Chapter 422 Seize the Opportunity
One grab and one flick, forehand skateboard backslash.
As soon as he stepped on the court, he immediately entered the court, observing Gao Wen's movements while finding his own position on the court, and finally went to the net to press.
It can be seen that Kei Nishikori has started to plan, creating an opportunity through a forehand backslash, and then he immediately follows up -
In fact, net technique is also Kei Nishikori's shortcoming, mainly due to his height limitation. Both his net volleys and high-pressure techniques lack a bit of competitiveness. However, Kei Nishikori has a particularly soft touch, so his small balls and force control at the net are still very good.
Therefore, in Kei Nishikori's matches, he can often be seen going to the net tactically. It is not because he believes in his net skills, but because he creates physical pressure through the action of going to the net, and then adds pressure through his own touch, which often creates a very good pressure effect.
In this year's US Open, Kei Nishikori's sudden net attack was indeed a very important scoring weapon. He scored a lot of points against Milos Raonic.
After all, the ability to break the net is a link that requires both psychological and technical tests. There are definitely only a handful of players in the entire men's tennis world who can break the net as tough and powerfully as Nadal.
In today's game, Kei Nishikori took the initiative to go to the net for the first time and broke the balance in an instant.
Gawain was killed unexpectedly.
Indeed! While moving sideways quickly, he caught Kei Nishikori's net action in his peripheral vision. Nishikori was very smart and deliberately slowed down his speed to avoid exposing his intentions early. This also interfered with Gao Wen's judgment and choice. By the time Nishikori continued to move forward and came to the net, Gao Wen had already had to hit the ball.
Breaking the network requires decisiveness. Any hesitation may lead to failure.
What to do? If he drives the ball in the usual way, it would be like walking into a tiger's mouth. He must change the line and point of the shot, such as hitting a small diagonal line, or hitting the ball at the foot of Kei Nishikori, so as to disrupt Kei Nishikori's rhythm when he goes to the net.
This is Federer's best shot.
But Gawain's shot is still too conventional. With Kei Nishikori's current hot touch, he might be able to handle it. He needs to break the framework of fixed thinking.
He has two choices. Either change the line, but now there is not enough space to hit the ball, and the success rate may not be high; or...
High ball.
Gawain was clearly taking advantage of Kei Nishikori's height. His overhead kicks were obviously less difficult than those of Kyrgios and Isner, and he was able to reverse the passive situation.
The premise is that he needs to be more careful, otherwise if he fails to pass the top, he will also be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.
Push off the ground and brake.
Gao Wen controlled his body with his left foot and forcibly controlled the forward inertia. He tensed all his muscles to the extreme, then lowered his center of gravity completely and stood firmly with his feet. At the same time, he did not fully lead the racket with his hands, but just pushed and thrust forward from the side of his body, but the control of his wrist and forearm was very delicate and serious.
One flip and one lift, super topspin with a big arc.
When pushing and pushing, the muscles are not fully exerted, but the height of the tennis ball is fully raised by straightening the knees, and the arc of the landing point is controlled by the wrist.
Just a gentle push, and the tennis ball drew a stunning rainbow and went into the sky.
whoosh.
whoosh.
Accompanied by low exclamations, all the audience raised their jaws high, and their eyes followed the tennis ball as it drew a full and light parabola.
Kei Nishikori realized at the first moment that the situation was not good, and he slammed on the brakes and quickly retreated.
Because his forward steps were very resolute, when he needed to retreat, his center of gravity was obviously unstable. During the retreat, Kei Nishikori simply jumped on the spot and tried to intercept the opponent halfway. However, when he swung the racket down with his hand raised high, it flew into the air.
Gao Wen's arc control is perfect! Kei Nishikori didn't have time to sigh, he turned around and rushed forward, trying to catch up with Gao Wen's lob. Then he found that Gao Wen's lob was too accurate, not only falling on the sideline, but also in the dead corner of the big triangle at the backhand bottom line. The perfect control ruined all Kei Nishikori's advantages.
However, Nishikori's excellent condition was definitely not just talk. In such a passive situation, he actually caught up!
Kei Nishikori did not have time to turn around and see where Gao Wen was. He could only turn his back to the court and rely entirely on the feel of his hands. Before the tennis ball was about to hit the ground, he lightly hit it with his back near his knees, sending the tennis ball in a straight line with a low arc. The light hitting posture created the effect of a submarine and shuttled silently along the straight line.
Huh! There was a cry of surprise from the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Everyone looked at Kei Nishikori in disbelief. How did he complete such a miraculous shot? After completing the shot, Kei Nishikori had time to turn around and look at Gawain.
At a glance, you can see Gao Wen following closely, his attention completely focused. He follows up immediately after hitting the high ball. The connection between each shot is very tight, and his footsteps appear in front of the net early.
At this time, his entire center of gravity was completely squatted, almost in a half-squat posture, and he used his forehand to block and hit forward, and his wrist also made a chopping motion downward to remove all the power of the tennis ball.
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The tennis ball flew over the net and just as it landed, it bounced almost nothing, then immediately jumped two or three times and rolled all the way out.
The whole audience was silent and everyone held their breath involuntarily.
"Set, high."
The referee announced the score and woke up the audience——
Wow! Cheers and roars intertwined, and more than half of the spectators at Arthur Ashe Stadium stood up to praise the two players for their wonderful match. This serve game lasted for twelve minutes and thirty-three seconds, but in the end, Gawain won the first set.
The first set of this historic Asian match was so exciting that it made people want to scream! Suppression and counter-suppression, calculation and counter-calculation, the active conversion between the two players occurred in almost every shot. Even if they were fully focused on the game, they still had to deal with complex situations. Every shot had to process a huge amount of information. The incredible rounds followed one after another, which was unbelievable!
But the problem is, Nishikori played so well, with many amazing shots, so how did Gao Wen win the first set? The audience was happily whispering and sharing their opinions, and the two players also needed to calm down and summarize their gains and losses to prepare for the second set.
The only thing that is certain is that both Gao Wen and Kei Nishikori have faced very difficult situations at this year's US Open, and have experienced the test of five-set battles and proved their ability to win tough battles.
In a best-of-five Grand Slam tournament, winning one set is not enough to determine the outcome of the entire match, and no one will easily let victory slip through their fingers.
However, Gawain now has the upper hand! (End of this chapter)