Chapter 1493: The changing situation
Obviously, the battle for the world's No. 1 is still spreading, and it will become more and more intense, starting from the clay court season, throughout the grass court season, and foreseeably, it will continue into the next North American summer hard court season——
It was originally thought that the clay court season would come to an end, but Gawain's unexpected fighting ability gave a good answer, and he successfully withstood Djokovic's unparalleled wave of impact, successfully continuing the climax of this drama all the way. Without a doubt, it was absolutely exciting.
This is not good news for Djokovic's fans, and it may not be worth celebrating for fans of the other Big Three; but for neutral fans and passers-by, this wonderful drama is truly irresistible, and this is the most fascinating part of competitive sports.
and!
The real excitement of the ATP lies not only in the battle between Djokovic and Galen for the world's No. 1, but also in the "Big Four vs. Challengers" pattern that is sweeping the entire tour, with turbulent waves and sparks spreading like wildfire. Even the competition within the Challengers Alliance has gradually begun to attract heated discussions and attention.
For example, the semi-final between Gao Wen and Wawrinka.
Every year, after the French Open is over, the official organizers will upload a video of the entire game on their YouTube account, following the tradition of the Australian Open. These two Grand Slams have always been very careful to keep up with the times and actively interact with social networks, hoping to attract young audiences.
This year is no exception.
Originally, people thought that the matches with the highest click-through rates would be "Gawain vs. Nadal", "Wawrinka vs. Federer", "Djokovic vs. Murray", etc. Even though the finals were not that attractive, there were still many matches worth talking about. But in the end, it was "Gawain vs. Wawrinka" that stood out. The click-through rate of the entire video was incredibly over 500,000.
Don't forget that the entire game took more than five hours, and the click-through rate is only calculated after watching for a certain period of time. Most young viewers choose to watch the highlights. They no longer have enough patience to sit in front of the computer and watch a game video whose result they already know.
However, the strong clash between Gao Wen and Wawrinka still attracted a lot of attention and undoubtedly became the hottest topic after the French Open ended.
In just three days, the video of the entire event has received over half a million hits, and this is just the beginning.
As for the highlights?
That's even more incredible. The official highlights of the match between Gawain and Wawrinka, a total of eight minutes, have easily exceeded 10 million hits in three days. It is currently the most viewed video on the official channel of the French Open, and it has been the most viewed video in the short few years since the official channel was created.
Moreover, this is also the first video in the history of the Grand Slam tournament highlights on the official YouTube channel to exceed 10 million views.
Ten million!
People were not surprised by such a result. After all, GAWEN controlled the entire Chinese and even the entire Asian market, and its appeal had reached a new peak. But what was really surprising was the data itself. Ten million was like a benchmark, indicating that the global attention had reached a new high.
Maybe it was because of Gawain, maybe it was because of Wawrinka, or maybe it was because of the game itself, but the fact is that this event has further spread the popularity of tennis. Not only veteran tennis fans, but also bystanders have cast their eyes on it. This is the biggest gain.
surprise!
Surprised and happy.
Obviously, before the opening of this year's Roland Garros, absolutely no one could have foreseen this scene -
Just as no one expected Wawrinka to defeat Djokovic to win the French Open championship, no one expected that the most exciting and best-looking duel at this year's Roland Garros would come from two players with "weak clay skills". Gao Wen and Wawrinka devotedly fought a five-hour battle.
Even long after the flames of Roland Garros had died down, this semi-final was still talked about with great relish. It was on par with the Australian Open final at the beginning of the year and was mentioned repeatedly by countless professionals and veteran fans, who generally believed that these two matches should be strong candidates for the best of the year.
If the epic battle of the century at Melbourne Park, a battle between Djokovic and Galvin, was still played by the giants, then the long-game final at Roland Garros had nothing to do with the giants, and showed a whole new world beyond the giants.
It can be seen from the side that the current ATP is indeed a hundred schools of thought. In addition to the showdown between giants, the collisions within the Challenger League are also attracting more and more attention. The increase in average strength and the breakthrough of the overall ceiling are reflected in all aspects of the event, and the competition is getting more and more exciting.
For ordinary fans and passers-by, this is a good thing, a very good thing.
The second half of the world rankings also reflects this to some extent, as it is more tense, more exciting, and more intense.
Because the points gap is smaller, it may even be just 50 or 100 points, the difference in performance in one race may lead to completely different results.
Fourth, Murray.
Fifth, Wawrinka.
Sixth, Kei Nishikori.
Seventh, Berdych.
Eighth, Ferrer.
Ninth, Raonic.
Tenth, Nadal.
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Within this range, there aren’t many changes, but all of them are noteworthy.
First, Tsonga, Dimitrov and Cilic all fell out of the top ten, but Raonic, who missed the entire clay court season due to injury, has not been eliminated.
Of course, this is not surprising. Both Tsonga and Cilic have returned from injuries, while Dimitrov is suffering from pressure. Since entering the new season, their overall performance has been very struggling. Although they occasionally have outstanding performances, they have lost stability and continuity, which is undoubtedly fatal.
In the fierce competition for the top ten or top twenty in the world, if you cannot continuously deliver outstanding performances in different competitions, you will gradually withdraw from the ranks of top competition.
Not only them, Raonic is no exception.
Last year, Raonic underwent a transformation and achieved a breakthrough in the grass-court season. Not only did he advance to the Grand Slam semi-finals for the first time in his career, but he also broke into the top ten in the world rankings, becoming a well-deserved leader in the new generation storm.
However, those glories are all stories of last year, which also means that this year Raonic will face huge pressure to maintain points in the grass season. Like Dimitrov, if he is not careful, his world ranking may collapse, and the confidence he has worked so hard to build will face challenges again.
This is definitely not the result Raonic wanted to see.
I chose to have surgery to prevent future problems and simply miss the entire clay court season to recuperate and recover well, and then go all out for the grass court season. I look forward to shining again on the surface I am best at, and even making further breakthroughs, building on last year's performance.
This should be a well-considered decision by Raonic and his coaching team. Judging from the results of the clay court season, it is obviously a wise choice.
(End of this chapter)