Chapter 893 widened the gap to
“6:2”, “6:1”.
Gao Wen won the first two games with a score of 2:0, which was surprising.
Putting aside the Australian and Spanish fans who were eagerly expecting Nadal to defeat Gawain, even neutral fans who had boldly anticipated the possibility of Gawain defeating Nadal in three straight sets never expected such a score.
From the end of the first set to the middle of the second set, Gao Wen won six games in a row, delivering an invisible donut.
Moreover, in the fifth game of the second set, Gao Wen also got a break point. Once he broke the serve, it would be his serve to win the set.
but!
Nadal used a very sudden and unexpected forehand slice to completely break Gawain's expectations, saving the break point and then holding his serve.
Avoid the fate of being cleared in the second set.
However, this still failed to stop Gao Wen. Next, Gao Wen once again saved and broke the opponent's ...
Just as Zhang Sheng expected, Nadal was not in his best condition, and was far from being slow to warm up. The failure of his forehand put Nadal in a passive position.
In fact, this matchup can't help but remind people of the encounter between Gawain and Nadal at last year's Imperial Capital Open.
At that time, Gao Wen was in poor condition and did not dare to hit the ball towards the corners. If he took a little risk, the ball would go out of bounds or he would make a mistake. This forced him to retreat and focus on control and maneuver.
Of course, relying on solid baseline hitting ability and excellent defensive ability, such hitting can still continue the round.
The problem is that there is a lack of means to suppress or even score, and the edges of the entire game disappear, and it is just a constant tug of war back and forth at the baseline.
This is definitely not Gao Wen's best playing style.
The Emperor lost to Nadal, and the Magic lost to Simon. In the final analysis, the same routine was used in these two matches.
In the imperial capital, Nadal was also in poor form. In the first tournament after returning from injury, he was still adjusting his whole batting feel. But facing Gawain, Nadal showed his experience, with more diverse and richer batting routines, playing the role of breaking the deadlock in long and multi-shot rounds.
Although Nadal had the last laugh in that game, it was a very hard-won victory.
At this moment, Nadal is like Gawain in the imperial capital.
There is still no problem with hitting the ball; and, Nadal is Nadal after all, he will never surrender. Even when he is in a bad state, he can always think of ways to continue to maneuver and continue the round, and even in the stalemate, he will persevere in looking for a gap to break the deadlock.
Even a tiny gap could be an opportunity for Nadal to turn the tables.
The competition was not one-sided.
From the first set to the second set, Gawain and Nadal fought for a full ninety-three minutes. The time taken for the two sets of matches basically caught up with the time Gawain took for the entire first two rounds of matches.
The stalemate is very intense!
From this we can see that even Nadal, who is in poor form, is still a tough nut to crack.
So, what's going on with the score?
Key points.
At critical moments, Gao Wen was in better and better condition. He dared to plan, dared to take action, dared to start, and dared to break the deadlock. This courage and determination became the key to breaking the balance.
One data is enough: the success rate of breaking the serve.
In the two sets of matches, Gao Wen got a total of thirteen break points and broke Nadal's serve five times, with a break success rate of 38.5%.
Nadal got a total of ten break points, but he failed to convert any of them, with a break success rate of 0%, which is a very bleak statistic.
Federer has been nicknamed "the king of leaks" by fans for a long time, mainly because after he fell into the trough of his career due to injuries and age in 2013, his ability to seize opportunities in the game has obviously declined.
He should have improved his condition at the critical moment, but instead his concentration was scattered. He got more than a dozen break points in a game, but could only convert one or two of them. This also meant that in the duel between top players, Federer lost control of the initiative.
Today's Nadal reminds people of Federer.
It should be noted that he missed seven break points in the second game of the first set. From this perspective, that game was indeed a turning point.
Obviously, Gao Wen noticed the subtle change in the atmosphere of the game. He held his breath and saved his serve, which directly changed the momentum of both sides.
The gap just widened like that.
The entire Rod Laver Arena was filled with anxiety and irritability.
Except for Chinese fans.
This was an absolute nightmare for Australian and Spanish fans, who had sincerely hoped that Nadal could beat Gawain.
This is also a nightmare for neutral fans. The entire ninth match day was drowsy and everyone was looking forward to this match.
The result? If you only look at the score and not the process, you will probably lose count of the number of dislocated jaws. But even if you watch the process, you still can't believe it.
but!
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Nadal is not Kyrgios.
The most precious quality of this Spanish god of war is that he never gives up and fights to the end.
Even if there is no hope, even if there is no other way, he will fight to the last moment and burn up all his energy.
Nadal refused to give up victory. If his opponent wanted to win, that was fine, but the opponent had to do his best to win. He would never surrender; because only in this way, when he turned around and left the court, he would not leave any regrets.
This is Nadal's philosophy of the game.
A little clumsy, but always sparkling.
If it were other players, after losing the first two sets by a large margin, their fighting spirit in the third set would probably be completely crushed. Even if they didn't log off directly, they would most likely be offline for a while.
However, Nadal is not.
In the third set, Nadal made a comeback.
After two fierce battles, it is obvious that Nadal's condition is gradually returning. Maybe it is not a rocket rise, but it is indeed warming up.
There is no need to be surprised or surprised. As mentioned before, this is the way this bull is. He finds his form through arduous competitions. His five-set winning rate during his peak period leads the history, and his fighting heart is always beating.
Then, Nadal broke.
Nadal finally seized the thirteenth break point of the game and completed an incredible defensive counterattack with a signature forehand outside-in. In an extremely passive and desperate situation, he cashed in the opportunity and completed the first break since the start of the game.
The whole place was in an uproar! The air was almost burning, and everyone could feel that the god of war had once again sounded the horn of counterattack, and the game was still not over.
Immediately afterwards, Nadal saved two break points and narrowly held his serve, realizing the break advantage and surpassing the game score for the first time to take the lead.
"2:3".
In the third set, Gawain served first, but Nadal took the lead with a break point, and a glimmer of hope appeared.
Strictly speaking, it is normal for Nadal to be ahead, but Nadal's condition was not good today, and Gawain's touch was really hot, so that Nadal was completely in trouble and played very hard. All these signs once again proved that the Australian Open and Nadal are indeed incompatible.
But no matter what, now Nadal is finally ahead, temporarily.
(End of this chapter)