Chapter 642: Travel Lightly
In 2020, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open, "world number one" Djokovic was directly judged to lose the game in a humiliating manner; after hosting a charity competition in the first half of the year under tremendous pressure and violating epidemic prevention regulations, which resulted in group infection, he was once again caught in a vortex of public opinion controversy.
After that game, all the focus was on Djokovic, making the world's number one the target of public criticism.
However, this is clearly not how Busta would like to be remembered.
In fact, Busta, who was born in 1991, has always been a representative of the new generation of Spanish players. But he is also a little special. He is not a traditional clay court expert, and unlike Felipe Lopez, who is good at grass court, he is a typical fast hard court expert.
His best result at the French Open was just the second round, and he could hardly win at Wimbledon; however, at the Australian Open, he made it to the fourth round twice; and finally, at the US Open, he made it to the semi-finals twice, proving his hard court strength.
Once, it happened in 2017, the year when his world ranking also entered the top ten for the first time.
Once, in 2020, after eliminating Djokovic and advancing to the quarterfinals, he fought hard to eliminate Shapovalov and reached the semi-finals. In the semi-final against Zverev, Busta lost a good game with a big score of "2:0" and was eliminated by his opponent in three sets.
Among the new generation of players born after 1990, Busta is not as discussed as Raonic, Dimitrov, Thiem and others, but in fact, his overall stability has always been the best. After entering the top ten in the world in 2017, he has been firmly at the forefront of the world.
Except for a brief drop in his world ranking to around 50th place due to injury in 2019, his ranking has remained stable in the top 20.
Later, in the 2021 Olympics, which was postponed for a year, in the men's singles bronze medal match, Busta once again faced Serbian superstar Djokovic. Busta won after three hard-fought sets, proving that he does have the ability to defeat Djokovic on the hard court.
Now let's go back to 2014. This year was a bottleneck for Busta. After turning professional in 2009, he had been rising steadily. However, after entering the top 50 in the world rankings this year, he has not been able to break through. He could not find a way to break through when facing top players, and his performance in major competitions was always disappointing.
But it is undeniable that Busta's style of play on hard courts is very solid.
Busta's characteristics are solid basic skills, balanced forehand and backhand, both offense and defense, and very good ability to change lines and attack. He dares to attack when opportunities arise, and is indeed difficult to deal with. Overall, at the moment in 2014, his performance has not been able to break through, which is still related to his technology.
On the one hand, the offense was a bit impatient and adventurous, but the success rate was not very stable.
On the other hand, the defense is relatively weak and only passive, which means that it is difficult to find opportunities to turn defense into offense after being trapped in defense. This also forces him to take the initiative to attack, but it is easy to make offensive mistakes due to his mentality.
Simply put, Busta currently has the basic skills and abilities, but his characteristics are not prominent enough, so that he has doubts about his scoring methods and game characteristics. Therefore, in the process of improving himself, he faces self-confusion, which is also a necessary stage in the growth of every player.
The match against Busta was a turning point for Gao Wen at this stage.
First of all, the opponent is young enough and is not bound by age. He realizes that Gao Wen is the new US Open champion, so he dares to fight hard, and his whole posture is very low and full of impact.
Secondly, the opponent's ability to hit the ball on fast hard courts is indeed excellent. The control and touch of the entire flat shot are very good, even better than Gao Wen.
After arriving in Valencia, although Gawain's condition and touch are still recovering, this can no longer be an excuse, because systematic training has already begun, and because of the three weeks of games before and after, adjustments have been slowly made, and now he should really get back on track.
Otherwise, the upcoming Paris Masters might be very difficult, and there would be no possibility of competing in the year-end finals.
Therefore, facing Busta's impact, Gao Wen needs to show a better performance.
Before the game, both Sampras and Pelt took this encounter very seriously. Busta is the best opponent for training through competition. He is strong enough but not too strong. If Gawain can grit his teeth and get through this hurdle, it will be very helpful for the next two weeks of competition.
"6:4", "6:4".
Gao Wen did it.
Busta really showed his natural touch on fast hard courts. The handling of the entire shot, the judgment of timing, and the quality of the return were all excellent. Coupled with the stable serve, this also made his serve game stable and did not give Gao Wen too many opportunities.
However, Gawain seized the opportunity.
In the first set, on the first break point of the match, Gao Wen made a sudden and risky attack on Busta's backhand, followed by two consecutive forehand suppressing attacks from deep area, and finally seized the break point with a straight forehand attack on the rising point.
In the second set, he seized the opportunity when Busta was eager to score at the beginning and used tenacious defense to continuously resist Busta's three-shot attack. Then he used his signature backhand straight line to complete the transition from defense to offense, forcing Busta to hit a high ball, and finally won with high pressure in front of the net.
Throughout the game, Gao Wen only gave away one break point, which he successfully saved; Busta gave away three break points, and Gao Wen seized two of them. He broke one serve in each set and won the game steadily and efficiently.
Undoubtedly, this was a very, very close match. The indoor hard court match lasted for a full 83 minutes. The back-and-forth was very intense, but Gao Wen still gritted his teeth and won the match.
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The most commendable thing is that Gawain, who dared to take action and take risks at the critical moment, is back.
On Gao Wen's road to the top of the US Open, his big heart at critical moments undoubtedly played an important role. In the fierce competition, he was always able to improve his condition, stay focused and seize opportunities at the key points.
In the words of tennis commentator Sofar, "This is superstar potential."
However, in the past few weeks of games, poor form and mediocre touch have tied Gao Wen's hands and feet. His risks in key points always ended in mistakes. Gradually, he dared not take a shot when faced with key points again.
Although Gawain adjusted his game strategy, won several games, and even made it to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, Sampras was not satisfied with the game, and so was Gawain himself.
This way of playing has lost Gawain's own playing style. If he continues like this, Gawain's edge and edges will soon be smoothed out, which is not a good thing in the long run.
Fortunately, "that" Gawain finally came back.
(End of this chapter)