Chapter 1552 Seed Tomb
"Out of bounds!"
The linesman's gestures were very firm, his eyes were focused, and he was certain of his decision. However, the entire Court No. 2 erupted in exclamations, unable to believe their eyes.
Wow! In this point, Gao Wen established an advantage through serving, and his forehand diagonal attack further created pressure. At the same time, he went to the net and took the absolute initiative at the net.
Istomin staggered and barely managed to save the ball, and tried to use a forehand to disrupt Gawain's balance; as a result, Gawain used his forehand to handle the close ball in front of his chest, pressing Istomin's backhand baseline, and was called out of bounds.
Seeing that Gao Wen had complete control of the situation and only needed to complete this shot at the net to score, such an accident happened and the whole audience was shocked.
"…Oh, God! This is unbelievable!"
"Out of bounds, actually out of bounds!"
"Gawain has proposed a Hawkeye challenge. Let's watch the Hawkeye system replay."
"The situation is not good. It is very, very bad for Gawain right now."
"In this game, with a 40:0 lead, a double fault that shouldn't have happened, a wonderful forehand straight line winner by Istomin, and then this push from deep in the net went out of bounds. The two players were back to a tie, and the whole situation became increasingly unfavorable and worse for Gao Wen."
"incredible!"
"The next point is crucial. If we're not careful, we might lose the match point..."
If someone had just turned on the TV to watch the live broadcast of the Wimbledon match at this time, they would probably not believe their eyes and would not be able to understand what was happening.
"6:3", "6:4", "5:4".
Istomin is in front and Gawain is behind. Now is Gawain's serve game which he must defend in the whole match. The fifth seed is already standing on the edge of the cliff.
Wait...wait! What happened on the field? Is it certain that there is no mistake in the score? For example, the positions of the two players should be switched?
From the expressions of the audience and the words of the live commentator, it can be judged that there is nothing wrong and an incredible situation is indeed happening.
This scene reminds people of the final in Melbourne Park at the beginning of the year. Gao Wen also lost the first two sets and was in a desperate situation in the third set. Five months later, the same situation occurred again, and this time it was the first round of Wimbledon.
To be precise, the current situation is even more difficult than the Australian Open final.
In the Australian Open final, Gavin's condition was up and down, including the weather, physical fitness and pressure from Djokovic, which objectively affected Gavin's performance, but overall, after all, Gavin had played six games in Melbourne Park, and his own condition and game adaptation had reached a certain level.
So, the key to that game was focus and the belief that you could win - in other words, it was all psychological.
The game in front of him was different. Although the psychological impact was objectively present, it was more of an adjustment on the technical level. Gao Wen's immaturity and lack of experience were gradually exposed in the grass season when the channel was switched. It was not that he was incapable, but that he lacked experience and could not adjust quickly enough.
Simply put, the key to the problem lies in the feel of the ball.
It has been said before that the feel of the ball and the feel of the hand are not fixed items but variables. Even in the same game, there may be ups and downs. The influencing factors include one's own physical fitness, mentality, concentration, etc., as well as the opponent's pressure, impact, tactical changes, etc.
In addition, leaving aside the players on both sides, the "texture" of the tennis ball itself also changes. The venue, temperature, humidity, wind, etc. may all affect the rotation, power, speed and flight of the tennis ball. Naturally, when the tennis ball touches the racket, the feel of the ball and the feel of the hand are different.
Of course, if it is in the same game, the texture of the tennis ball itself will not change too drastically, and it depends more on the changes in the status of the two teams.
Top players, led by the Big Four, often have the ability to adjust their feel of the ball and their touch during a game, but they don't succeed every time. It's only because the Big Four have stronger adjustment capabilities and ensure a higher success rate of adjustment that they are able to pull away and create countless miracles.
But if you switch from hard court to clay, or from clay to grass, in addition to the player's own condition, the change in field conditions will completely change the texture of the tennis ball. Naturally, the player needs to find the feel of the ball and the feel of the hand again.
The biggest challenge of the "Channel Slam" is that there is basically no buffer time from clay to grass, and the grass season itself is only one month long. Many players have not even had time to find their feel for the ball before the grass season is over.
In addition, the characteristics of the grass field itself are also a problem. Because of the low bounce and fast pace, the contact time between the tennis ball and the racket is shorter, and it is impossible to gain sufficient friction. Correspondingly, the adjustment space for the feel of the ball is narrower. Finally, the accuracy and control of the shot are reduced.
Now, Gao Wen is facing such a problem.
Today is only the third official match of the entire grass court season.
In the first game against Kyrgios, Gawain didn't need to exert any effort at all, as Kyrgios made many mistakes and there was almost no confrontation.
In the second game against Anderson, both sets were tiebreaks. Anderson's excellent serve became the protagonist. He had few opportunities in the baseline rounds, and basically served and received serves. In the end, the key to the outcome of the game was just a few points, leaving Gao Wen with limited room to find the feel of the ball and adjust his touch.
Then, we arrived at Wimbledon.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
If the player is experienced, even if the warm-up time is insufficient, he can still use his experience to slowly adjust his condition through training; but Gao Wen can't do that. He needs the fierce confrontation of formal games to feel the grass and feel the hitting. There is no shortcut to accumulate these experiences.
In the clay court season, Gao Wen slowly adjusted and explored through two months of competitions, and finally had a breakthrough in Roland Garros, but there was no such breakthrough in the grass court season.
Now, Gao Wen can finally experience firsthand why the "Channel Slam" is said to be extremely difficult.
In his professional Wimbledon debut, Gawain's performance was far more than bad - it was almost like a nightmare.
No sense of the ball.
Not having a feel for the ball means that Gao Wen has no control over the tennis ball. The details of the moment when the tennis ball touches the racket strings, including the rotation force, speed, friction, etc., all feel wrong. It is conceivable that the trajectory of the hit tennis ball, from the landing point to the parabola, are all wrong.
This is completely different from the Australian Open final.
Moreover, in the Australian Open final, no matter how difficult or bad the situation was, Gawain never faced a match point. Djokovic did not get a match point throughout the game. But now, Gawain is already shaky, and if he is not careful, he may face a match point.
"…In Wimbledon, Court 2 has long been known as the 'seed graveyard', where countless top players have failed, more than once."
"I never expected that this year, Court 2 would bring an upset on the second day of competition. As this year's Australian Open champion and French Open semi-finalist, Gao Wen is already on the edge of being eliminated in the first round."
"Oh my God, this is absolutely something no one expected."
(End of this chapter)