Chapter 1302 Invisible Shackles
Perhaps, there are countless haters and trolls on social networks, and it seems that there are always people who can't stand the praise that Gao Wen has received, but the facts cannot be changed.
When people talk about the favorites to win the French Open, even though Gao Wen's performance in the clay court season has declined, he still appears at the top of the list: second only to the Big Four, he is well-deservedly and honorably the fifth favorite to win this year. After all, he is now ranked second in the world.
Not only experts, not only sports betting companies, but also passers-by and spectators, all automatically think of Gao Wen's name.
This is the expectation, of course, it can also be seen as a kind of recognition——
On the one hand, Nadal, who has been the top favorite to win the French Open for the past decade, is in poor form, and the competition landscape at Roland Garros is open for the first time.
On the one hand, Gao Wen has remained undefeated in the Grand Slam tournaments so far, and the best-of-five matches always seem to be able to stimulate Gao Wen's potential.
The opportunity thus arose, not only for Djokovic, but also for Gawain; moreover, the two players who are currently competing for the world's number one position have not met on clay this year, but Gawain still maintains the lead in past records.
Therefore, in the French Open final, if Djokovic and Galen meet, the dream scene of the No. 1 seed and the No. 2 seed competing for the championship will take place, and the outcome may really be unpredictable, and the situation for winning the championship has become more confusing than ever before.
Just imagining it gives me goosebumps.
Of course, that’s not all.
Players such as Berdych, Kei Nishikori, and Ferrer also performed well in this year's clay court season and appeared at the top of the favorites to win the championship odds.
Among them, Kei Nishikori was an unexpected surprise. Except for the Monte Carlo tournament where he did not participate, he performed very well in the subsequent three clay court tournaments, all of which he lost to the eventual champion. He showed excellent competitiveness throughout and seemed to have all the conditions to make a breakthrough in the French Open.
As Asian men's singles players, Gao Wen's comprehensive rise is both an encouragement and a pressure for Kei Nishikori. If it can be transformed into motivation and form a cycle of healthy competition, the two players can join hands to create an even crazier storm in the men's tennis world.
His gaze finally returned to Gawain.
Such a situation and such circumstances are obviously new and different from the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.
When he arrived in Melbourne at the beginning of the year, Gao Wen was not the favorite to win the championship. Although expectations and pressure were objectively present, the focus was slightly different: Every new Grand Slam champion must face the same issue, that is, he or she carries expectations and is in an awkward buffer zone between the challenger and the challenged. It can often be very difficult to adjust one's mentality, and off-court interference and self-pressure will affect one's competitive state.
If they fail to overcome this, the performance of the new Grand Slam champion in the next Grand Slam will often be a disaster.
Therefore, the pressure at that time was mixed with curiosity and caution, and people were quite cautious:
The feeling is like new parents watching their child learning to walk for the first time. They expect their child to be able to walk steadily for a distance, but they can't help but carefully guard by their side to protect them and prevent them from getting hurt. Although they have expectations, they still control their expectations.
Even though it was a "provocation from Celjan", the media reporters watched the excitement, but they did not expect that Gao Wen would actually make it to the finals and win the championship.
At Melbourne Park, the real problem is the boos and attacks against the "home killers".
This time when we arrived in Paris, the media and fans' focus was different from the first day. The subtle changes created a completely different atmosphere.
There is no need to wait until the pre-match press conference. During daily practice, the gazes, the shouts, and the attention are already different.
Fourteen consecutive Grand Slam victories, the undefeated aura of the Grand Slam, the potential to win three Grand Slams in a row, everything is turning into shackles.
When people expect to get 100 points in every exam, 99 points is a failure; at the same time, even if they get 99 points, there will still be a lot of voices gloating and taking advantage of the situation, repeating over and over again that 99 points is a failure.
Even though 99 points is not a failure at all, and even though everyone knows that no one can remain perfect, the pressure is still enough to devour the soul.
Now, Gao Wen is facing such a contradictory dilemma. Expectations and pressures, positive and negative, different voices collide and intertwine with each other, and finally condense into layers of dark clouds, tightly covering Gao Wen's head, condensing an invisible depression and distress.
In fact, it’s not just Gawain.
From Gao Hongli and Jiang Yanyun to Sampras and Agassi and others, they all felt this dilemma, which spread from the court to outside the court.
Everyone has their own worries and everyone has their own way of dealing with them. The only thing that is certain is that they are all surrounding Gawain.
Today is the third day since arriving in Paris.
On the one hand, as the draw ceremony draws closer, the focus on Roland Garros is becoming more and more intense.
On the other hand, Gawain's training results have declined slightly. Gawain is still struggling with the adjustments brought about by the weather change and is not satisfactory. Obviously, he still needs more time to hone his skills.
Sampras stood on the sidelines, staying calm and rational, collecting as much information as possible in the hope of helping Gao Wen, but he could sense Gao Hongli's worry.
Although Gao Hongli tried his best to suppress his emotions and remained rational and objective, as a father he was in a different position and his worries were still revealed.
Normally, Sampras seldom interferes with Gao Wen's personal life. He hopes to keep some distance, distinguish between public and private affairs, and continue to treat coaching as a job. Only in this way can he continue to ensure professionalism.
But as Agassi said, Sampras took the job just to give it a try, but as time went on, his mindset gradually changed, he became more and more concerned and more and more involved, and it seemed that there was not much left of that original intention; similarly, he and Gawain's family had more and more interactions, how much of the boundary between public and private remained? At first, Sampras, like Tobias, expected Gawain to fulfill his dream and pursue the goal that he could not achieve.
Now, Sampras doesn't think so.
He doesn't care about his own dreams, nor does he care whether Koeman can complete his unfinished business; what he cares about is Koeman. He hopes to witness Koeman create a world of his own, get rid of the shadows of the names "Sampras" and "Agassi", and achieve great things.
He was very happy to be a part of this journey.
So, after all the hesitation and indecision, Sampras finally spoke and took the step to break the boundary.
(End of this chapter)
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