Chapter 685: In high spirits

, the fifth day of the 2014 Paris Masters, the quarterfinals officially kicked off.

As the competition continues, the main competitors for the year-end finals are all still on the draw, which means that the competition to London has further upgraded, and every matchup is worth watching.

Just browsing the competition schedule makes me excited.

Center court, the first match, "Gowon vs. Anderson".

Although Gao Wen is still a hot topic, Kei Nishikori's advancement into the quarterfinals has extinguished Gao Wen's hopes of qualifying for the year-end finals. Naturally, compared with the other three major games, the excitement and suspense of this matchup are slightly inferior, so it was arranged as the first game.

Competing with Gawain for a place in the semi-finals is Kevin Anderson from South Africa, a vivid example of "late bloomer".

In 2003, at the age of 17, he turned professional, but it was not until 2011 that he won his first ATP-level championship in his career.

Then, in 2013, he made a breakthrough at the French Open, reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. At that time, Anderson was already 27 years old.

However, with this as a starting point, Anderson finally ushered in the golden peak of his tennis career and continued to climb.

First, he reached the US Open final in 2017 and lost to Nadal; then he reached the Wimbledon final in 2018 and lost to Djokovic.

Among them, the 2018 Wimbledon can be regarded as Anderson's masterpiece in his career.

First, he faced the "King of Grass" Federer in the quarterfinals.

After losing the first two sets and giving away match point in the third set, it seemed that Federer was about to sweep and advance; but Anderson, standing on the edge of the cliff, launched a desperate counterattack, saved the match point, dragged the game into the deciding set, and won the long set with a score of "13:11", knocking out the eight-time champion.

Secondly, he will face Isner in the semi-finals.

The first three sets all went to tiebreaks, and the fourth set was tied at 6:4. The two players each took two sets, and the game was so close that the winner had to be decided in the deciding set. The final score was 26:24. In this epic duel that lasted six hours and thirty-six minutes, Anderson won.

This semi-final set countless records:

This was the longest Grand Slam semi-final ever, the second longest match at a Grand Slam and the third longest match in the history of men's professional tennis.

Go down in history!

From Flushing Meadows in 2017 to Wimbledon in 2018, these are the highlights of Anderson's career.

Let’s go back to 2014.

At this time, Anderson was still in a stage of continuous rise, but seemed to lack a little inspiration and was unable to break through the barriers and reach the threshold of the top ten in the world.

But it is undeniable that Anderson has demonstrated his abilities and has firmly found his place in the top 20. He has reached the fourth round of the first three Grand Slams and the third round of the US Open. Moreover, when facing top players, he has gradually found his own characteristics.

This year, Anderson defeated Wawrinka three times, and all of them happened at the Masters: Indian Wells at the beginning of the year, Montreal in the summer, and Paris this week.

Especially facing Wawrinka who was on a killing spree in the first quarter of the year, Anderson's upset in Indian Wells was definitely a breakthrough. This was also the first time in his career that he defeated a player ranked in the top five in the world.

Overall, Anderson and Berdych have too many similarities.

Meticulous batting movements, solid basic skills, balanced offensive and defensive capabilities, excellent serving weapons, regular return lines, and so on.

You can't say "very similar", you can only say "exactly the same" -

Of course, this is a joke.

Berdych and Anderson still have their own styles.

In comparison, Berdych's offense is better and Anderson's defense is more solid, so Berdych has a higher upper limit and Anderson has a higher lower limit.

How to say it?

When the game is in a stalemate, or when top players are competing, the two players naturally tend to rely on their strongest weapons: Berdych relies more on offense. If he is in good shape, he can break the game and is not afraid of facing the Big Four; if he is not in good shape, it is difficult for him to drag on the game and he tends to lose the victory quickly.

Anderson relies more on defense. Even if he is not in good shape, he can always hold on for a while, and a little longer. But even if he is in good shape, it is difficult for him to quickly open up the situation. Both victory and defeat will take some time.

The two matches against Federer and Isner at Wimbledon in 2018, which were so long that it was frustrating, are the most intuitive example.

However, this is not to say that Anderson is a defensive player.

Anderson is still a typical offensive player, but the key is that his offense is slightly inferior to Berdych, and his defense is slightly stronger than Berdych.

So, the best venue for the four Grand Slams is Wimbledon, followed by Australia.

A very interesting statistic is that Anderson and Berdych have faced each other twelve times in their careers, and it is difficult for Anderson to win.

In the last round, Gawain just played against Berdych, and then he played against Anderson, who had a similar style. The entire batting style and game mode were seamlessly connected.

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At the beginning of the game, Gao Wen showed good competitive form.

In fact, Anderson is not a slow-warming player. At least his serve is very stable and he rarely makes consecutive mistakes at the beginning of the game.

But this was the first time Anderson and Gawain met, so it always took some time to explore and adapt to each other's styles, so the entire batting line was relatively conservative.

On the other hand, Gao Wen adapted to Anderson's shots much faster. His entire tactical routine in the opening stage was very clear: he controlled the game by changing the rhythm of rising points, back balls, back spin balls, deep topspin balls, etc., and continuously disrupted Anderson's shots.

The most important thing is to attack boldly. The choice of return line can always break the framework and seize the advantage, making the whole game seem neat and clean.

Once Anderson's serve fails to work effectively, he will quickly fall into a passive position.

“3:0”.

In just eight minutes, Gao Wen, who served first in the game, had won three consecutive games and quickly widened the score.

Sampras, sitting in the players' box, nodded slightly, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

"Is it my illusion? I think Gawain's condition in this game seems to be better than before."

Hearing Tobias's whisper in his ear, Sampras turned his head and looked over, and also replied in a low voice.

“That’s a good thing.”

In fact, including Pelt, their entire team is very worried. The news of missing the year-end finals may be a heavy blow. Even if Gao Wen says that he doesn't care, those negative emotions are objective and may affect the motivation of today's game.

But now it seems that last night's "escape" by Gawain and Dimitrov, which slightly deviated from their daily track, not only did not affect Gawain's concentration, but also stimulated Gawain's high morale.

This also means that Gawain has withstood another severe test and has once again undergone a psychological transformation.

(End of this chapter)