Chapter 1375: Equally matched

Like Berdych, Tsonga has only reached one Grand Slam final in his entire career:

Berdych won at Wimbledon in 2010 and Tsonga won at the Australian Open in 2008.

This is obviously not normal.

Even if they didn't win the Grand Slam, at least, given their abilities, they should have experienced more than one final. Even Kevin Anderson has made it to the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, twice in total, but Berdych and Tsonga have only made it once? What bound Berdych was his mentality, and he was unable to overcome his inner demons at critical moments.

What binds Tsonga is injuries.

Similar to Del Potro, this talented player who had both the physical and mental qualities to write a brilliant career was hampered by injuries.

Whenever Tsonga reaches his peak form, injuries become a stumbling block. Knee injuries, back injuries, shoulder injuries, etc., interrupt the continuation of his form.

Moreover, this is not all. To be more precise, it is not just injuries, but physical——

Tsonga's playing style is somewhat similar to Thiem's, relying heavily on the body, and physical support is the foundation on which they build the entire game.

Once the body shows abnormality, even without injury, maybe just some fatigue, a minor cold, etc., the quality of the game will decline. It is conceivable that during the two weeks of a Grand Slam tournament, the body must be kept in peak condition, which is very difficult and limits performance.

One piece of data can illustrate:

Since turning professional in 2004, Tsonga has only reached the deciding set in a best-of-five match 17 times.

Record: eleven wins and six losses.

So, if it really comes down to a decider, is Tsonga incapable of defeating his opponent? Obviously not.

The key point is whether the body can support Tsonga to enter a five-set battle. Often, before the game enters the fifth set, Tsonga has already finished the game.

Win or lose.

Not to mention the distant past, at the beginning of this year, Tsonga was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open at the last minute due to injury, and almost missed the entire spring season until his return in Miami.

Throughout the clay court season, Tsonga has been slowly finding his touch after returning from injury, with his performances up and down, and finally coming to Roland Garros with a record of five wins and four losses.

Although Tsonga is not good at clay, as a Grand Slam held in his home country, he has always hoped to make a breakthrough on this court; and, like Dimitrov, as a player who grew up on clay, even if his game style is not perfectly suited to clay, it does not mean that he knows nothing.

Tsonga has performed well at Roland Garros over the past three years.

In 2012, in the quarterfinals, he wasted four match points and lost to Djokovic.

In 2013, in the semi-finals, he defeated Federer and advanced to the semi-finals but performed poorly and lost to Ferrer.

In 2014, in the round of 16, he lost to Djokovic again.

From the above data, it can be seen that in recent years, Tsonga is indeed in the golden period of his career, with a perfect combination of ability and experience.

Unfortunately, injuries are still a problem. Because of injuries, problems often occur in the second half of the season, and then the team has to rest again. Therefore, there has been no breakthrough. This year is no exception. Injuries have once again played the role of an unknown factor.

When arriving at Roland Garros, Tsonga gave up his expectations, kept a low profile and tried to reduce pressure as much as possible.

However, the luck is good.

In the first three rounds, he did not encounter any real masters and advanced to the fourth round smoothly. He encountered almost no challenges and returned to the top 16.

Of course, a master is a master. His talent, experience and ability are there. As long as his body does not hold him back, Tsonga has the ability to defeat any player. When he gets into the game and plays like crazy, even on clay, he is in superman mode, able to kill anyone who stands in his way.

As the tournament progressed, Tsonga slowly got into form, his confidence and touch gradually returned, and then he found his magic.

The expectations of local audiences are naturally rising.

In the eyes of professionals, the match against Gawain is a test.

This is true for both players.

Test to see whether the two players' current state and ability can withstand the test, whether they can go one step further and create more waves in subsequent games.

The competition lived up to expectations.

In the first set, Tsonga went all out with his unreasonable and violent attack, which was powerful and well-placed, and really did not give Gawain much room to counterattack.

In the second set, Tsonga's offensive state declined slightly. Gawain seized the opportunity to turn the situation around, opening up full-scale defense and offense to forcibly suppress his opponent.

The first two games were evenly matched.

In the third set, Tsonga and Gao Wen both started to fight, and the competition became fierce. Gao Wen, who gradually mastered the context of the game, had a slight upper hand, but Tsonga's violent attack still fought a way out in the storm. The two sides were in a stalemate all the way, and finally relied on a tiebreak to decide the victory.

Next, Gawain played a perfect tiebreak, speeding up both offense and defense. Everything from layout to execution, from planning to response was impeccable. Although Tsonga also performed well, Gawain was far ahead and directly widened the gap, scoring seven points in a row and shaved Tsonga's head.

“7:0”.

Gao Wen once again took the lead.

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Everything seems familiar.

This reminds people of Gao Wen's second-round match against Thiem, who also lost the first set but then won the next two sets in a row, and also won in a third-set tiebreak.

All the connections and directions are very familiar.

Could it be that Gawain would destroy Tsonga in one fell swoop and win the fourth set? However, Tsonga said no.

Tsonga refused to surrender. Amid the cheers of the home crowd, he firmly grasped the advantage of serving first in this set and continued to exert pressure.

Tsonga had three non-consecutive set points in Gawain's must-win serve games when he was leading at 5:4 and 6:5.

However, in desperate situations, Gao Wen once again showed his big heart, saving set points in succession with unparalleled performance and dragging the game into a tiebreak.

For the second consecutive set, the match will be decided by a tie-break. This time, Tsonga is highly focused and the whole game is more delicate and bold.

After the game was tied at 3:3 and the venue was changed, Tsonga suddenly exerted his strength.

He first broke Gao Wen's serve with a violent forehand straight line, and then performed strongly to keep his two serve points in a row, winning three points in a row.

"6:3", Tsonga got the count again; and, this time was slightly different, with three consecutive counts, the opportunities were firmly in Tsonga's hands.

but!

Never underestimate Gawain. As long as this set, this round, this point is not over, Gawain's high fighting spirit will never be extinguished.

Under great pressure, Gao Wen saved his two serve points in a row, saved two set points again, and then put the pressure back on Tsonga.

So, the scene just now appeared——

On the fifth count, Tsonga performed so strongly, but he was still scared by Gawain's high-quality defense. And after finally making the count, Tsonga released his emotions without reservation, like Mount Tai.

The domineering roar hovered over the Philippe Chatrier Stadium, exploding into rolling waves of air.

(End of this chapter)