Chapter 578: First Attempt
"Gawain! Come on! Tim! Come on!"
"Gawain! Come on! Tim! Come on!"
Uniform cheers surged over the No. 2 court of the Qi-Zhong Tennis Center. A bustling crowd spread out in the field of vision. More than one-third of the stands were filled with spectators, waving the five-star red flag in their hands with great enthusiasm. The red color fluttering in the wind covered the sky and the ground, creating a spectacular sight.
On the court, Gawain, who had just completed a high-pressure shot by jumping from a standing position and successfully scored, clenched his fists, turned to look at Tim, and roared passionately.
Tim rushed forward in small steps, high-fived Gawain in celebration, and roared along with him. The cheering in the entire stadium reached its peak at this moment.
Seeing this scene, passers-by who didn't know what was going on thought that the World Cup preliminaries were being staged before their eyes, but they didn't know that it was just the first round of a doubles match.
The atmosphere is warm!
This was the first time that Gao Wen tried doubles in an ATP-level event, partnering with Dominic Thiem. However, due to holding a wild card, he had bad luck in the draw and faced this year's Australian Open doubles champions Lukasz-Kubot and Robert-Lindstedt in the first round.
Lindstedt is a veteran born in 1977 who specializes in doubles. His career-high ranking was third in doubles in May 2013.
Wimbledon was his best Grand Slam performance, reaching the men's doubles finals for three consecutive years in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but all ended in defeat.
Kubert was born in 1982. He mainly played singles in the early stage of his career and his highest career ranking was 41st in April 2010.
Kubert's representative singles career also appeared at Wimbledon. In 2013, he made it to the quarterfinals, but eventually lost to his Polish compatriot, young player Jerzy-Janowicz, who made history by becoming the first "post-90s" to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam.
However, Kubert later realized that he was not competitive enough in singles and tried to shift his career focus to doubles. Unexpectedly, he soared to the top and won the championship in his first Grand Slam partnership with Lindsted.
It is worth mentioning that Kubert discovered his doubles talent at this point, and later focused on doubles competitions and achieved very brilliant results. In 2018, he became the first Pole in history to top the world rankings - whether in singles or doubles, or in men's and women's competitions.
The most incredible thing is that the doubles combination of Kubert and Lindstedt only formed a partnership at the beginning of this year.
Lindstedt was originally set to partner with Austrian Jurgen Melzer at the Australian Open, but Melzer withdrew from the Australian season due to a wrist injury, forcing Lindstedt to temporarily partner with Kubert.
Before heading to Melbourne, they were eliminated in the first round of two tournaments and entered the Grand Slam with zero wins in doubles pairings.
As a result, it was completely dark.
Hmm, does the story sound familiar?
Now, the showdown between the "Australian Open doubles dark horse" and the "US Open singles dark horse" is being staged at the Shanghai Masters. For veteran tennis fans, it is actually very interesting.
Professionals all know that singles and doubles are two completely different things. A famous singles player may not necessarily perform well in doubles because the entire technology, tactics, and layout are all different, and the entire content of the game is simply different.
It is for this reason that the technical points honed in doubles matches are different; and it can open the players' horizons and update their understanding of the entire court space.
So, what kind of sparks can be created when Gao Wen and Thiem, two young players with excellent singles performance, face Kubert and Lindsted, two veterans who are more suitable for doubles matches?
"Dark Horse VS Dark Horse", an alternative dark horse showdown.
However, at this moment, it was the young duo of Gawain and Thiem who had the upper hand on the court.
Leading the score at 5:4, Gao Wen and Thiem forced two consecutive break points and set points in their opponents' serve games, igniting all the enthusiasm on Court No. 2.
In doubles tennis, like badminton and table tennis, serving is done in turns.
For example, in the first game, it was Gawain who served, in the second game, it was Lindstedt who served, in the third game, it was Thiem, in the fourth game, it was Kubert, and in the fifth game, it was Gawain again.
And so on, in turns.
Due to the particularity of doubles matches, the role of serve is greatly weakened. After all, there are two more people on the court and the space for returning the serve is compressed. Despite this, serving skills and combinations are still extremely important, which can often create more opportunities for teammates.
In the Gao Wen combination, Thiem's serve is slightly weaker and he has fewer permutations and combinations, but overall, the two players' serve strength is relatively even.
In the Kubert combination, Lindstedt's serve is a weak point. The entire serve layout always exposes more loopholes and becomes a target for the opponent.
The tenth game was Lindstedt's serve, and also Lindstedt's second serve since the start of the game.
After "15:30", Lindstedt's serve had good speed and power, but his serve failed to conceal his tactical intentions and was caught by Thiem who was standing at the baseline to receive the serve.
At the moment of serving, Tim's wrist flicked and twisted slightly, making an unconventional hitting motion. Others didn't know how Tim did it, but the return serve drew a strange little diagonal line -
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Thin and biased.
Turning and rushing.
He completely passed Kubert who was waiting in front of the net and ready to pounce, and tore through a gap and returned to the serving area of Lindsted's serving half. It was a shallow and light ball, with incredible outward spin. You could clearly feel Gawain's push with leverage, and it jumped out quickly after landing.
Lindsted started to catch up from the baseline, but his speed was too slow; Kubert moved sideways to complete the defense, but his feet were not able to get into place completely, and he barely used his forehand to hook the ball back to look at the moon, but there was no control at all, and the rotation, arc, and direction were all a mess.
Gao Wen, who was standing in front of the net, was very alert. He moved sideways quickly, jumped on the spot, and directly hit the high-pressure ball.
Light, clever, and full of spirit!
The whole stadium was in an uproar. People were amazed at Gawain's agility in filling in the position, and even more amazed at Tim's imaginative return of the ball.
In fact, it was the doubles match that gave Thiem inspiration: How can he complete the return of the serve while avoiding Kubert's interception at the net and putting enough pressure on Lindsted?
The court is so small, how should the three-dimensional space be used? The game went back and forth for 30 minutes. Tim seized the flash of inspiration and hit a magical shot, which won them the opportunity to win the first set at the end of the set.
Trying doubles for the first time, both Gao Wen and Thiem were very uncomfortable. They felt unfamiliar and unfamiliar, their cooperation was not tacit, and they still did not have enough training time. However, both players had very solid basic skills. They kept holding on to the score and based themselves on their own serve. In addition, the opponent combination had been in poor form for most of the season since the Australian Open, so now it was Gao Wen and Thiem who created opportunities.
Fourth update.
(End of this chapter)