Chapter 801: Invincible Youth
"Novak, people have been looking forward to your rematch with Gawain, but now, you are unfortunately eliminated in the quarterfinals. How do you feel about this?"
"See you later, let us continue to look forward to it."
"Gao Wen, countless fans are looking forward to your challenge against Djokovic again, but unfortunately it didn't happen this time. How do you feel about this?"
"In every match, I will go all out to get a chance to face Novak across the net."
Same question, completely different answers.
What Djokovic showed was his confidence, his calmness and composure as he stood on top of the world and looked down on the world, and his calmness and pride as the world's number one facing challengers.
What Gao Wen showed was vigor, down-to-earth humility, the fighting spirit of a newborn calf, and the courage and vigor to hold his head high and face all challenges.
One comes and one goes.
Although Gawain and Djokovic failed to meet in the semi-finals, the smoke of war floating in the air still spread silently.
This is undoubtedly a frustrating situation for Doha fans.
"Djokovic VS Nadal" did not happen.
"Djokovic VS Gawain" was not able to be staged.
After many twists and turns, unexpectedly, in the doubles competition, "Nadal/Gauvin VS Djokovic/Krajinovic" has become the most talked-about and most entertaining match in Doha this year.
At that time, it was hard to get a ticket for this match; now, this match is even more talked about, and the audience who can watch this doubles match live instantly become the envy of everyone -
It lies in the excitement of the competition, the intensity of the competition, and the significance of the competition.
The outcome of a doubles match will not affect the performance of the singles players, but it is undeniable that the "Gawain VS Djokovic" duel is becoming increasingly popular; and because the two players failed to meet in the semi-finals in Doha, the tension has become even stronger.
After all, Gawain won and Djokovic lost.
If - just hypothetically, if Galvin and Djokovic meet again at the Australian Open in a week and a half, the match will definitely be very exciting.
In fact, what people don’t know is that the person who was most regretful and disappointed about Djokovic’s upset loss to Karlovic was Gawain.
Gao Wen has been eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to compete with the giants again, because he hopes to test the results of his off-season training, and also because every opportunity to challenge the Big Four is extremely rare, and any opportunity to compete against top masters can make people excited.
However……
What a pity.
So, when facing the reporter's questions, Gao Wencai said that he knew that he was a challenger and he needed to fight hard in every competition to get a chance to challenge the Big Four again, and then try his best to defeat the Big Four again.
Unfortunately, it was very short-lived. Gao Wen quickly regained his focus, cheered himself up, and devoted himself to the next game: if he wants to achieve better performance in Melbourne, then he must seize the opportunity in Doha and enjoy every minute on the court.
On Saturday, the first match was the doubles final. This was also the first time that Gao Wen reached the doubles final in his career, and it felt a little different.
In the final, the stadium was packed again, once again witnessing the strong box office appeal. Since they have said goodbye to Nadal and Djokovic in the singles arena, it means that the only chance to see the Big Four compete now is in doubles, and it is the final, which is worth watching.
Standing on the other side of the net was another pair of unseeded players, Julian Knowle and Philip Oswald from Austria.
Noel, 41, is currently ranked 50th in the world in doubles.
Oswald, 29, is currently ranked 53rd in the world in doubles.
A simple set of data shows that this doubles pair is not a well-known top combination in the professional tour, but it also proves once again the instability and uncertainty at the beginning of the season, even in the doubles arena.
The combination of Noel and Oswald unexpectedly eliminated the second seed in the first round; in the semi-finals, they unexpectedly defeated another Spanish pair, Verdasco and Marrero, and made it to the final with great momentum, becoming the biggest dark horse in this year's Doha doubles tournament.
Before the match, Verdasco and Marrero generously shared their feelings about the match, providing a lot of information for Nadal and Gawain's match preparation.
Overall, Noel is the relatively weak link in this partnership. It has nothing to do with his age, but more to do with his control over the ball. He lacks some handling methods. Once the opponent's shots become more varied, Noel's handling becomes monotonous, which also means that loopholes are prone to occur.
Oswald is younger and more versatile, especially in terms of his net skills.
After the game started, Nadal and Gawain took advantage of Oswald as a breakthrough point and successfully broke the balance on the court.
They adopted an unconventional tactic of moving forward and pressing back.
Simply put, it is to use a small ball to mobilize players to the front of the net, and then attack the empty space in the backcourt with a high ball.
This is a tactic often used in singles matches, especially on clay courts, where long-distance vertical movement can always achieve a very positive mobilization effect; but in doubles matches, because there are two players working together to cover the opposite side of the court, the advantage in front of the net is particularly obvious, and overhead high balls are very dangerous.
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But Nadal and Gawain both have very strong lob skills, and they took advantage of Oswidge's eagerness to get to the net to create loopholes.
On the one hand, Oswald seemed a little impatient and his handling of the ball at the net was not delicate enough.
On the other hand, Noel's baseline hitting ability is also an obvious shortcoming. He is unable to gain an advantage in terms of power, speed, rotation, etc. Moreover, both Nadal and Gawain are the same. They can only defend but not fight back.
In sharp contrast, Nadal and Gawain gradually found their tacit understanding and became more and more skilled.
Full firepower!
“6:3”, “6:1”.
Judging from the score, Nadal and Gavin won easily; but judging from the time taken for the match, the actual confrontation was even more intense than imagined.
Seventy-nine minutes.
Throughout the game, Nadal and Gao Wen faced five break points, all of which they successfully saved; they also created eleven break points in their opponents' serve games, successfully breaking three times and clinching the championship with an absolutely strong performance.
In their first collaboration, Nadal and Gawain created sparks and won the championship, kicking off the season. This was a true good start.
However, Gao Wen has no time to rest. For the fourth consecutive day, he will continue to face the test of playing two games in one day.
After only two and a half hours of rest, Gawain was on the field again to face Croatian giant Karlovic.
Judging from Gawain's performance, youth is invincible. The test of physical strength and energy is not a problem at all, because Gawain won again.
"6:7(2)", "7:6(4)", "7:6(5)".
(End of this chapter)