Chapter 589: Aftereffects
On October 5, the penultimate ATP Masters Tournament of the year, with a total of 1,000 points, officially kicked off in Shanghai.
Every year, entering the Asian season means that the season competition is gradually coming to an end. After more than nine months of long professional competitions, the players' physical strength and energy are facing severe tests. Coupled with sudden injuries and unexpected accidents, more variables are added to the game.
In addition, the national team competitions, the men's Davis Cup and the women's Federation Cup, will both enter the finals at the end of the year, which means more schedules have been added to the regular events. This puts more stringent requirements on the schedule arrangement, physical adjustment, state adjustment, etc.
So much so that many top players had to miss team competitions, partly to avoid injuries and partly because of their own poor form.
It is also because of this that the Shanghai Masters in the Asian season and the Paris Masters in the European Indoor season, as the last two top events at the end of the year, have many upsets.
Among the "Big Four", Nadal's "inadaptability" is particularly obvious. Due to his own playing style and injury problems, his performance at the end of the year has not been able to reach his best. Among all the nine Masters tournaments, Shanghai and Paris are the two territories that Nadal has never been able to conquer.
And Nadal is not the only player facing the test of a long season. All players, including the other Big Three, are facing the same situation.
In fact, the ATP and WTA player unions have held meetings more than once to discuss and issue formal demands, emphasizing that the season is too long, the events are too intensive, and most importantly, there are too many mandatory events.
The so-called mandatory participation in the ATP Masters and WTA Crown Tournaments are official events that all players must participate in, unless they have a formal injury certificate from a doctor.
If you are absent, you will be fined, warned, and have points deducted. This is mainly done by the event organizer to ensure the player participation rate and the excitement of the game, but also for box office and ratings.
Even for other competitions that are not compulsory, because the world rankings are updated weekly, the fierce competition is constantly being refreshed, and these ranking data are also related to the players' eligibility and daily livelihood, so that players in the middle stage of the world rankings have to force themselves to continue to participate every week, falling into a vicious circle.
The players' union hopes that the season can be shortened and the offseason extended to give players more time to adjust and rest.
However, the commercial benefits brought by the professionalization of tennis are so huge, and the interests behind it are complicated. In addition, the venues for the events are spread all over the world. This is different from the form of football leagues, basketball leagues, and rugby leagues based in one country. Each event may represent the economic planning of a city or even a country, and the difficulty of negotiation and consultation is naturally rising.
For example, the only ATP Masters in Asia is in Shanghai. Wouldn't other countries be jealous? Countries including Singapore, Japan, and Korea have been striving to win the right to host the Masters. Shanghai has been able to maintain its position as the host of the Masters, not only because of the high quality of the event itself, but also because of countless invisible forces behind it.
Therefore, the schedule has never been shortened. Not only that, but a certain number of events continue to increase every year, forming a huge system.
Naturally, the challenges faced by players in the Asian season and the European indoor season have not been improved. Coupled with the influence of the "Grand Slam Syndrome", there are often more upsets in the Imperial Capital Open and the Magic City Masters.
This year is no exception.
In the first round, because the top eight seeds had a bye, the upsets were all relatively low-ranked players. It couldn't be called "shocking", but it still generated a lot of discussion.
"US Open runner-up" Cilic lost unexpectedly to his Croatian compatriot Karlovic in the first round, and only won one of the two tournaments he participated in after the end of the US Open.
Compared to Gawain, it is obvious that "Grand Slam Syndrome" is more obvious in Cilic. Although he lost to Murray last week and to Karlovic this week, strictly speaking, both games were close contests; but the decline in overall condition and touch is still a world of difference.
In addition, there are also players like Kei Nishikori and Gulbis who still suffer from the shadow of Grand Slam syndrome, but the situation is slightly different.
Kei Nishikori, who was just one step away from making history at the US Open, was very diligent after leaving New York. He went to Malaysia and Japan to compete, and won the two low-level competitions. He came to the Magic City with a winning streak. However, in the competition on a higher stage, he had no touch at all and lost in straight sets to the American rookie Jack Sock who had just returned from injury, and was eliminated in the first round.
As for Gulbis, he was not able to play at his best in the Imperial City last week and hastily "withdrew due to injury". He also had a war of words with Gawain over the injury issue. But apparently, the injury did not seem to have much impact, because two days later, he appeared in the singles competition of the Magic City Masters.
Unfortunately, facing the "big soldier" Youzhny, who was also in poor form and was eliminated in the first round of the US Open, Gulbis only won five games in two sets and was swept out.
After the game, Gulbis talked nonsense to Youzhny again, and exploded when reporters questioned whether Di Du had "faked injury and retired" last week. The innocent Gawain once again became Gulbis' target, but this time Gawain refused to give any response, and just replied lightly: "I have no interest in circus performances."
In addition, Isner and Fognini also joined the ranks of being eliminated in the first round, and Robredo, who was not seeded but was ranked steadily in the top 30 in the world, was also eliminated unexpectedly.
In the end, there were a total of eight seeded players in the first round, but five of them were eliminated in a blink of an eye, and only three successfully passed the level, which really made people feel the chill.
However, amidst all the upsets, the wild-card-winning Chinese player Wang Chuhan's upset victory over Fognini in straight sets was undoubtedly good news. This also made him the fourth local player in history to win in the Magic City, joining Gao Wen in advancing to the second round.
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This young player, who was born in 1992, is currently ranked around 400th in the world. He had not received any attention before. However, after the first round of the Shanghai Masters, only Gao Wen and Wang Chuhan were left among the local players in singles and doubles. Naturally, all eyes were focused on them.
Moreover, Wang Chuhan's second-round opponent is qualifying player Malek-Jaziri, who is currently ranked 75th in the world. This also means that there is a very high possibility that Wang Chuhan will continue to advance by surprise.
The news media was immediately filled with enthusiasm. If Gao Wen and Wang Chuhan advance to the third round together, then it would be great! Maybe Chinese men's tennis can really make more breakthroughs?
(End of this chapter)