Chapter 615: Iron Wall

For Chinese fans, playing against Simon may be Gao Wen's best chance to advance to the finals.

But the same is true for Simon.

This year, Simon's performance in Grand Slam tournaments has slowly recovered, but his results in Masters tournaments have not improved. In the seven 1000 tournaments so far, except for the first round elimination in Miami, the other six were all eliminated in the second round. Such a uniform and neat performance is really laughable.

This time, in Shanghai, Simon is back in strong form, and facing the up-and-coming Gao Wen, there is no doubt that he also hopes to go one step further.

Apparently, Simon, like Gawain, came prepared.

Watching the previous rounds of games, you will know that Gao Wen's performance in the Magic City is better than that in the Imperial City. The main reason is that he weakened the difficulty of attacking and reduced the risk of attacking through layout, thereby increasing the success rate of attacking.

What does this mean? Gawain's offensive sharpness is far inferior to that of the US Open. When he is in poor condition, he plays more with his brain. There are more rounds and more tug-of-war. The whole rhythm and speed are slowed down, and the ratio of offense and defense has also changed. All of this is just right for Simon!

This is how Simon likes to play.

So Simon's game also continued with his best style, the word "grinding", which he applied to perfection.

In the first set, Gao Wen's attack was repeatedly blocked.

Even if he remained patient, slowly planned and maneuvered, it was still difficult to break through Simon's defense. If he was not careful, he might be caught off guard by Simon's defensive counterattack; and once Gawain tried a more tricky angle or a more risky route, he might face the trouble of mistakes.

Simply put, this is not the style of play that Gao Wen is used to.

When facing Sacramento, Gawain opened the game with layout and offense, but now Gawain's touch has not returned to its best condition, and his offense has not been able to achieve the expected results. He can only rely on layout and defense to deal with Simon. This is obviously Simon's favorite game rhythm.

Looking at Simon standing across the court, Gawain had a new understanding of the term "iron wall". Simon in his peak period was indeed a headache.

In the second set, Gao Wen tried to make a change.

Simon's prediction of attack and understanding of defense are indeed top-notch. His innate talent and experience in many battles have put him in a state of invincibility, so Gawain must "break the prediction."

What we start with is still Simon’s prediction.

Gao Wen tried to make fuller use of the court, consciously mobilizing Simon in the depth area, breaking Simon's inertia of lateral movement around the baseline, and breaking the use of the three-dimensional space of the court through back shots, backslashes, and small balls, destroying Simon's predictions, and then interrupting Simon's defensive mode by grabbing rising points and compressing the rhythm.

This is obviously not a routine that Gao Wen is familiar with. Frequent use of vertical space means more requirements for small balls in front of the net and midfield control.

When he was in good condition, this was no problem for Gawain; but at this stage, Gawain's brain had to keep running at high speed all the time, which put forward new requirements on the consumption of energy and brain power. Gawain had never experienced such a game before.

But at least, a confrontation was formed.

Just now, it was another long tug-of-war of 25 shots. Gawain tried several times to end the point with a kill shot, but Simon was like a tumbler, swaying and about to fall, but always able to miraculously come back to life. In the end, Gawain's forehand straight line went slightly out of the baseline.

Gao Wen, it’s a bit regrettable.

Just a little bit!

However, Gao Wen has no regrets because he knows that this is the right way to play, even if he now has to face match point.

Match point?

Not a problem!

Facing Simon's serve twice was not a problem, and now facing three consecutive match points is also not a problem. On the contrary, Gawain's high morale is completely aroused -

When else can we face a situation like this? Let the drums of war sound and see what happens.

Snap. Snap.

Simon was bouncing the ball and the next two points were his serve.

Qiao Wangsheng had completely held his breath, letting his heart beat like thunder on his eardrums. The urge to scream surged deep in his throat, but he forced himself to control it.

Area 2, inner corner.

However, Gawain's entire body pushed off the ground and rushed out, his upper body fully extended, and he used the head of the racket to hit the ball with his forehand. He didn't hit the sweet spot, but the force of his wrist pushed the tennis ball back hard, and it jumped out in a straight line and went into the bottom line triangle of Simon's backhand position.

It was a very unexpected line choice, but the return ball that did not hit the sweet spot created an unconventional effect. The entire flight of the tennis ball was fast and fierce. Although the landing point was not too tricky and there was still a long space from the sideline and the baseline, the suddenness of the line still broke Simon's prediction.

Facing the match point, Gao Wen dared to attack from the moment he received the serve.

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Simon's backhand was twisted awkwardly, and his feet were obviously squeezed, but he still managed to wrap the tennis ball around and fly it back with miraculous wrist strength, showing the flexibility of his body to the fullest. Moreover, he controlled the arc very well, flying towards Gawain's midfield area, a position that was neither forward nor backward, neither up nor down, which could create a trap for both offense and defense.

Gao Wen went online.

His steps were very firm, and he immediately entered the baseline after receiving the serve in the previous shot. Even without Simon's return coordination, it was possible to see Gao Wen's tactical intention to break the deadlock and raid the net. His timely footwork successfully caught Simon's return line and regained some initiative.

But Simon didn't seem surprised at all. He took small steps to defend his forehand space. He predicted that Gawain might choose to hit the ball on this side, and his high-speed running footsteps forced him into the midfield in a blink of an eye.

"Calculation VS Calculation", both players can be seen to have flashes of inspiration in offense and defense, but only one side can occupy the commanding heights.

So who is it! Gao Wen's two-handed backhand was already set up, ready to hit the ball. From the backhand movement, it can be seen that he is indeed preparing to push the ball in a straight line, which also means that Simon's prediction is correct and he is moving quickly to this side.

but!

Just as Gao Wen was about to hit the ball, he did not use any force in his backhand, but gently pushed forward with both hands. It was a very gentle and careful shot.

Hit lightly!

At such a critical moment, with his feet already moving ahead to grab the opportunity, Gawain actually chose to hit it lightly! Ah! Qiao Wangsheng almost screamed, but he opened his mouth and the sound was automatically muted. He looked at the court in disbelief, and then he saw Gawain hit a shallow ball. Strictly speaking, it was not a small ball, because the landing point was near the baseline of the service area, which was a distance that Simon's foot speed could catch up with.

The quality of this shot was clearly not enough for the iron wall on the other side of the court.

This is indeed the case! (End of this chapter)