In the third set, I served to win the set.
"40:0".
Gao Wen performed well, scoring three points in a row and getting three consecutive counts.
"40:30".
One mistake, one winning point by the opponent, and two set points were lost in the blink of an eye, without even having time to blink. The rhythm between each point in tennis is much faster than expected, and it was still a crucial point.
Gao Wen also realized this and slowed down his pace while wiping his sweat.
He knew that Nadal would not surrender easily. Even if there was only a little energy left in his body, Nadal would fight to the end without hesitation, especially on this court, so he had no room to be thankful or relax.
Taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly, Gawain was ready.
District 2.
Inner angle.
Light and agile, the serve speed suddenly increased to 195 kilometers per hour.
Nadal's prediction was not accurate. He relied entirely on his reaction. He rushed to the right reflexively. He had no room to swing his racket with his two-handed backhand. He barely blocked the ball with his racket, and then the tennis ball flew high into the air.
Raid.
Nadal immediately realized that Gawain changed his serving strategy to break the rhythm. This was not a clay court strategy, but a typical hard court serving routine.
Change does not need to be earth-shaking; a subtle but subtle move can overturn the situation.
After Nadal received the ball, he immediately changed direction with a step, moving to his left side, preparing to defend his forehand position.
From the second set to the third set, Gawain did repeatedly put pressure on Nadal's forehand and succeeded many times, which also sounded Nadal's alarm.
However……
Gawain entered the court quickly. Facing a half-court attack, he was neither anxious nor panicked. Instead, he deliberately delayed for half a beat, waiting for Nadal to start, and then delayed his shot.
Slash.
Neutral.
Relaxed, free and easy.
With one move back and forth, one mistake and one move, this one point had already decided the winner.
"6:4".
The victory in the third set belonged to Gao Wen.
The whole audience was boiling.
This also means that regardless of the outcome, Gao Wen has become the third player after Isner and Soderling to win two sets from Nadal at Roland Garros in the past ten years.
The audience has gone crazy.
Counting Nadal's countless glories and miracles at Roland Garros, two of them are the most special.
For one, he only lost one match, to Soderling.
Second, he has only played one five-set match, against Isner.
That is to say, at Roland Garros, except for the two matches against Soderling and Isner, Nadal won all the matches in three or four sets.
When people talk about dominance, Nadal's performance on this court is undoubtedly a strong candidate for the best in history; and behind Nadal's record, his opponents include top players from many different generations in the first decade and second decade of the 21st century.
Now, the third exception appears -
Gao Wen.
He became the third player in history to snatch two sets from Nadal at Roland Garros; moreover, at the end of the second set, he once faced four set points and was about to fall into a desperate situation of "0:2", but now he has overtaken and is in the lead. How can the audience not go crazy?
So, what's next? Will Gawain end up like Soderling or Isner?
It was obvious from the toes that Nadal would never surrender.
On the court, both players appeared very calm.
The game is not over yet, Gawain knows it, and Nadal knows it too. The following fourth set is a new beginning.
It is also because of this that the Philippe Chatrier Stadium has become more and more lively, with bustling crowds continuing to gather here.
Before the start of the tournament, people had expected the two quarterfinals in the lower half of the men's singles to be very exciting, but they never expected them to be so exciting.
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Meanwhile, the Suzanne Lenglen Stadium was also a spectacle with plenty of upsetting warnings.
In the Swiss derby, Wawrinka won two consecutive sets with scores of "6:4" and "6:3" respectively, taking a "2:0" lead, which surprised everyone.
In their professional careers up to 2015, Federer and Wawrinka have met 18 times, with Federer leading with 16 wins and 2 losses, including a perfect victory in straight sets at the Rome Masters last month. There is no doubt that Federer is still the more favored party in this quarterfinal match.
But don't forget that Wawrinka has only defeated Federer twice, both on clay, in Monte Carlo in 2009 and 2014.
By the way, Monte Carlo is the venue that is closest to and most similar to the competition environment of Roland Garros, and is known as the weather vane of the French Open.
Perhaps, Federer is favored to win, but Wawrinka obviously will not give up the victory easily.
In the middle of the second set of today's match, Federer called for a medical timeout to bandage the fingers on his right hand. It is not yet clear whether it was an abrasion, blister or other condition, nor is it certain what the impact on the game will be.
But at the moment, Federer is indeed far behind and the situation is very, very bad.
In the third set, the score was 4:4, and the two sides were still in a stalemate. Moreover, the serve of both players was rock solid, neither of them gave away any break points, and even a tie was rare. Wawrinka, who served first in this set, had a slight psychological advantage.
So... unpopular?
Before the quarterfinals kicked off, calls for the Big Four to meet in the semi-finals swept the entire Internet. Among them, the most worrying person was not Nadal, but Murray, because Murray has never been able to defeat Ferrer on clay in his career, losing all four matches, including a defeat at Roland Garros in 2012.
However.
Who could have thought that in the first two matches in the lower half, the two giants Federer and Nadal were both in desperate situations and on the verge of elimination.
Tension, excitement, and a lot of discussion, the entire Roland Garros was boiling. Even if they could not enter the site to watch the game, people still came to feel the atmosphere of the game. The feeling and experience of thousands of fans gathered together to watch the game was completely different from watching the game on TV at home.
On the one hand, people were expecting Federer to explode in the third set and keep the game suspenseful.
On the one hand, people were curious about the trend of the fourth set between Nadal and Gawain. The two players gave top performances in the first three sets, and the battle was fierce throughout. The suspense of victory or defeat was often between one or two points. Any slight deviation might lead to a completely different situation.
So, what about the fourth set? To the right, can Federer launch a desperate counterattack? To the left, Nadal and Gawain will once again interpret a new and magnificent chapter of "Big Four vs. Challenger".
This is a difficult choice, but what is unexpected yet reasonable is that people cannot resist the "suspense" after all, and they gather towards the Philippe Chatrier Stadium one after another. In a blink of an eye, the stadium is surrounded by a sea of people. Such a scene has not been seen for a long time, and it makes people deeply feel the magic of competitive sports.
More than just charm.