In Graf's view, three seasons may not be enough. One season to adapt, two seasons to adjust, and three seasons to officially start. After all, the current clay court season is too short, and there is not much time to breathe. It is so short.
How could it be possible for someone to be completely transformed in three days?
From a theoretical perspective, Gawain's diverse and flexible playing style is indeed very suitable for clay court, but this is just talk on paper.
Judging from the actual situation, Gao Wen is a typical hard court player. His way of thinking is still in the hard court mode, and naturally he cannot quickly adapt to the clay court rhythm——
It's like learning a language.
Perhaps, someone is indeed a genius. He has a natural sense of language and excellent memory. From any angle, he can easily learn a new language.
It is a fact that it is true. I am proficient in grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing. There are no problems in all of them. I seem to have completely understood the new language. However, when it comes to communication, that is, speaking, it is easy to get stuck, including listening.
Still can't keep up with the indigenous people.
what happened?
In fact, it is a matter of way of thinking. Maybe all the knowledge of this new language is in your mind, from grammar to words to structure and so on. But if the way of thinking is still your mother tongue, you must go through it when switching.
A process, this is the stuck moment.
For example, in a Chinese-English conversation, when the other party speaks a sentence in English, you first need to convert it into English in your mind before you can understand it; then you conceive a response in Chinese, and then convert it into English and say it again. Not to mention that the grammatical structure is completely different, even if it is
The reaction time can't keep up with the speed either.
way of thinking, that's why -
It is precisely because of this that many people often stumble when communicating in a non-native language because they need a conversion process in their minds.
If it is a three-way switching such as "Chinese-English-German/Spanish/Italian", it will be even worse. Your head may freeze on the spot.
Only by switching the way of thinking and thinking in English will things become smoother.
The same goes for tennis.
Gao Wen is in the preliminary stage now, so he habitually thinks of clay courts in a hard-court way of thinking. Even though his playing style and tactical weapons are very suitable for clay courts, he may not necessarily be able to integrate them on clay courts——
He needs time, and at the same time he needs games, many, many, many games, to truly feel the rapid changes on the court and experience the ever-changing clay soil.
In the past few days, Graf has witnessed Gawain's progress with her own eyes, and also witnessed Gawain's "chaos and struggle" with her own eyes. She knows that this is a necessary process——
This is only the first professional season. When Gao Wen truly matures, it won't be so difficult to switch to different venues each season.
"...But I think you are already prepared." Graf looked at Gawain and said with a smile.
Gao Wen was a little surprised, "You mean, against Rafa?"
This afternoon, Gao Wen will go to the clay court training ground to face the "King of Clay" Nadal.
Graf nodded slightly and expressed his affirmation, "Training is never finished. You still have too many hard-court hitting habits and ways of thinking that need to be changed. Even if you spend a week training on the court, you still can't train.
After all, only when you step onto the court, truly compete, and really get involved in the game, will the training content become something of your own.”
Gao Wen thought about it seriously, "Well, that's true, but playing against Rafa in the first training match?"
His face was serious.
The words paused for a moment, the ending was prolonged, and he fell into deep thought, and then——
Gawain's smile suddenly bloomed, "This is too exciting!"
The look of him gearing up and eager to try made Graf stunned. He turned to look at Sampras, Agassi and others on the sidelines with a look of astonishment on his face.
Agassi shrugged innocently and spread his hands: I don't know either.
Rafael Nadal is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in tennis history.
Put aside for the time being the best battle in history between the Big Four, and put aside for the time being Nadal's excellent performance on the hard court, which is not inferior to that on clay. But if Nadal is "one of the best in history," this is
There is no doubt that Nadal was born for red clay.
There is no need to wait until 2022, even now in 2015, Nadal has already raised the historical record on clay to a whole new level.
Except for Vilas' incredible number of clay court wins, which dominates the list, almost all the records on other clay courts belong to Nadal.
The number of clay court winning streaks, career clay court winning percentage, the total number of championships on clay courts, the consecutive winning records of Masters and Grand Slams, the number of wins at the French Open, etc. If you list them in detail, I am afraid it will take a while.
, but it is certain that these records belong to Nadal.
The "King of Clay" is well deserved.
As of 2022, Nadal has made history by reaching the top of Roland Garros for the fourteenth time, once again further refreshing his own single Grand Slam winning record.
You know, apart from Nadal, no player has been able to win double figures in a single Grand Slam. The closest players to this record are Djokovic and Navratilova. The former won in Australia.
Net, the latter won Wimbledon nine times.
There is also another record. Also as of 2022, Nadal has an incredible 112 wins and three losses at the French Open. Both the number of wins and the winning rate rank highest in the history of the four Grand Slams.
First, who are the second and third in history?
Second in history, Federer, Wimbledon, 106 wins and 14 losses, winning rate 88.2%.
The third in history, Djokovic, Australian Open, 85 wins and 8 losses, winning rate 91.4%.
In addition to Nadal's French Open and Federer's Wimbledon, there is also Federer's Australian Open with more than 100 wins in a single Grand Slam event, with the number of wins reaching 103.
A simple comparison can once again show Nadal's unparalleled dominance at the French Open. No wonder the French Open officials erected a statue for Nadal at Roland Garros in 2020. This is the first time in history that a player is still in the professional arena.
Although he was active, someone erected a statue in his honor.
In fact, overall, the clay court season is the weather vane of Nadal's status. From the performance on the clay court, we can judge Nadal's status curve throughout the season——
For Nadal, clay court is always special, and the French Open is a top priority. Once the clay court season does not perform well, it also means that Nadal's competitive state has dropped to the bottom, which exactly proves Graf's words.
:
Nadal, his understanding of clay is unparalleled.
To some extent, this is the same as Federer's understanding of grass.
Perhaps Federer will lose on grass, just like Nadal will lose on clay, but their understanding of this court is unique, which also means that it will be very, very difficult for any player to defeat them, and even