Chapter 865 Magical Score
"Facing Kyrgios, the last hope of Australian local players, Gawain played the most perfect match since the opening of the new season in the first set today."
"76% first serve success rate, 83% first serve points, 71% second serve points, one ace, one double fault, no break points in his own service game, 13 winners, three unforced errors, and it took 36 minutes to win."
"There is no doubt that Gao Wen knows the importance and difficulty of this match. Facing Kyrgios, no player can relax, not to mention that this is Kyrgios' home court. Currently, there is the last host player in the men's and women's singles draws. The difficulty of this match is foreseeable."
"That's why Gao Wen was fully prepared. His forehand and backhand performances were perfect without any loopholes. It was a very clean victory."
In the commentary booth, Zhang Sheng felt a little emotional. As his commentary partner, Wu Wensheng could also feel the excitement.
"During the offseason this year, Agassi joined Kovan's coaching team, and it can be seen that the wisdom of Agassi and Sampras collided with Kovan to create sparks."
"Now, Gao Wen has initially shown the qualities of a master, and he is indeed in line with the style of a top eight seed."
"But Kyrgios is a dangerous opponent, he is the kind of player that even if you beat him, you might get hurt, so the match is never easy."
There is a consensus on this point in the professional tennis world, and countless professionals have expressed similar views.
The most intuitive proof is that Kyrgios won both games against Djokovic without losing a set, and both games took place in 2017.
It is precisely because of this that Kyrgios has always been very disdainful of Djokovic. "He has never defeated me. What qualifications does he have to be called the best of all time?"
"It's a question of whether Kyrgios wants to do it, not whether he can do it. He can win a Grand Slam if he wants to."
This has also become the best footnote to professionals' evaluation of Kyrgios. The attitude towards the game is the biggest shackle that restricts Kyrgios from achieving better results.
Obviously, Kyrgios' attitude in today's game was very, very correct.
He wants to win this game.
He wanted to win to the roar of the Melbourne Park crowd, he wanted revenge for Koggenakis and Tomic, he wanted to beat the arrogant and disgusting guy on the other side and rub his face on the ground.
He wanted to see the guy's face as he hated himself for losing the game.
After adjusting and motivating himself during the breaks between sets, Kyrgios' concentration reached an unprecedented level.
In the second set, Kyrgios played very well, very, very well.
Objectively speaking, Gawain's performance declined slightly. The scorching heat in Melbourne Park made the air suffocating and caused him to reach the limit of his physical strength earlier.
But overall, Gao Wen still maintained a high level, performed well, and did not have too many flaws.
Yet, Kyrgios took his chance.
In Gawain's second service game, Kyrgios missed three break points, but still created the fourth one and finally seized it.
A signature forehand diagonal shot, a powerful attack that almost blew up the tennis ball, tore a hole in Gawain's defense and cashed in the fourth break point with an impeccable winning point. The perfect and powerful performance drove the entire Margaret Court Stadium into a frenzy.
This was the first time the opponent broke the serve in the entire game, and relying on the advantage of serving first in the second set, the score was directly widened to "4:1".
Immediately afterwards, the two players successfully held their serve, and the score came to "5:2". Kyrgios only had one game left to win the second set.
"5:2" is known as the "magic score" in women's tennis. It is like a spell with a special effect.
The reason is very simple. It seems that every time the score reaches this level, the leading team seems to not know how to play, while the lagging team explodes and then the situation is reversed.
In the following scores, the lagging party made a continuous counterattack and won four games in a row, and finally defeated the previous leader with a score of "7:5".
Although this doesn't happen every time, the frequency is so high that it's hard to believe.
But why is this happening?
The core reason is the domino effect caused by the unstable serve of female players.
The score of "5:2" seems to be very different, but in fact, the lagging side only had one serve broken. The leading side is far ahead because they served first in this set, widening the score gap. Next, as long as the lagging side can stand firm, keep their serve, and launch an attack in the opponent's weak serve, once the break is successful, the momentum will be reversed, and the whole situation will be completely turned upside down.
It is precisely because of this that every time the score reaches this level, it is like a curse, and suddenly the situation changes drastically.
What it boils down to is that the female players' serves are not powerful enough and they lack control over their own serve games.
If it is a serving master like Serena Williams, then the possibility of being overturned when leading is much smaller.
In the men's competition, the score was even smaller, "5:2", the gap was indeed obvious.
Although Gawain remained unmoved and steadily held his next serve, narrowing the score to "5:3", Kyrgios was still very calm in his serve to win the set.
"40:15".
Kyrgios was leading in the score and had two consecutive set points. Judging from Kyrgios' serve in this set, there seemed to be no suspense.
However, an unexpected accident occurred.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
In the first inventory point, Kyrgios hit a two-handed backhand straight line, which changed from a diagonal line to a straight line. As a result, the return ball hit the net, touched the net once, jumped high, and then fell back into Kyrgios' own court and failed to cross the net.
"40:30".
Kyrgios was obviously very dissatisfied with such a "lucky ball" and kept complaining about the net. He was obviously disappointed that he did not get the help of the net in his home game.
This also more or less affects Kyrgios' concentration.
The second inventory.
The first serve was to the inside corner, but it lacked speed and power. Gao Wen successfully hit a forehand return to the middle zone and suppressed Kyrgios with the landing point, curbing Kyrgios' tactical intention of serving and attacking. Then, the round ball was formed.
After Kyrgios withstood two consecutive backhand pressures from Gawain, he boldly and decisively seized the rhythm, moved from the backhand position to the sideways forehand position, and hammered the ball diagonally from top to bottom at the hitting point above the shoulder.
Gawain, very embarrassed.
He barely reached the target with his two-handed backhand, relying on the strength of his wrist to hit a diagonal line, trying to limit Kyrgios's continuous attack by controlling the landing point in the deep zone.
The ball landed very, very deep, hitting the baseline directly, which seemed to be out of bounds, but Kyrgios didn't care. He continued to attack from a high point with his forehand, and launched an unreasonable attack with high pressure at the baseline, hammering down along a straight line, aiming at the blind spot at the baseline.
Boom! "Out!"
Along with the sound of Kyrgios’s hit, the linesman’s shout was heard, indicating that Gawain’s return was out of bounds.
Out of bounds meant that Kyrgios cashed in on the second set point and won the second set.
However, on the other side of the court, Gawain raised his right hand high and gestured in the direction of the referee:
Hawkeye Challenge.
The seventh update.
(End of this chapter)