On the clay court, at Roland Garros, never underestimate the existence of upsets. Accidents and variables are always present and play an important role.
The fourth day of competition was no exception.
In the women's singles competition, the third seed and favorite to win the championship, Halep, was eliminated unexpectedly.
The one who defeated Halep was Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic.
For the younger generation of fans, this may be a very unfamiliar name, unknown, comparable to Gawain who jumped out from a crack in the stone last year.
In fact, Lucic entered the professional tennis world at almost the same time as the Williams sisters. She was hailed as a "genius girl" in her early years. She won her first WTA title at the age of fifteen and won the Australian Open women's doubles championship with Hingis at the age of sixteen. She still holds the record for the youngest Grand Slam champion.
At the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, Lucic became famous in one battle, defeating Seles to reach the semi-finals, and finally lost to Graf after a hard-fought three-set battle. He was hailed as a rising star.
However, it was not her opponents or injuries that destroyed this talented girl, but her father.
At that time, Lucic's match prize money was the only source of income for the entire family. Whenever he lost a game, he would be beaten by his father.
For the young Lucic, her father's violence was an indelible shadow. Even though she later took her mother and four younger brothers and sisters to the United States to escape her father's clutches, she still could not get rid of her inner demons when she returned to the court, and eventually fell into a serious financial crisis.
She was even afraid to step onto the court.
It was not until 2007 that Lucic officially returned to the court, but he continued to be up and down and was never able to find his former self.
But this talented girl did not bow to fate. She still strives and fights.
Later, at the 2017 Australian Open, Lucic defeated Wang Qiang, third seed A-Radwanska, Greek genius girl Maria-Sakkari and fifth seed favorite Karolina-Pliskova to advance to the semi-finals.
After the 1999 Wimbledon, he returned to the Grand Slam semi-finals after 18 years.
Lucic wrote a miracle, like a Cinderella fairy tale.
However, before Lucic stepped back into the spotlight at the 2017 Australian Open, signs of his rise had already been visible since 2014.
In 2014, Lucic first defeated Venus Williams in Quebec and won the WTA singles championship again after 1998; then she defeated Halep in the US Open and entered the fourth round.
In 2015, Lucic defeated Halep again and advanced to the third round of the French Open.
Lucic is proving with practical actions that everything is possible in competitive sports.
Perhaps, for young fans, Lucic is an unfamiliar name, but for veteran tennis enthusiasts, it is a name that has experienced many vicissitudes of life. Lucic also used his hard work and experience to interpret the meaning of "veterans never die" and successfully won applause and support.
Lucic's victory over Halep was an upset, of course; but what was a little surprising was that senior journalists and senior professional commentators all applauded Lucic. Even though they were disappointed to witness the elimination of the new generation Halep, they still praised Lucic for his breakthrough again.
Similarly, there was a downturn in the men's singles, but compared to the women's singles, these upsets were disappointing.
Although the top seeds performed stably, Federer, Nadal, Gawain, Wawrinka and others all passed the test smoothly and continued to move towards the goal of meeting each other; but the smaller seeds showed a lot of instability, and upsets occurred one after another, continuing the tradition of Roland Garros' annual upsets.
No. 19 seed Auger, No. 24 seed Gulbis, No. 28 seed Fognini, No. 32 seed Verdasco and others.
All out.
Among them, Fognini's elimination is undoubtedly a heavyweight among Chinese fans.
Because Fognini's opponent in the third round was Gao Wen.
When the draw was first announced, the potential matchup between Gawain and Fognini was a major attraction.
Italian player Fognini is a well-known playboy in the ATP. He acts in a bohemian and arbitrary manner, and he particularly likes to complain and cause trouble.
But Fognini is extremely talented, his playing style comes naturally and he makes light of important tasks. He has an innate ability to capture the hitting point. In this regard, he is comparable to Federer, or even slightly better. This is why Fognini always occupies a place in the top ranks of ATP.
There is no doubt that Fognini's ability and talent are there, and he is a strong opponent that is difficult to deal with for any player.
Originally, people were expecting Fognini and Gawain to have a head-to-head confrontation in the third round to see if Fognini could bring something new, but Fognini suffered an upset.
Although Fognini's elimination was not a shocking upset, it was still a big upset in Gao Wen's division, which broke the balance of the draw.
Then, the haters started to yell,
"Gao Wen had really good luck in the draw. He faced young rookies in two consecutive rounds, and then in the third round he was finally about to face a seeded player, but Fognini was eliminated again."
"What kind of shitty luck is this for Gawain, the chosen one, to have avoided Fognini?"
"Tsk, I knew it, Gawain is just lucky."
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"With this draw, anyone can advance easily, right?"
"Is it true that there is no insider information in the French Open draw? Isn't Gao Wen's draw too smooth?"
Blah blah blah.
In this year's clay court season, Gao Wen's overall performance has declined slightly, and his prospects in Roland Garros have naturally added more uncertain unknown factors. Those brainless haters firmly believe that Gao Wen's unbeaten record in the Grand Slam will soon be ended, and then it will be a carnival.
However--
Be it Tiafoe or Thiem, they have no weight at all for the passing fans. They finally waited for Fognini who had more possibilities, but Fognini missed again. The brainless haters suddenly lost their minds and the sarcastic remarks surged in an instant.
But Gao Wen’s fans don’t think so. Is Fognini’s elimination really a good thing?
not necessarily.
The road was full of twists and turns, and in their opinion, Gawain avoided one reef but encountered another obstacle, and the signing was still not easy.
The player who unexpectedly eliminated Fognini was... Benoit-Paire.
This player, who was born in 1989, can be regarded as a member of the new generation of storm. So far, he is ranked 71st in the world, but he has been on the rise, refreshing his career-high ranking every week.
Rather than being a famous master, he is a fast-growing young player. Like Tiafoe and Thiem, Paire can also be classified as a youth storm. From this perspective, Paire is indeed much easier to deal with than Fognini. After all, he is not a long-established master.
Coupled with the fact that Gao Wen remains unbeaten against players born in the 1990s, it seems difficult for Parre to create any waves.
However, this is just the opinion of ordinary fans and bystanders. Fans who are truly familiar with tennis know that Paire is a hidden mine.