitis' forehand.
Boom! Like a hurricane, the tennis ball flew over.
Although Lipitis started immediately and his steps were very fast, he was still far behind Gawain's volley. As soon as he started, the tennis ball bounced off the ground and he could not catch up.
Forehand winner! "30:0".
Lipitis looked at his forehand position, trying to find an answer in his mind -
Because I lost points so quickly and I wasn’t nervous at all, so what was the reason?
The content of this game is completely different from the coaching staff's preparations. What's going on?
Could it be... serving? Lipitis was not a player with particularly good tennis intelligence, and it was difficult for him to see the overall situation. The only thought in his mind was the most direct and simple first shot to touch the ball.
Judging from the current situation, Gao Wen's serve today was particularly good. He hit two first serves and two flat hits, all of which were easy to score. This is different from Gao Wen's usual games. So, how long can this state last? Will it fade away after a short period of time? Or can it last the whole game? Perhaps the best way is to actively seek change and break the opponent's state, rather than passively waiting for the opponent to cool down.
What should he do?
Lipitis also slightly adjusted his tactics. When he was ready to receive the ball, it could be noticed that his position was obviously advanced and closer to the baseline.
What does this mean?
Simply put, it is about grabbing the hair.
In tennis, serving can indeed bring huge advantages, but serving is also the most tedious and complicated action. After completing the serve, it often requires a return movement and time to adjust the center of gravity. This is true for all tennis players.
If you want to buy yourself enough time to return, you must improve the quality of your serve and suppress your opponent's return as much as possible; otherwise, you may suffer a counterattack from your opponent.
The receiving side should press the return ball as deep as possible, which is a way of compressing the serving side's returning space. The serving side's feet may have just landed on the ground, and it has not had time to stand firmly, and the return ball has already landed under its feet. Therefore, it has to return the ball in an unbalanced state, which is indeed very passive.
In addition, the receiving side deliberately moves closer to the baseline, trying to grab the rising point of the tennis ball after it hits the ground and bounces back, and quickly hit the tennis ball back to any position in the opponent's court, compressing the serving side's return time. This can also reverse the comparison of advantages and disadvantages between the two sides.
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This scene can often be seen in women's competitions: the receiving party steps directly into the baseline to prepare for receiving the ball. In fact, this is to seize the general weakness of women's serves. The receiving party can easily and quickly complete the rebound and hit the ball, and even start the attack in the first shot, and then directly overturn the situation.
To be precise, this trend was led by Serena Williams, a representative of power-type play, and it has gradually become a skill among the new generation of female players.
However, there are relatively fewer men's competitions.
Because men's serves are very powerful and fast, if the receiver enters the court, he or she may miss the ball or be squeezed out of the swing space due to untimely reaction. Therefore, men's serve receiving positions are often very far back.
Not everyone can grab the serve and it requires taking great risks.
At this time, Lipitis was also experimenting.
After all, this was only the first game, and it was far from a critical moment. He deliberately used this method to put pressure on Gawain, showing that he was not afraid of Gawain's serve. He then used the space pressure of his position to put psychological pressure on Gawain and destroy the stability of Gawain's serve.
Anyway, serving is definitely not Gao Wen’s strong point.
Even if this experiment failed and points were still lost, the psychological impact had already been completed. No matter what, Gao Wen needed to challenge the tactics.
Gawain was preparing to serve, and when he raised his eyes slightly, he noticed the change in Lipitis's position and immediately interpreted his opponent's tactical intention.
So, how should Gawain adjust his serve this time ?
(End of this chapter)