Chapter 417: Good Condition
Like Gao Wen, Kei Nishikori also uses a two-handed backhand, but Nishikori's backhand has a unique skill:
When his position is oppressed but he refuses to retreat and lose his position, that is, he must hit the rebound ball, Kei Nishikori can complete this shot with both his forehand and backhand, and he will choose to hold the racket with one hand, relying on a slight shake of the wrist muscles to complete a light and agile change of line shot.
In the entire tour, only Federer can frequently perform this skill, but even Federer rarely changes the line when hitting the rebound ball. However, Kei Nishikori has this ability - he can copy and paste it for repeated use, and can even guarantee a certain success rate.
This is the talent for touch, and also the talent for interpreting the three-dimensional space of the entire court.
On the third break point in Gao Wen's first service game, Kei Nishikori, in an extremely passive situation, hit a stunning straight line with a one-handed backhand.
Gao Wen was totally unprepared and just rushed to the diagonal position to defend, but was caught off guard by Kei Nishikori.
He lost the first serve game.
Gao Wen was a little annoyed, not because his serve was broken, but because his shot line layout was not careful enough and his prediction was wrong.
He needs to be more careful.
At the end of the first game, the venue is changed and then the positions of the two players are swapped.
In Kei Nishikori's first serve, Gao Wen was also very active and proactive.
Nishikori wasn't the only one ready for this match.
First point.
In the first zone, Kei Nishikori served to the outside corner. Due to his height and strength limitations, his serve speed has always been slow, with a first serve speed of around 118 miles (190 kilometers) per hour, which is basically his average speed when he is in the best condition. If his physical strength decreases, the speed will often drop rapidly.
Moreover, most importantly, compared with the pure speed, Kei Nishikori's serve has limited tail power and ball quality, which is the biggest factor limiting the threat of his serve.
Kei Nishikori understands this point, so he will choose to serve at a wider angle more often, and try his best to avoid improper control of close serves and fall directly into the tiger's mouth - close serves are more often used as a secret weapon to disrupt the opponent's prediction tactics.
At this time, the outside corner can be seen, the changing line is pressed outside the serving line, bounces high, and tries to use the height of the rebound when landing to limit the hitting position.
But Gao Wen, with a height of 193 cm, is not afraid of this at all.
One step, one swing of the racket, the conditioned reflex action is delivered very smoothly, and a full forehand shot is completed by raising the hand, using the force of the shot to hit the tennis ball back diagonally.
Bang! 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers)! The speedometer immediately showed the speed of Gao Wen's return, which was almost as fast as Kei Nishikori's second serve, hitting back like a cannonball.
After serving, Kei Nishikori's return speed was a little slow. He hurriedly stretched out his forehand towards the big triangle at the baseline. He had no time to swing the racket, so he could only barely block the shot, and then used his wrist movement to remove all the power of Gawain's shot.
If it were any other player, there would be basically no next shot for this ball, and he might have just returned the serve with an ace, because Gawain's racket head swung so fast that there was basically no reaction time for the return ball; but Kei Nishikori relied on his conditioned reflex to touch the tennis ball.
And he also returned the ball!
Slowly. Leisurely.
Seeing the tennis ball swaying like a feather and drawing a shallow arc, Gao Wen immediately rushed over.
However! Straight line! Kei Nishikori actually cut a straight line with his touch.
Small ball! The force removed made the tennis ball seem to be almost stagnant, and it fell immediately after flying over the net.
Gawain increased his speed to the extreme, crossing the entire court diagonally and barely catching up, but the tennis ball had almost no bounce power after it hit the ground, which also left Gawain with no space to hit the ball, and he had already formed two jumps when he touched the ball.
pretty!
With a backhand and a forehand, Kei Nishikori indeed showed a fiery touch. Some seemingly impossible shots were actually performed before his eyes, which initially demonstrated his superb peak form in this year's US Open.
Gao Wen also applauded Kei Nishikori's shot. This stroke of inspiration was truly worthy of praise.
But why do we say that a tennis match does not need to be limited to one point? Because a tennis match has four points in one set, and you must have four outstanding performances to win a set. If you lose confidence because of a brilliant point, then the game will be out of your control.
Second point.
Gao Wen immediately changed his receiving technique and very unexpectedly cut the ball, but instead consciously slowed down the batting rhythm.
Many players who are not strong enough to suppress Kei Nishikori will change the rhythm through tactical cutting when facing Kei Nishikori. Because Kei Nishikori's active force is not very threatening, they can often gain some initiative for themselves.
But as the number of times increased, Kei Nishikori also found a way. He would not actively exert force, but would actively speed up, just like now -
Kei Nishikori immediately sped up, took a step forward to the baseline, hit the rising point, raised his hand and hit the tennis ball back flatly, and the rhythm of the entire round immediately increased to a higher level.
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As a result, this time, Gao Wen predicted it accurately in advance, waited in the backhand position, and used both hands to speed up the backhand to hit a straight line.
Fight speed with speed!
Boom! Score directly!
Kei Nishikori was unable to keep up with Gawain's pace, and only realized he had been tricked when he noticed Gawain's moving route.
It turned out that the slice return was a trap set by Gawain. He used the slice to show weakness intentionally, making Kei Nishikori, who had a weak serve, think that he had escaped the passive situation in the first shot after the serve, and he could not wait to increase the tempo. However, because the line choice for the accelerated shot was not original, Gawain caught him red-handed.
Just after the opening, Gawain has already entered the "experimental" stage——
This match was different from any previous match in this year's US Open, because Kei Nishikori himself is not a power player, the whole hitting rhythm and strength are different, and it is also different from Borelli who came from clay. Originally, Gawain needed to adapt to the rhythm of the game again, and Kei Nishikori's impact was not that obvious, so Gawain returned to the mode he was most familiar with.
Experiment with hitting the ball.
He kept using different combinations of shots to test his opponent's response plans. Some of the changes didn't make sense at all, but Gao Wen did it anyway, leaving Kei Nishikori scratching his head.
What's more, he dared to do this even when Gao Wen lost his first serve.
The commentators, the audience, and Kei Nishikori were all confused:
What happened to Gawain? Did he play poorly? Even Agassi, who appeared in the players' box again, was confused. He looked at his old friend, but Sampras looked calm and composed. "Don't worry, don't worry, just keep watching and you'll know."
Agassi: ???
(End of this chapter)