Previously, it was mentioned that in 2017, Puy became another player to win championships across different types of venues, and was also the third player among the "post-90s" players after Dimitrov and Thiem; and
After him, it took another five years for another player to accomplish such a feat.
It can be seen from here that Puy can perfectly adapt to different venues. His batting style and game type have the ability to open up situations on different types of courts.
In fact, Puy's favorite court is the hard court. The best performance in his career was at the Australian Open, and the first breakthroughs in his career were at Wimbledon and the US Open.
On the contrary, at the French Open, his best career results were only two third-round appearances.
It can be seen that Puy is a player more suitable for fast pitches.
But is it really so?
Before reaching the semi-finals of the 2019 Australian Open, Puy's career record at the Australian Open was five first-round exits, and it was hard to win.
Before and after his breakthroughs at Wimbledon and the US Open, Puy's performances here were generally in the second and third rounds.
As for the French Open, although he has never been able to break through the third round and was eliminated in the first round four times, his wins at the French Open are the most among the four Grand Slams.
In other words, Puy's personal preference is indeed fast courts; but his playing style is indeed universal and performs well on any court; at the same time, he grew up on clay courts since he was a child. Although he is not good at clay courts,
The understanding and habits are still engraved in the batting swing.
In Monte Carlo, Puy was able to defeat Thiem, the future "Little Prince of Clay", which is the best proof.
For Gao Wen, he missed the opportunity to meet Tim on clay, but when facing Puy, he also needs to go all out and his mentality must be correct——
On the hard court, there is no need to adapt or adjust, everything is about the opponent and yourself.
On clay, in addition to the opponents, the venue and environment will also become part of the game. Everything is new, and the mentality will naturally be different.
In fact, to be precise, this is not the clay court debut of Gao Wen's career in the strict sense, but the first round of the doubles event.
Before entering the singles arena, the doubles partner of Gao Wen and Dimitrov had already made their debut on clay at the Monte Carlo Masters.
In the first round of the doubles, Gao Wen's combination faced another young "post-90s" combination:
Henri-Kontinen from Finland, born in 1990; Marin-Draganja from Croatia, born in 1991.
It has been a few years since the two players entered the professional arena, but unfortunately, their performance in singles was mediocre, so they began to think about the way out for their careers. That is, around last year, they both moved into doubles, hoping to make a name for themselves here and continue their career.
own career.
At such a young age, he has completely given up singles, which also shows that he is indeed unsustainable and cannot even open up the situation in the challenge stage; but at the same time, because he is young, he dares to fight hard. With the support of his partner in the doubles arena, he slowly accumulates experience.
It is indeed a way out.
In this game, it can be seen that Dimitrov's state of mind has indeed changed and he has become more proactive. On the contrary, Gao Wen, who was playing officially on clay for the first time, seemed a little cautious, so Dimitrov took the initiative and took over.
Controlling the game, it's different from Indian Wells.
at last--
"6:1", "6:3".
The "two teams" of Gao Wen and Dimitrov started the journey smoothly, and the whole game took less than 90 minutes to get off to a good start with a complete victory.
Victory is a good thing at any time; but for Gao Wen, the only regret is that the time he spent batting on the court was too short and he did not adapt enough.
Therefore, it still takes some time for Gao Wen to switch from doubles to singles.
The first game directly proved that clay and hard courts are actually two different worlds.
Although they are both tennis, the content of the entire game is very different; moreover, practice matches and official matches are two different things, with different intensity!
"40:0".
In Puy's opening service game, he easily won four straight points and held serve in a "love-game", basically facing no challenges.
Gao Wen obviously hasn't figured it out yet. The route, landing point, and method of returning the ball are not clear enough, which means he hasn't thought about it well.
Immediately afterwards, Gawain's serve.
"40:40".
Although Gao Wen relied on the service cover to save two break points, he never saw the game point. In the end, Puy scored a straight forehand shot to complete the break point.
In the blink of an eye, the score of the first set reached "2:0", with Puy taking the lead.
Of course, Gao Wen has faced such difficulties more than once on hard courts, but the reasons are completely different. Here, on clay, everything is unfamiliar.
Gawain, didn't panic.
If you just look at the score, there is nothing to be nervous about. The game is very long and there is still a lot of time. There is no need to panic just because of a break. Moreover, compared to hard courts, the service advantage is weakened on clay courts, so breaks are more important on clay courts.
It's common, there will be opportunities later.
What Gawain really cares about is the content of the game.
Pouilly, as expected——
First, his ability to use force to hit the ball is very outstanding, and he also has the ability to actively exert force on his own, with a sharp forehand. However, Puy does not rely entirely on his muscles to exert force, but relies on increasing the speed of the racket head to increase the number of shots.
The rhythm is somewhat similar to Murray's, relying on speed to create suppression.
Second, his ability to grab the ball is very outstanding. Overall, this is Puy's style. According to the bounce height of the return ball, he can grab the ball in his own style and method at any time.
His height is 185 centimeters. Although he is not tall, he is taller than Kei Nishikori, so he does not need to work as hard as Kei Nishikori, and his physical fitness is also stronger, which also means that he can easily increase the pace of the game.
Get up, the faster the better, he really enjoys the rapid back and forth collision.
Of course, the premise is that he relies on speed to form suppression, forcing the opponent into a trap, completing the return according to his own design, and omitting the time to predict; otherwise, once the opponent finds an opportunity to break the routine, he will fall into passivity. What does this mean?
?
Puy is a player with a very strong tactical design. He has an instinct that can lay out the speed and line of tennis in a flash and improve the entire rhythm; but at the same time, Puy is also a player who lacks inspiration and changes.
A player has only one set of tactics and no alternative tactics. Once the tactics are disrupted, the situation will be overturned.
Therefore, Pui simply kept speeding up, speeding up, and speeding up again, but in terms of adapting to situations, he was far less versatile than Kei Nishikori.
In addition, not only Pui, but also Gawain himself needs to review.
If it is a hard court, Gao Wen can often suppress and break the balance by pressing the ball deeply, but on clay, this method does not work.
Firstly, the speed of the ball slows down; secondly, after the landing point is pressed deeper, the height of the bounce also gives the opponent time to react.
Especially when facing Puy, who can grab the ball no matter what the ball is, and subtly hide the rhythm changes in his ever-increasing speed of the batting round, hard court tactics will not work.
So, what should Gawain do?
The first singles match on clay court brought a new experience.