Chapter 2036 Strong Response
The last match of the Ilie Nastase group and also the last match of the group stage of the year-end finals finally kicked off.
To be honest, the previous game was exciting but lacked some substance. Although it had nothing to do with qualifying, Wawrinka and Murray still fought for honor. After both suffered two consecutive defeats in the group stage, no one wanted their season to end with three consecutive losses.
Be it Wawrinka or Murray, both players gave their all.
However……
There is a reason for the two consecutive defeats. Overall, the two players' condition in London was indeed slightly worse. The quality of the confrontation was lower than expected, the number of mistakes was higher than expected, and the game was not coherent.
That’s why I say, it looks good, but it’s not enough to make people excited.
No matter what, in the end Wawrinka showed his superior skills and courage at the critical moment, breaking the balance with a stronger and more determined violent attack.
"7:6(4)", "6:4".
The game is over, the score is frozen here, and the victory belongs to Wawrinka.
In this battle of honor that has nothing to do with qualifying, Wawrinka successfully defended his glory and ended the season with a victory.
Murray, on the other hand, suffered three consecutive losses to end his disappointing 2015 season.
Although the season's performance has fully recovered and returned to the ranks of giants, not only has it returned to the top four in the world rankings, but it has also maintained the suspense of the world's third place at the end of the year until London. At the same time, the performance of the Masters has fully warmed up, winning two championship trophies in Madrid and Toronto respectively.
However, the performance at the Grand Slams was far below expectations, especially at Wimbledon and New York. Despite having performed well in the warm-up matches and becoming one of the favorites to win the championship, they were unable to produce corresponding results. They only reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, which was even worse than last year.
You know, Murray is not good at clay. From Grand Slams to Masters, Murray's worst performance is on clay.
This year, in the venue where we are good at, despite having high hopes, we performed poorly. This is a very serious problem and we urgently need to summarize it.
For a long time, among the "Big Four", Murray has been repeatedly criticized, and the voices that firmly believe that the era of giants should be the "Big Three" have never disappeared; but now, Wawrinka is catching up, and Gao Wen is strongly overtaking, and the golden age of ATP has entered a new stage. Murray has undoubtedly felt the strongest impact and challenge, and his performance in the year-end finals can be seen as a microcosm of the whole year.
When Murray's 2015 season came to an end, people could not help but ask: After three consecutive defeats in the group stage, plus the loss in the Paris Masters, it would be a four-game losing streak to end the season. Is this a sign of hitting rock bottom, or a turning point for a rebound? Where will Murray go in the 2016 season?
There is no doubt that it is disappointing, not only for Murray, but also for the host audience and the spectators.
Therefore, when Nadal and Gawain appeared on the court together, the attention was focused and the expectations also climbed to a new height.
Because of the qualifying order of the group, because of the suspense of the semi-final matchup, and more importantly, because of the head-on collision between two strong players who have maintained an undefeated record and have not lost a single set.
People are looking forward to something exciting.
There is only this last game left in the group stage, and the next knockout round will be a different story. People are looking forward to a fierce match to end the group stage, which will live up to the name of the year-end finals and the expectations and hopes of the death group.
At the beginning of the game, Nadal delivered a signature defensive counterattack, which instantly brought the London audience back to the peak period of the "Federer-Nadal Final", making their blood boil.
really!
Nadal lived up to expectations.
"0:15".
Then, Gawain responded.
In the fierce collision between the two, Gao Wen's backhand position continuously withstood two heavy forehand hammers from Nadal, one super topspin squeeze and the other forehand flat hit, but in the gap, he caught the gap of Nadal's sideways forehand and completed the transition from defense to offense with a backhand straight line attack.
Then, he used repeated forehand diagonal "inside-out" landing points to feint, successfully fooling Nadal and scoring the winning point neatly.
"15:15".
This round of confrontation not only demonstrated Gao Wen's ability to withstand blows in the backhand position, but also demonstrated Gao Wen's superb control over the rhythm of offense and defense.
The forehand diagonal attack on the last shot was just right and perfect, ending this offensive and defensive round in a clean and neat manner.
The O2 Stadium went crazy——
Nadal won the first point in Nadal's way, and Gawain immediately won the second point in Gawain's way, and his competitive state was at its best from the start.
They are two great players indeed! Even the match between Federer and Djokovic was not as exciting as this one.
At that time, it was the second game of the year-end finals for the two players. Their conditions had adjusted slightly, but not to their best, and there was still room for improvement in the quality of their game. In the end, Federer's straight-set victory also showed that Federer's adjustment of his condition was better than Djokovic's.
Now, Nadal and Gawain have both been tested in two matches and have consolidated their confidence through victory. The encounter now is a strong confrontation. At the same time, precisely because of the off-court friendship, both players have shown their respect for each other and have gone all out to complete the game.
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The excitement is slowly unfolding before our eyes.
After five days of ups and downs, joy and disappointment, expectations and regrets, the O2 Stadium finally witnessed a peak match that qualified for the year-end finals before the group stage was about to end. So, was this expected or unexpected? In the first game, while still warming up and testing the ball, Nadal showed a fiery forehand touch and successfully pushed Gawain to the brink of crisis.
But Gao Wen still showed his strength. After going through a tie break test, he improved his condition in time and completed the serve cleanly.
In the second game, it was Gawain's turn to show his offensive touch. He repeatedly made trouble on Nadal's second serve. In the opening stage, Nadal's serve was indeed not in good shape, which gave Gawain many second serve opportunities, which also put Nadal in a severe test.
Similarly, Nadal also showed his tenacity. He went through two deuce tests without facing a break point and managed to hold his serve without any danger.
The third game was still tense. After "30:30", Gao Wen's serve finally got into shape. He relied on a direct score from serve to seize the initiative for himself, and he held on to it firmly, successfully holding his serve for the second time.
"2:1".
When the match entered the first break, the match had already lasted a full fifteen minutes, which is really uncommon in the fast-paced indoor hard court.
You can see the excitement of the game from the side.
What's more, in just three games, there were already many rounds at the level of today's top five shots, which spread quickly on social networks.
Although it was still a group stage, it already felt like the semi-finals or even the finals. It was not until this moment that people realized that -
It turns out that the Ilie-Nastase group was the death group.
(End of this chapter)