Rublev, this is a player whose playing style deserves careful study.
Since childhood, he has been trained on clay courts, following the Spanish youth training style. His career idol is Nadal, and he has grown up completely on clay courts.
In 2014, Rublev won the French Open junior men's singles championship and became the junior world number one, which also prompted him to decide to turn professional.
However!
Almost all of Rublev's achievements as an adult came from hard courts——
Grand Slam performance, the first breakthrough in his career was at the US Open, and the best results were at the US Open and Australian Open. It was not until the French Open in 2022 that he advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time.
In terms of Masters performance, although she has also reached the finals in the Monte Carlo clay court event, her best and most consistent performance was on the hard courts in Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati.
Championship trophies, six of the eight singles championship trophies as of 2022 are from hard courts, and even the number of finals is overwhelmingly on hard courts.
Strange!
Just like the young Spanish player Busta, he was born on clay, but his style is more suitable for hard courts and he thrives on hard courts.
To some extent, Rublev's game is similar to Del Potro's, not in terms of style of play, but in terms of their reliance on the forehand.
Rublev's offensive strategy all relies on his forehand, which is as powerful as a cannonball. It is heavy and powerful enough, and can continuously output. He stands near the baseline, continuously sweeps, and continuously exerts pressure until he breaks through the opponent's defense line.
until.
Of course, coming from the Spanish youth training system, Rublev can still see the typical Spanish tactical style represented by Nadal:
One is the running style.
The second is the sideways forehand. As long as you find an opportunity, you must adjust your steps on the backhand position and attack sideways with the forehand to complete the pressure across the entire court.
This tactic started with Moya, then Ferrero, Ferrer, and then Nadal, all of them are proficient in this method. Nadal even promoted the sideways forehand. This is a very important aspect of Spanish youth training.
Basic skills, and implement them bit by bit into the tactical system.
It just so happens that Rublev has a strong forehand, so he is often able to give full play to his forehand advantage to win the game.
Rublev's forehand swing is concise and powerful without any sloppiness. This not only creates higher speed and stronger power for the forehand shot, but also makes it difficult for the opponent to predict in advance through hidden hitting movements.
At the same time, Rublev's forehand has the ability to penetrate the entire court on a diagonal, and also has the ability to hit in a straight line, with great force and depth, covering the entire court.
Therefore, when facing an opponent with a one-handed backhand or a weak backhand ability, Rublev can often gain the upper hand and continue to apply pressure to complete the breakthrough.
But facing an opponent with a tough and strong two-handed backhand, or an opponent with two hands who dares to change the line, Rublev's forehand attack lacks changes in rhythm and method, and as a result, the forehand gap may be exposed due to his habitual routine.
, which turns into an opportunity for the opponent to counterattack.
It is precisely because of this that in the new generation duels, Rublev always falls behind when facing players with excellent two-handed backhands. Facing Medvedev, he lost four consecutive games. It was not until Cincinnati in 2022 that he defeated his compatriot for the first time;
Zverev Jr. has lost all five matches and has no victory.
From all these, it can be seen that Rublev is a relatively "straight" player. He plays without any tricks and wins with powerful balls.
But if the powerful ball hits the wall, he often lacks other means to change the situation. Compared with Del Potro, he is closer to Sharapova's style.
This year, after the Australian season ended, Rublev also officially ended all his youth competitions and fully transitioned to the professional arena.
"Double Crown of Sunshine" is naturally not to be missed.
Last week in Indian Wells, Rublev unfortunately stopped in the final round of qualifying; but came to Miami and passed the test of two rounds of qualifying, which also earned him the opportunity to appear on the Masters main stage for the first time in his career.
The opponent in the first round is... Busta.
It is the Spanish "outlier" who, like Rublev, comes from a clay-court background, but performs even better on hard courts.
Busta, who was born in 1991, is closer to a late bloomer than a gifted one. Although he entered the professional arena in 2009, he suffered from injuries in the early days and has been playing in and out; in the past two years, he has only
Gradually I found some status and slowly started to emerge. It may take more time.
Facing Busta, Rublev quickly completed adjustments after losing the first set at "1:6", winning two consecutive sets and successfully advancing.
He played in the Masters for the first time in his career and advanced to the second round. Perhaps his aura was not as good as Zverev's, but Rublev did win some attention.
Next, Rublev won the opportunity to challenge Gawain.
For the media, "youth storms" always attract attention because they represent the future, not to mention that the recent situation is slightly different.
From Coric in Dubai to Rublev this week, players born after 1995 like Gao Wen are entering the field of vision crazily.
In the previous "Youth Storm", Gao Wen was the younger one, challenging Raonic, Dimitrov and other representatives of the "post-90s" generation.
But now, Gao Wen has ushered in a new generation that is younger than himself. Coupled with the aura of the Grand Slam Masters, he has undoubtedly become the target of challenges and challenges from his peers.
If there was only Coric or only Rublev, the most the media could do was use keywords to add some gimmicks. However, in the spring hard court season, in just three weeks, the media continuously encountered "post-95" players, step by step.
His emotions were aroused step by step.
Isn't this interesting?
Look, Gao Wen himself is still a challenger, challenging the "post-90s generation" and the "Big Four". From his sudden emergence to the spotlight, this amazing journey of challenge has just begun in less than a year.
Immediately afterwards, younger, more energetic, and more youthful challengers emerged one after another, each and every one of them was ambitious and ready to challenge Gawain.
So, how should Gawain adjust his position?
In competitive sports, the importance of mentality and psychology is far beyond imagination. If you cannot correct your position, the possibility of encountering Waterloo will skyrocket.
"The proud man backslids" does not only have a literal interpretation, but also has more room for interpretation.
Especially considering Gawain's youth.
For other players, they have more or less worked hard on the tour for many years and experienced ups and downs before reaching their current position.
But Gao Wen did not make his debut like a comet, and then continued to hit the top. This is even more true now. He just won the championship in Indian Wells last week. With a turn, the media compared him with an unknown rising star.
put it together--
If Coric in Dubai has defeated Nadal, his bluster is understandable, then Rublev's star this week seems dim, and he has not even achieved any results worth mentioning in the professional arena. According to the media