Chapter 255: Gaining a firm foothold
Just a few months ago, during the National Championships, the media had already questioned Gao Wen, but that was the NCAA. Now at the Binghamton Challenge, the same controversy and doubts are re-enacted. It's still the same old three things, nothing new, and it's powerless to complain.
However, for Gao Wen, it really had no effect at all, and his heart was as calm as water.
Anyway, Gao Wen has long been accustomed to it. He is the weaker party who constantly challenges his opponent and needs to continue to prove himself. This is also good. He can attack the opponent with all his strength without any burden.
It is precisely because of this that when Gawain stood on the court, he was neither nervous nor anxious, but was ready to fight with high morale.
There is no doubt that Stakhovsky is a master, at least for Gawain at this stage.
Players who can beat Federer at Wimbledon should not be underestimated, even if there is an element of luck or even if they are currently injured, because this in itself proves that Stakhovsky has the ability to compete against strong opponents and under high pressure in professional competitions and has a place in the tour.
Gao Wen has been looking forward to playing against a player ranked in the top 100 in the world to test his own condition and strength and seek a breakthrough opportunity. Now Stakhovsky is such an opportunity.
How could Gawain not be looking forward to it?
Rather than being nervous, anticipation and excitement kept Gao Wen highly focused. He no longer made the mistake of being too excited due to excessive anticipation. His brain remained clear, running at high speed and fully engaged. He entered the competition state from the warm-up.
At the beginning, it is still in the exploratory stage.
Soon, Gao Wen realized the essential difference between "Challenge Level Professional Players" and "Tour Level Professional Players" -
Strength? Speed? Physical fitness? None of that.
In fact, objectively speaking, competitive sports do require extremely high talent. Without "one percent inspiration" as a prerequisite, there is no doubt that even with "ninety-nine percent sweat" there will be little hope. However, things are different when competitive sports reach a certain level.
In professional tennis, the top 100 players in the world all have their own strengths, either physical or technical talents. In other words, it is very difficult to suppress or even win by relying solely on strength or speed.
In the world of competitive sports, what is most in demand is talent.
Except for a very small number of players like Kyrgios who have incredible talents, other players who can reach the top 100 in the world show that they already have "one percent inspiration", and what determines the victory of the game is "ninety-nine percent sweat" and brain.
In the NCAA, Challenge Tournaments, and youth competitions, players tend to play with their bodies, relying purely on instinct/ability to hit the ball and keep the game going.
However, in tour matches, the players' physical fitness is almost the same, so they need to compete on the tactical level, inspiration level and psychological level.
What does it mean? Simply put, in a challenge tournament, a player may only need to hit three or five shots to suppress the opponent, score a winning point or make the opponent make a mistake; but in a tour tournament, a player may need to hit ten or fifteen shots, or make more purposeful layouts and plans in the first three shots to score.
This is the difference.
Therefore, purely speaking of strength and speed, players in the NCAA and Challenge Tournament already have the ability to compete in the professional tours, and there is no huge gap.
However, in challenge-level events, you can often see players exerting their full strength, and a point is quickly ended in just three or five shots; but in tour-level events, strength and control, adjustment and change are required throughout the entire process.
Kokkinakis is the most typical representative. He exerts force throughout the whole process, and keeps exerting force until he has no more strength left. If he defeats his opponent, he will win. But if he grits his teeth and withstands the impact like Gawain, then the situation will be reversed.
Of course, Binghamton is a challenge tournament, not a tour tournament.
But the reason why Gao Wen felt this was because Stakhovsky had the ability to play on tour—
The quality of offense and defense has clearly improved.
Moreover, it is not just a pure defense relying on footwork and running like Sacramento, but a kind of prediction and guidance. Every time he hits the ball and returns the ball, he can feel the high-speed rotation of the brain, gain an advantage for his defense, and then continue the high-quality rounds.
What does it mean? Stakhovsky can make a judgment one step ahead of time based on Gao Wen’s swing, hitting habits, and the rotation and power of his own return ball, and then get in position to hit the next shot in advance.
Prediction is actually Gao Wen's strong point, but Gao Wen obviously lacks competition experience, and his judgment of some batting actions is still not accurate enough. In addition, he lacks the accumulation of past experience about his opponent's batting habits and line selection, and often needs more time to collect data.
This slight difference, which is just a millimeter difference in the competition, can directly affect the choice of hitting point and the stretch of hitting action, and then directly reflected in the quality of the return ball. Naturally, this puts Gao Wen under greater pressure.
On the one hand, the quality of your own return needs to be improved; on the other hand, the quality of your opponent's return also requires you to expend more effort.
Although Stakhovsky is not in last year's form due to injury, the "injured version" of Stakhovsky is still a top player in the challenge tournament level, and his overall strength can compete with Zverev Jr.
Everyone is looking forward to a strong clash between the top two seeds, and it is not without reason.
"2:2".
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In the opening stage, both sides were testing and adjusting. Despite some confrontation, both players did not give away break points and successfully held their serve.
Stakhovsky, who chose to serve first, continued to serve after the score was tied, but he did not expect that Gao Wen launched an attack early.
For Stakhovsky, he was somewhat surprised but not unexpected. As expected, young people are always full of energy and can't wait to launch the attack first. However, the experienced Stakhovsky did not panic at all. He responded calmly. The aura he displayed from the inside out was different from any of Gawain's previous opponents.
Experience is indeed a gap that cannot be made up. There is no shortcut and it can only be accumulated slowly through actual combat.
"30:15".
Facing Gao Wen's continuous attacks, Stakhovsky used excellent defense to resolve the opponent's offensive, and then found a gap to complete the counterattack.
In other words, although Gawain took the lead, he was unable to convert it into points. Stakhovsky's calm and steady performance still kept him in control of the situation and maintained the lead in his own serve. Then, when Gawain was not paying attention, he made another mistake and his opponent got two periods.
So, does Gao Wen, who took the lead, have no chance? "40:15".
First update. Thanks to the book friend "言瑾丶" for the reward!
(End of this chapter)