“5:2”.
The first set of the game is still going on.
After a brief turbulence at the beginning, the match entered a relatively stable stage. Dimitrov and Gao Wen took turns to hold their serve and neither encountered any challenges. The total time taken for the four games was less than that of Gao Wen's first serve game.
In a blink of an eye, after Dimitrov held his serve again, the score came to the magical "five to two". Although the score difference seemed huge, it was actually just a difference of breaking serve, and the game was still suspenseful.
During the break between innings, Gao Wen sat in the dugout, his mind racing.
So far, Dimitrov's serve has been excellent, especially his backhand, which can hit and cut, attack and defend, just like the Six Meridians Divine Sword in "Dragon Babu", blocking all of Gawain's attacks.
It can be seen that Dimitrov has made full preparations.
Just like in Federer's game, Dimitrov was also aware that his backhand might be hit by concentrated attacks, so he needed to make tactical deployments against his opponent and find a breakthrough to reverse the situation of the game.
Last year, Dimitrov's backhand was amazing when facing Murray and Djokovic respectively. Facing the two top backhand masters in today's tennis, Dimitrov's one-handed backhand stood the test and even made Djokovic sweat in the semi-finals.
The same is true today.
After getting rid of the burden, Dimitrov completely got rid of the slump in the first half of the year. His backhand performance was very good. Not only was it stable, but the ball quality was also high. Both his shots and slices were able to ensure depth, effectively squeezing out Gao Wen and seizing the upper hand in the strong confrontation between the offensive and defensive ends.
In a blink of an eye, the game had already gone on for seven rounds, and Gao Wen began to think -
Obviously, Dimitrov was prepared, he knew that the backhand position was the key; and, more importantly, Dimitrov's backhand performance was indeed excellent, showing a good competitive state. If his tactical combination is not adjusted, it means entering the game mode that Dimitrov is familiar with.
Adjustment is inevitable.
Gao Wen does not plan to make adjustments after losing the first set; even if he still loses the first set in the end, the current tactical adjustments are also paving the way for subsequent games.
The key point is, how should we adjust? Should we simply and crudely start to focus on attacking Dimitrov's forehand? Such a strategic adjustment is unlikely to work, and the tactical combination of tennis is far more than just forehand and backhand; but Gao Wen believes that he can create an illusion, besiege Wei to save Zhao, conceal the truth, and secretly cross the Chencang, and confuse the audience through the tactical layout of the forehand, and finally achieve his goal.
"Time's up."
The 90-second break between games was fleeting. No matter how the subsequent tactics were adjusted, the first condition was that Gao Wen needed to hold his serve.
This was his must-win serve in the first set.
If the opponent breaks in this game, then the tactical adjustment will not matter and the game will go directly to the second set.
call.
After taking a breath and adjusting his posture, Gao Wen stood up, kept moving his legs, and stepped onto the court with his legs raised high, preparing for the subsequent confrontation.
——"Game, high."
Despite losing two points, Dimitrov once chased to "40:30", but Gao Wen still seized the second game point opportunity and simply saved his serve.
"5:3", the next game is Dimitrov's serve to win the set, and it is also Gao Wen's last chance to adjust his tactics and test the layout in the first set.
"15:0", the serve went straight in. Although Gao Wen had touched the tennis ball, the ball was too fast and hit the racket, leaving him no time to finish the shot.
"30:0", although the first serve went out of bounds, Dimitrov added strong rotation to the second serve, causing Gao Wen's return to be shallow. He followed up very promptly and went directly into the baseline. His forehand diagonal shot found the large triangle area on the right side of Gao Wen's baseline and hit it directly to win the winning point.
In the serve-to-win game, Dimitrov remained calm and clear, scoring the first two points cleanly and neatly, continuing his excellent offensive touch in the first set.
Gawain curled his lips slightly——
The most important part is serving and receiving, which is a typical feature of grass court.
Grass court players have a very obvious improvement in serve power. The serve is fast, flat, heavy and low. The entire force and rhythm are different. This one link alone changes the entire content of the game. No wonder the serving cannons can always shine here.
But faced with such a situation, there is no other solution.
Either you remain patient and wait for the player's physical strength to fluctuate, or for his touch to fluctuate, resulting in a decrease in the success rate and power of your serve.
Or he can improve his serve and receive skills. Djokovic was able to achieve glory at Wimbledon, and the serve and receive skill is crucial.
After adjusting his breathing, he had already reached the first zone, ready to face Dimitrov's serve again.
So far in this match, in the first zone, Dimitrov's serve has been excellent, especially in the outside corner, where the angle and speed are perfect; and his first serve success rate is excellent, continuously putting pressure on Gao Wen, maintaining the impact and deterrence.
So, what about this point?
Continue with the outer corner?
Gao Wen guessed that given Dimitrov's personality and his pursuit of perfection, if the performance in the outside corner of the first zone was perfect today, he would most likely continue to insist; after all, the perfect serve left Gao Wen with very limited room for maneuver, and even if Gao Wen predicted accurately, there was very little he could do.
What's more, now that Dimitrov is leading 30:0, he doesn't need to take risks or make changes, he can just continue to stick to his own routine.
The outer angle is indeed a high probability event——
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Gao Wen decided to take a gamble.
So, after a series of passes, Gawain moved ahead.
The moment Dimitrov threw the ball, his body was ready. Almost at the same time as the racket touched the ball, Gawain rushed out like an arrow.
Right side, forehand, outside corner.
really!
Accurate prediction.
But Gawain was not ecstatic. He remained rational, calm and focused.
One stride, two strides.
With a lateral cross step, the body was quickly in position. With a push of the right leg, an emergency brake was applied to control the body. The powerful reaction force came towards him like a raging wave, but this force became a boost for Gao Wen, and the entire turning and swinging action was significantly accelerated.
Huh! A roar erupted from deep in his dantian, and he struck out with his forehand heavy sword, making a strong head-on collision. At the moment of contact with the ball, he relied on the power of his wrist to wrap it up and swing it out instantly, increasing the speed of the racket head to the extreme, using the force to hit the opponent, and exerting full force at the same time, with energy rushing all the way from the soles of his feet.
Bang! Solid, violent, powerful, and crisp.
All in one go.
The serve at 123 miles per hour (198 kilometers per hour) hit the strings of Gao Wen's racket. All the speed and power were released. It exploded in a brief contact. Before he could even blink, the tennis ball had already returned along the original route of Dimitrov's serve, like a rocket.
--Bang.
——Snap.
It landed, bounced, and went into the blind corner, tearing through Dimitrov's defense. Before he even had time to recover his steps, the tennis ball had passed by his feet and bombarded him all the way.
Return serve ACE!