Since Gao Wen won the US Open championship, the younger generations of the "post-90s" and "post-95s" have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain to step onto the professional stage and shine as much as they can.
In response, major media outlets raised their hands and feet to express their welcome and thunderous applause.
The media are always looking for an opponent among the new generation who can be compared with Gawain. It is not Kei Nishikori or Wawrinka, but young players.
Because they are looking forward to "McEnroe VS Borg", "Sampras VS Agassi", "Federer VS Nadal" and other historic rivals with epochal significance.
From Raonic to Dimitrov to the younger Zverev, the media tried their best to fan the flames and try to create an atmosphere. They started to create an "old enemy" atmosphere early, and in 2015 the professional tennis world was in complete chaos.
Among them, I hope to find a place for the new generation.
However, reporters did not have the ability to foresee the future after all. They could not imagine that it was other people who ended up becoming rivals:
"Gawain VS Tim".
At least, when the two players met for the first time in this year's Miami Masters, people could see no trace of it, and everything seemed normal.
Thiem can be regarded as a smaller version of Nadal, not in terms of playing style or strength, but in terms of the entire professional style and attitude towards the game:
Diligent, focused, devoted, wholehearted, unreserved, and tenacious.
Of course, some similarities in playing styles are also a clue.
Thiem is the second player after Nadal whose average hitting speed can easily reach 4,000. At his peak in 2018 and 2019, Tim's hitting speed could even suppress Nadal. This is undoubtedly a feat.
This feat also established Tim's status as the "Little Prince of Clay".
At the same time, Thiem, like Nadal, is a training fiend. He is either training or on the way to training every day.
However, the biggest difference between Tim and Nadal is that Tim's tennis is particularly "violent" and is in the same category as Wawrinka and Rublev.
Tim's tennis is powerful with the racket and the whole court. It is not only "axis", but also "stubborn". He firmly believes that he needs stronger power and more rotation to suppress his opponent, so in difficult situations
, he will tend to exert more force, and this is no exception for the forehand and backhand, covering the whole court and exerting all his strength.
It is precisely because of this that when watching Tim's games, the "burning" feeling is particularly obvious, not only on the mental level, but also on the body.
It also proves that Tim's physical talent is outstanding. With his style of play, he may not be able to last a full season, but Tim stayed at the top for more than five seasons, and then slowly began to suffer injuries. A series of injuries
Improper impact and subsequent handling lead to a trough.
Because Tim has been trying to increase speed, his shots often require a large swing, more swing space and more preparation time, which also means:
On the one hand, this requires Tim to have excellent pace and gain time and space for himself to hit the ball. Naturally, the physical exertion is also more severe.
On the one hand, Thiem is often prone to exhaustion on hard courts, because hard courts are faster and shorten his swing and accumulation time. This is also an important reason why he is more adaptable to clay courts. It is not only stable, but also has a higher upper limit.
However, it was on the hard court that Tim achieved his first breakthrough in his career:
Last year, the US Open broke into the top 16 and appeared in the public eye for the first time; this year, Miami broke into the quarterfinals and recovered from a short trough.
The reason is not complicated.
Tim's hitting is heavy and turnable, with excellent ball quality, balanced forehand and backhand, coupled with his youthful energy, he relies on his excellent pace to buy himself the time and space needed to hit the ball, and his violent offensive style.
It has excellent defensive feel and is highly competitive even on hard courts.
From 2016 to 2019, Tim defeated Nadal at least once on clay for four consecutive years, and he was also the first player to accomplish such a feat.
In addition, from 2019 to 2020, Tim achieved six wins and one loss on hard courts against Federer, Nadal and Djokovic——
The only defeat came in the 2019 Australian Open final against Djokovic. When leading "2:1", he lost the entire game and missed the championship.
With just a few strokes, you can see that Tim is a player with a particularly strong sense of "burning". His explosive power and impact fully demonstrate his youthful passion.
However, with such talent and ability, why did he become a late bloomer?
It was not until the 2019 season that Chilean player Nicolas Massu (s-Massu), the 2004 Athens Olympic singles and doubles champion, joined the coaching team that a complete transformation ushered in?
It's because Tim is an honest man. He relies very much on his body during the game and just uses his body to rush, hit and fight.
In the early stages of his career, Tim has been learning how to use his body more scientifically and rationally, but this is enough. He has entered the semi-finals of the French Open for three consecutive years; and after Massu joined the team, he has improved tactically and psychologically.
Bring Tim richer content and prompt him to upgrade.
At the moment in 2015, Tim is still in the stage of self-exploration. Although he has figured out some things, it is still not enough to form a coherent series.
This game against Gawain is a typical example.
In the first set, Thiem put unimaginable pressure on Gao Wen. He can basically be regarded as Wawrinka at last year's Australian Open. The entire attack was not only violent but also smooth, and more importantly, the hit rate was extremely high.
Facing Zverev Jr., Gao Wen could reverse the situation through defense, but facing Tim, the suppression of his ball quality caused Gao Wen's defensive quality to decline.
Tim's ball is heavy and spinning, heavy and rushing. In terms of pure ball quality, it is comparable to Nadal. Especially in the two encounters between Gao Wen and Nadal, Nadal was not in the best condition.
, so Thiem’s ball quality lasts longer than Nadal’s, with layer upon layer of impact.
Not only does it compress Gawain's batting time and space, but the strong confrontation between strength and strength can also suppress Gawain, and with it, the tactical layout is also affected——
The difficulty of changing lines, returning the ball, and layout all increases.
This also vividly explains that tennis is a game of games. Whether the return of the ball is easy or difficult depends on both yourself and your opponent.
"6:3".
Tim plays the next set first.
In this set, although Gao Wen also fought for some opportunities and got five break points in Tim's serve game, Tim was always better at critical moments.
Not only was he courageous, but also resolute, and his whole batting idea was very clear. It wasn't that Gawain didn't play well enough, but that Tim's performance deserved applause.
A back-and-forth duel, not giving an inch, the bayonet was red, the winning points were amazing, wonderful shots came one after another, even if there was a mistake, it was the strong suppression from the opponent, the fierce confrontation with sparks ignited the whole world.
It was a heat wave and the audience couldn't stop cheering.
This is the "Youth Storm" that people are looking forward to, and it is much better than the game between Gao Wen and Zverev Jr.
Young people are hot-blooded, tough and passionate! They just want to burn to the end!