Chapter 1494 Growing Pains
Perhaps, the youth storm is indeed rising across the board, not only those born in the 1990s, but also those born in the 1995s have begun to emerge one after another.
Perhaps, the tit-for-tat between "Big Four VS Challengers" is indeed becoming more and more exciting, and even the Mesozoic generation is inspired to complete their own transformation.
However, behind the noise of a hundred schools of thought contending and a hundred flowers blooming, the younger generation and the challenger alliance must face "growing pains".
Including injuries, mentality, status adjustments, maintaining stability in long tours, facing the siege of social networks and media reporters, the troubles and struggles of living under the spotlight, etc. Competitive sports are very pure, but in the commercial social network era, it is not so pure.
Back then, the Big Four all went through such a stage, and now it is the turn of the players from the "Youth Storm" and "Challenger League".
Difficulties are both a challenge and an opportunity.
If you can break through, it will be like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon; but if you can't, it will be the beginning of a disaster.
The changes in a world ranking list can indeed reveal a lot of things, and the difficulties encountered by Youth Storm are only part of them.
There was a comparison between Raonic and Dimitrov before, and then there was a comparison between Cilic and Wawrinka.
Second, Wawrinka fully recovered.
Wawrinka was eliminated in the first round last year and won the championship this year. He successfully replicated the magical journey of Spaniard Albert-Costa, who was eliminated in the first round of the French Open in 2001 and won the championship in 2002. His ups and downs in performance led to a comprehensive outbreak in the points level, which also brought his world ranking back to the top five.
After reaching the US Open final last year, Cilic's career fell into a deep trough. In addition to injuries, his mentality and condition were never adjusted, and he continued to decline. He didn't even need to wait until the hard court season in North America in the summer to fall out of the top ten in the world rankings.
Wawrinka also experienced a period of struggle and adjustment after reaching the top of the Australian Open, and finally made a perfect comeback this season. Although he is still a little unstable, he can give his best performance at full power when he comes to the Grand Slam. In the face of difficulties, the late bloomer has completed his transformation.
Not only the young storm generation, but also players like Cilic and Wawrinka who completed their transformation lately, also need to face the troubles of growing up. Those problems, setbacks and obstacles always exist. They are the necessary threshold for transforming from ordinary players to top players, and no one can be exempt.
Third, Murray has completely gotten rid of his injuries after adjusting during the offseason.
First, he hired France's two-time Grand Slam women's singles champion Amelie-Mauresmo as his head coach, becoming the first male player ranked in the top 100 in the world to choose to hire a female player as his coach. Then in April, he ended his ten-year on-and-off relationship with his girlfriend and got married, and regained his focus on the court.
Although Murray is still some distance away from Federer's world ranking points, he has already firmly established himself in the top five.
It is worth mentioning here that in the championship points list, Murray and Wawrinka have both returned to the top, and are currently only behind Galen and Djokovic, ranking third and fourth respectively.
Third, Murray, 4480.
Fourth, Wawrinka, 4230.
From the numbers, we can see that Murray and Wawrinka, who reached the semi-finals in both the Australian Open and the French Open, have similar overall performances in the hard court season and the clay court season. The score gap is very small. The competition in the second half of the season will still be fierce, and we can foresee how intense it will be.
In addition to the "battle for the world's number one", the battle for the world's number three is equally eye-catching.
Or to put it another way, it is not a competition for the third place in the world, but a competition for the "giants", and Gao Wen and Wawrinka are launching a powerful attack.
From four giants to five poles and then to six dragons competing for supremacy, the ATP has gone through a turbulent year and a half, and there are indeed too many stories waiting to be discovered.
However, the championship points of Murray and Wawrinka are still significantly behind the top two, more than 2,000 points, so it is still difficult for them to overtake in a short period of time; but objectively speaking, 2,000 points, which is the points of a Grand Slam champion, seems huge, but in fact it is not that exaggerated.
Moreover, behind them, on the championship points list, the points of Berdych, Ferrer, Federer and Nadal are very, very close. The performance of a tournament may lead to changes in the championship points ranking, which will then be reflected step by step in the order of the world ranking.
Perhaps, we don’t have to wait until the hard court season in North America in the summer. We can already see some fierce competition in the grass court season, which is in no way inferior to the clay court season.
Finally, a new low for Nadal.
After a terrible clay court season and a failed title defense at Roland Garros, Nadal's ranking points have plummeted. After losing more than 2,000 points, Nadal's world ranking has slipped to tenth, and even the tenth position is precarious.
Nadal has never fallen out of the top ten club since he first entered the world rankings in the third week of April 2005. In the blink of an eye, it has been a full ten years; however, he hit an iceberg this season and reached the lowest point in his career.
At this time, countless professionals believe that Nadal's career may be gone forever. After all, Nadal, who relies on physical combat, needs a strong physique and a healthy body to support him. Otherwise, Nadal's competitiveness on the court will be greatly reduced.
Just look at this year's French Open. In the match against Gawain, Nadal was extremely exhausted in the fourth set, which was a very rare situation. It was not the normal extreme of physical strength, but a problem with physical reserves that made him unable to continue. This would have been impossible in the past decade.
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"Maybe... this is the end?"
More than one or two professionals have raised doubts. The Spanish God of War's career is indeed facing a new test, which is also a test that thousands of professional players must face. Some people will never recover and gradually withdraw from the stage of history, while others will be reborn and create miracles again.
Ultimately, the essence of competitive sports is to challenge the limits, challenge oneself, and challenge the impossible. This is also the true meaning of human pursuit of life and exploration of the unknown.
Nadal's fate is in his own hands.
In the Spanish Bull's career, not once, not twice, but countless times, he has always been able to overcome injuries and blow the clarion call for counterattack. From beginning to end, he has been fighting and struggling. This time is no exception. It all depends on him from now on. Everything is possible.
This time, what Nadal needs to face is not surgery or a serious injury that will keep him out of the game, but a body that is scarred and exhausted even though he can play in the game. He needs to fight with his body, he needs to fight with his will and spirit, and he needs to get back into fighting shape.
but……
The situation is not good for Nadal, because next comes the grass court season, which he is least good at.
(End of this chapter)