Chapter 1472: Endless
Stalemate, tension, stalemate, entanglement——
This is the state of the deciding set.
After nearly four hours of fierce competition, both Gawain and Wawrinka were put to a severe test in terms of their physical condition:
Unlike the weather in Melbourne, the weather in Paris is not humid, but it is a little stuffy. Sweating is still very severe and the rate of physical energy consumption is obviously accelerated. Both players are using bananas and energy bars to refuel, but at this stage, both players have been gritting their teeth and persevering.
The most obvious thing is that, due to physical constraints, both players focused more on their own serve, trying to hold their serve first; coupled with the decline in physical fitness, the accuracy of the attack fluctuated, the number of mistakes also increased significantly, and the number of confrontation rounds decreased.
You play one game, I play one game, the two players take turns to hold serve, and the progress is very fast. There are not many deuces, and the balance is always maintained. The game time is even faster than the second set.
Then, Gao Wen, who served first in the deciding set, had a slight advantage. As long as he could keep holding serve, he could continue to exert pressure.
Unfortunately, it was Gao Wen who was the first to be broken in the deciding set.
When the game entered the second half, both players had passed the peak of their physical strength and regained their offensive touch, and the confrontation became intense again.
I have to say that today Wawrinka really entered a super god state. He dared to fight and had a hot hand. Once he entered his focused area, his fierce and tough attack was difficult to stop.
In the ninth game, Gao Wen served.
Wawrinka suddenly broke out, breaking the balance with two unreasonable backhand attacks. The tricky angle of a backhand diagonal shot made Gao Wen unable to touch the ball at all, and the deep pressure of a backhand straight line forced Gao Wen's return ball out of bounds. The sharp and powerful attack once again entered an unsolvable state, tearing through Gao Wen's airtight and solid defense and breaking the serve first.
In this way, Wawrinka not only took the lead for the first time in the final set, but also won five games first. The next game was the match point.
The second serve opportunity towards victory after the ninth game of the fourth set.
In the tenth game, Wawrinka serves.
Gawain fought back, taking advantage of Wawrinka's obvious tightness in the touch, and launched a vigorous attack that elevated his condition to a higher level, refusing to surrender.
"0:40".
After four points in a row, Gao Wen gave Wawrinka a "love-game" to break the serve strongly, and evened the score again without Wawrinka even seeing the match point. This is also one of the advantages of serving first:
Even if you fall off a cliff, there is still a glimmer of hope.
Wawrinka was very, very dissatisfied with his performance. He yelled directly at the coaching team in the player box. He simply couldn't believe his own performance.
Even the commentator was amazed.
"We should not forget that Gawain is continuing his 19th consecutive Grand Slam win streak. His belief, will and determination are strong enough."
"He refused to bow his head and refused to surrender. He still fought to win."
The game returned to a balance, but the situation was completely different.
The score is “5:5”.
This also means that the pressure in any subsequent serve will increase exponentially and will continue to accumulate as the game progresses. Any slight slackness will result in losing the entire game.
Both players were extremely focused.
First, Gao Wen held his serve; Wawrinka also held his serve.
Secondly, Gao Wen held his serve again, and Wawrinka also held his serve.
"7:7".
The stalemate continued, but there was no tie-break at this time. Instead, the match would officially enter a long set. Either side had to win two games in a row to win. The Philippe Chatrier Stadium was boiling.
A great game must have a great ending.
Following Melbourne Park at the beginning of the year, Gao Wen also gave a strong candidate for the best game of the year at Roland Garros, and the whole audience fell into carnival.
This was the first time that Gao Wen won a long-set decision in his career, and everything was new to him; but last year in Melbourne, Wawrinka defeated Djokovic in a long set to advance to the semi-finals and finally won the championship, so everything was familiar.
Now, this is a battle of wills.
In the fifteenth game, Gao Wen served.
At "30:30", Wawrinka and Gawain once again teamed up to present an unparalleled long round of tug-of-war. Both players showed their ability to switch between offense and defense, confronting each other on the tightrope.
This time, Wawrinka had the last laugh, breaking through Gao Wen's blockade at the net with a backhand diagonal shot, winning the point incredibly and getting a break point.
Immediately afterwards, Wawrinka once again demonstrated his violent offensive fighting spirit. After three consecutive powerful forehand attacks, he ended the point with a straight backhand shot.
Break, success! Wawrinka got the chance to end the match by serving for the third time; but this time, people were not too excited, because at this stage, the players' physical strength gradually reached the limit, and serving might become a weak link.
As the receiver, they often dare to attack and fight, and are able to gain the upper hand. This was the case from the two players exchanging serve at the end of the set to Wawrinka's break just now.
The competition has truly entered the stage of perseverance, and the suspense of victory or defeat is growing.
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In the 16th game, Wawrinka served.
Sure enough, Gao Wen saved a match point, which was also the sixth match point of the game, and got a break point by returning the serve with a forehand ace.
Then, at the critical moment, Wawrinka made a fatal double fault and lost his third serve to win the match.
Some people might say, double fault? Is this some kind of international joke?
But in actual competitions, the physical problems and the impact of the opponent's serve and receive, including the uncertainty brought about by the seesaw battle, lead to the pressure of wanting to establish an advantage in the first three shots through serving. The pressure brought layer by layer can indeed easily lead to consecutive serving errors.
It is precisely because of this that players like Isner who can still maintain the power of their serve even at this stage are true serve masters.
The success rates of Gao Wen and Wawrinka's first serves in the decisive stages of long sets have been declining, and the average speed of their second serves has also been decreasing. These are all objective facts.
Moreover, Gawain's feat of getting a break point by receiving an ace on serve also continued to increase the pressure, which led to Wawrinka's attempt to increase the threat of his second serve and ended up with a bad mistake that went into the net.
To hit the ball into the net means to try to exert force, to press down, to hit it flat, but to use too much force and lose control.
Then--
"8:8".
The deciding set pushed the intensity of the confrontation to the extreme in another way.
However, Gawain was also unable to overcome the shackles brought by physical strength.
In his next serving game, none of his first serves entered the zone, which put him in a dilemma of facing continuous attacks on his second serve.
After struggling to save three break points and missing a game point, he was unable to save the fourth one. This time it was Gao Wen's own mistake.
Forehand straight line out of bounds.
Gao Wen stood there, looking up at the sky, very disappointed with his mistake, very, very disappointed. This should have been an offensive opportunity.
However, he missed.
(End of this chapter)