Chapter 584: In high spirits
While waiting to return to the players' lounge to pack his luggage, Gao Wen gradually came back to his senses.
At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, Kubert and Lindstedt created a miracle and won the men's doubles championship, which was even more inspiring and crazy than Wawrinka's upset victory.
But after that, they were lost. The impact of the "Grand Slam Syndrome" was far beyond their imagination. There were shocks from their opponents, as well as high demands and doubts on themselves. They have been unable to shake off the tremendous pressure brought by the halo of their first Grand Slam championship. They continued to be sluggish in the second half of the season, and no one knew when they would be able to get their form back.
In Gawain, they saw courage, but also tenacity.
Especially in the match against Nadal in the capital last week, Gawain showed incredible fighting spirit despite being in poor form, and kept the game suspense until the very last moment. This is the real inspiring force.
The same was true for this game. After experiencing his first singles loss in eight months last Friday, Gao Wen had recovered after just two days of the weekend and began to enjoy the game again. In the full-time match that just ended, Gao Wen played the role of a think tank and did not cooperate well with Thiem, but he easily won the victory. This is undoubtedly another revelation.
For Kubert, the experience of watching Gawain create miracles from a distance and then facing him closely and feeling his energy through a duel was precious and enlightening. It allowed him to see more possibilities. Most importantly, he learned at least one thing:
How to view failure.
However, Gao Wen did not expect that his performance could actually affect other players:
Is this the power of example? When Kubert and Lindsted left the stage, they looked at Gawain and Tim, who were standing and applauding, and waved again, pumped their fists and shouted something that was unclear amid the noise, something like "keep going."
This made Gawain laugh heartily—
In his own opinion, he and Thiem are still a little weak in competitiveness in the doubles arena. They will face the legendary doubles top seed Bryan brothers in the next round, and I am afraid they are in great danger.
But no matter what, just go out on the court, give it your all, and enjoy the game.
What's more! Gao Wen just confirmed the system, and the growth potential of the first round of doubles increased by 21%. Although it is not as good as the match against Nadal, the gap is far, but the increase data is still very impressive, and it is not far from reaching the maximum value again.
Is this because of the novelty of the first doubles challenge? The skills and content of the test are all different, so the initial speed of improvement is naturally faster! Then, in the next round, he will face the Bryan brothers, who are currently the world's number one doubles players and may even be the best men's doubles players of all time. And it is his second doubles match. He is still in the "fresh period", but I don't know how much he can get.
A bit looking forward to it.
"Hey man, what's making you laugh so hard? Share it with me, so I can be happy too."
I heard Tim's voice in my ears, not only because of the victory, but more because of the doubles. Enjoying the purity and simplicity of tennis outside the singles court, my mood became cheerful, so much so that Tim made two rare jokes today, and his voice became a lot lighter.
Gao Wen temporarily gathered his thoughts and smiled as he looked at the fans who still hadn't left.
“This court.”
"Who could say no to this stadium?"
Oh oh oh oh…oh oh…oh oh oh…
The spectator stands at Court No. 2 were still bustling with activity. Even after the game was over, a large number of fans remained on the scene and did not leave. Audiences could be seen everywhere taking out their phones to take pictures, some even taking selfies with the court, and with Gowan and Thiem. Cheers, whistles and screams were sparsely intertwined.
The sun was shining brightly, as if the whole world was on fire.
Everyone's mood was lifted involuntarily, and Tim was no exception.
"...It's still different. When I'm playing at home, with those familiar faces, familiar language, and familiar environment, my whole mood is different..."
"Ah! By the way, you speak German, right? So when you compete in other places, the language is still different. I forgot about it for a moment. Unlike me, you can obviously see that I stand out from the crowd when you look at me - I mean, in terms of height."
"Haha, you should go to the basketball court someday and your sense of superiority will disappear immediately."
"You know what, when I was a kid, a basketball coach actually took a fancy to me and thought I had a bright future, but my mom was particularly passionate about tennis..."
Chirping and chattering.
Gawain and Tim walked briskly back to the players' locker room. They had just been surrounded by a group of fans in the player tunnel, asking for autographs and taking photos. The overwhelming enthusiasm was like a thunderstorm in a summer afternoon, which came suddenly, covering them head-on and engulfing them in an instant with its fangs and claws.
After arriving in Shanghai, Gao Wen has been conducting private training. The public training time has been shortened to one hour every day. The fans obviously do not have enough time to get close to Gao Wen. Now they can finally witness the victory in the doubles arena, and no one wants to miss such an opportunity.
Passionate, high.
It was no wonder that the audience was reluctant to leave after the game ended. Moreover, compared to the sold-out singles matches, the attendance rate of the doubles matches was not that high, which also meant that the competition was not that fierce. Naturally, the audience did not want to miss such an opportunity and gathered towards Gao Wen.
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Gawain immediately noticed Tim who was left out.
Obviously, the fans in front of them have only recently become interested in tennis, and their understanding of the rules and players is very limited. Few people can recognize Thiem, who has just emerged this season; what's more, this is Gawain's home court, and all attention is focused on Gawain.
Gao Wen did not hesitate and took the initiative to introduce Thiem, "This is my partner and good friend, Dominic Thiem. I am very grateful that he is willing to partner with me in doubles."
Because Gao Wen introduced himself in Chinese, Tim couldn't understand it at all, but the result was that fans also extended a friendly olive branch to Tim.
Tim, who had not yet had the chance to feel the fans' enthusiasm, was a little at a loss. He pulled Gawain to ask how to say "thank you" in Chinese, and then he learned it on the spot, saying "hello" very sincerely one after another. As a result, the fans and the audience burst into laughter, so that Tim's head was full of question marks, and he looked at Gawain inquiringly with great confusion.
Gao Wen gave Tim a thumbs up very sincerely and seriously:
“They think your Chinese is very standard. Great!”
Tim felt something was wrong, but he couldn't put it into words. In the end, he smiled at the fans and said it again.
"Mud howl, mud howl."
Tenth update. Here comes another extra update. Congratulations to Nadal again for winning the Australian Open title!
(End of this chapter)