Chapter 741: Commendation from colleagues
David Goffin, a Belgian, stayed away from the court due to a left wrist injury, and his world ranking once dropped to 110th.
Since returning to the court in July, he has achieved an amazing record of 44 wins and 4 losses, including five Challenger titles. He has also participated in Grand Slam and Masters level competitions and performed well.
In the end, his year-end world ranking reached 22nd, setting a new career high.
The Comeback of the Year Award is truly well deserved.
As for Gawain, actually... there is more or less some controversy, not because people don't want to vote for him, but precisely because everyone wants to vote for him, so that there is some confusion in the scope of nominations for the award.
The Most Improved Player of the Year Award is intended to recognize the player who has made the most rapid improvement in the past year and has delivered incredible performances to achieve the highest ranking in his career.
The Newcomer of the Year Award is intended to honor the next generation of young players, that is, players who break into the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time in the season and are under the age of 21.
Generally speaking, the nomination scope of the former should be players who have been in the tour for many years and finally have a breakthrough; the nomination scope of the latter is the "rising stars" young players who have just entered the tour, with twenty-one years old as the dividing point to distinguish the two nomination ranges.
Of course, this is not an official rule, but a commonly accepted concept to ensure that the two awards honor two different groups of players.
But this year is really special, too special. To be precise, it should be said that Gao Wen is too special.
According to convention, Gao Wen should win the Rookie of the Year Award, and the Most Improved Player of the Year Award should be awarded to another player, but the reality is -
The votes all flocked towards Gawain.
After the award was announced, although there was no controversy at all, fans and reporters alike accepted this historic result as a matter of course.
However, the ATP official website took into consideration that this was the second time in history that such a situation had occurred since the two awards were established in 1975, and thus published an exclusive interview.
In 1978, John McEnroe emerged and won the Most Improved Player of the Year Award and the Newcomer of the Year Award, thus starting his brilliant career.
However, since then, no player has won both awards in the same year, and it has been exactly 36 years since then.
History is being written again.
Therefore, the ATP official website interviewed a series of professional players and asked them about their views on the two awards and Gao Wen.
Dimitrov stated this directly when he was interviewed by the ATP official website.
"There is no doubt that Gao Wen is the player who has improved the most and performed the best this year, no doubt about it."
"He won a Grand Slam and a Masters, and he entered the top 10 directly from no world ranking. Do we still need to discuss it? This already says it all."
Obviously, the news media have also noticed the friendship between these players born after 1990, so they conducted further in-depth interviews.
Even though I couldn't see his expression on the phone, I could still feel the smile on Dimitrov's lips.
"Of course, I'm looking forward to playing against Gawain on the court, but I've played a few practice matches with Gawain and believe me, it wasn't a great experience."
"I think the best quality that Gao Wen has shown this season is his ability to read the game, as if he can see through your tactical intentions."
"We all know that tennis is a fast-changing sport. We need to make countless choices in a millisecond. Sometimes we are not even sure what choice we should make. We just follow our instincts. This is why experience and talent are so important. But if someone can see through your choice, it will make us very passive."
"I mean, very, very passive."
Dimitrov stressed his point over and over again.
"So I think he has reached a whole new level now, the world ranking and the championships speak for themselves."
Stan Wawrinka agreed with this. The world No. 4 player lost unexpectedly to Gawain in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
"He makes you feel like you have nowhere to run. I mean, your tactics are always seen through, and he is always one step ahead of you."
"Everyone talks about Kovan's offense, Kovan's defense, Kovan's backhand, and Kovan's movement, but in my opinion, Kovan's ability to grasp the game is a unique talent. I have played against many, many excellent players, and Kovan has proved that he can occupy a place among the top players."
And Wawrinka's idea has a wide market.
"I don't like him. Strictly speaking, I hate him."
Murray, one of the "Big Four", made a joke during an interview.
"Honestly, I kind of regret voting for him, but I guess it's because he's so 'annoying' because I hate smart people the most. Haha."
Murray, among all the top players, is actually the one who likes to joke the most. His British humor always has his own special flavor.
"I would say that the tour had one smart guy and now there's another one and I'm a little frustrated."
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After the joke, Murray still gave a serious evaluation. Even though Murray had the last laugh in the Valencia match, it would not affect his positive evaluation of Gawain.
"In the game, Gao Wen's interpretation of the entire game is very unique and very accurate. I mean the entire game content. Many times you can hardly believe that he is only eighteen years old. Oh, nineteen years old. He is already nineteen years old, right? God, he is only nineteen years old?"
"Sorry, I just want to say that when Gao Wen is standing across from the net, you need to cheer up and pay attention at all times."
Murray's sigh was also conveyed to Federer by some reporters.
"No, no no no, I don't want to know. I'm not interested for now."
Federer also made a joke and laughed happily himself.
"I'm on vacation, can't you just leave me alone for a while? I want to escape from these problems for a while."
So far, Gawain and the other Big Three have already faced off, but Federer is the only exception, as the two have not met until now.
It is precisely because of this that everyone, from fans to reporters, is looking forward to the two men fighting each other to see what it feels like and perhaps to create different sparks.
Hence, Federer made a joke, deliberately refusing to play against Gawain and refusing to directly answer any questions about Gawain.
That being said, Federer responded.
"But one thing I can be sure of is that Gao Wen is indeed the most improved player this year and the most outstanding newcomer. There is no doubt about this. We don't need to deny this because of a little difference in selection. We should open our arms and welcome the emergence of more outstanding players."
"For this, we should applaud, we should cheer."
(End of this chapter)