Roberto-Bautista-Agut, born in 1988, Spanish player, currently ranked 16th in the world.
When people mention Spanish players, "clay court experts" are often the first impression, from Moya to Ferrero to Nadal, all of them are like this; and, in addition to these top players, there are also clay court players in the Spanish army.
There are a lot of them, and the home court of the Davis Cup is also on clay.
However, among a group of clay court masters, there are also some outliers, such as Fey Lopez, who is good at grass, Busta, who is good at hard courts, and so on.
Agut is also a special case——
He is good at hard courts.
As of 2022, Agut has won a total of 11 singles championship trophies in his career, eight on hard courts, two on clay, and one on grass.
In addition to this, Agut has also reached ten finals in his career, but unfortunately finished second, eight times on hard courts, once on grass, and only once on clay.
It's clear at a glance.
It is obvious that Agut is a hard court master. His basic skills in baseline hitting are very solid, and he has strong resistance to blows on both his forehand and backhand. Although he is not good at exerting force, he can use the force to complete the line change.
But he is definitely one of the top ten players in the world, capable of both offense and defense.
In Agut's career, he has defeated the top ten players in the world many times, including Murray, Wawrinka, Berdych, Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Thiem, etc., but he is the most brilliant and the most successful.
The shining feat is to win three consecutive victories against world No. 1 Djokovic on hard courts.
Shanghai in 2016, Doha in 2019, and Miami in 2019.
Three times, all were on hard courts, and two of them were on the stage of the Masters; moreover, Djokovic was ranked No. 1 in the world and was in good form, but Agut still proved his ability to hit the baseline.
Perhaps Agut has never been the brightest star on the tour. His best results in Grand Slam tournaments are a Wimbledon semi-final and an Australian Open semi-final. But he is definitely a strong opponent that any player needs to be wary of.
Being able to advance to the fourth round every time is the best proof.
In terms of technical characteristics, Agut is good at flat shots and is indeed more suitable for hard courts. When he comes to clay, the power of his baseline shots will be weakened. Djokovic faced Agut during his three-game losing streak on hard courts.
, in fact, he defeated Agut twice on clay, which explains the problem.
However, if you think that Agut will be easy to bully when he comes to the clay court, you are absolutely wrong.
In the quarterfinals, Gao Wen will face Agut and face a severe test.
This game is indeed full of challenges——
The biggest feature of Agut's batting is his solidity.
From the analysis of data such as strength and speed, Agut's batting seems to have no characteristics, not strong, not fast, and stable; but when you really stand on the court, you can feel that Agut's basic skills are solid and his power is complete.
So the combined force of the entire shot is very good.
The return of the ball does not look fast or heavy, but the tail force has a strong sense of squeezing.
Although he lacks some impact and explosive power, unlike Wawrinka and Del Potro, who can break the game with one shot, Agut focuses on stability:
He can continuously output firepower, excellent movement, accurate prediction and delicate technique, ensuring that he can maintain the quality of the ball in the round ball confrontation, and push back all the attacks wave after wave.
And he used his strength to return all the attacks.
Moreover, Agut's batting may seem to have no characteristics on the surface, lacking variety and skills, but in fact, it is definitely not the case.
Come on, top.
In fact, it can also be said to be "squeezing" or "impact".
From a certain point of view, Agut's baseline shots are somewhat similar to those of the later women's world No. 1 Simona Halep. Both people's shots are constantly pushing back, suppressing and squeezing their opponents through force and placement.
of swing space, and then accumulate this squeeze layer by layer.
As a result, the opponent will feel a "pressing" feeling, the tennis ball is pushing against the racket, so that his elbow is against his stomach and cannot stretch.
Once, twice, three times... over time, the quality of the return will continue to decline. This is also an important reason why Agut was able to beat Djokovic three times in a row.
Second, borrow strength.
Agut himself is not a strong and explosive player, and he often encounters force suppression, but he is good at leveraging strength.
By borrowing force, he can compress his batting rhythm, almost like hitting a rebound ball, with a fast beat and a quick tear, and he can complete the ball in an instant.
Moreover, when borrowing strength, he can take advantage of the situation to open up angles or change lines. This ability to overcome rigidity with softness is a trump card.
It is precisely because of this that Agut is more suitable for hard courts. He needs to make full use of speed and rhythm. But when he comes to clay, the speed is slowed down and the rotation effect is amplified. It is difficult for him to control the rebound with the force of the hit.
The ball is parabolic, and it is difficult to increase the rhythm and speed of returning the ball.
However, the basic skills are there. The upper limit may not be high, but the lower limit is not low.
Gawain was in a bitter battle.
"6:3", "2:6", "6:1".
The whole match lasted two hours and twenty-three minutes, and the progress of the match was far more difficult than the score. In the end, Gao Wen fought fiercely for three sets. In the final set, Gao Wen improved his condition and firmly controlled the match. He defeated Agut and advanced to the semi-finals with great strides. Finally,
An important victory came on the clay court.
In this game, victory is very important, very, very important, but more importantly, the strong confrontation with Agut's bottom line and his good performance.
As we all know, clay court events are often prone to a tug-of-war on the bottom line. The most important thing is the hitting ability in the bottom round, especially the ability to switch offense and defense. The requirements are stricter than those on hard courts and grass. If the basic skills of the bottom line are not solid enough, then
It will all be exposed on the clay court.
Facing a baseline master like Agut, they didn't have much fighting skills in front of the net, but Gao Wen really showed his form at the bottom line and was very popular.
In the long run, Gao Wen needs such games, and more than one or two games, to complete the clay court trial.
really!
Facts quickly proved this point of view.
Immediately afterwards, the semi-finals battle.
Gao Wen faced Slovak player Martin-Klizan, a player who rocketed up the world rankings last year.
Born in 1989, the world ranking at the beginning of last year was still outside the 100th place, but now he has reached the 24th, continuing to refresh his personal career best; and last year he defeated Fognini, Kei Nishikori and other players.
With good performance, he can be regarded as a member of "Challenger Storm".
However, facing Gawain, Krizan's baseline hitting was completely unable to keep up, and his performance throughout the game was continuously suppressed, becoming a direct witness of Gawain's progress on clay -
"6:2", "6:1".
Gao Wen only lost three games and the whole match only lasted 73 minutes. He had already entered the singles final of the fifth event of the season with his head held high.
This time, Gao Wen is about to face a familiar old opponent in the final——
Kei Nishikori.
The current Asia’s No. 1 brother and No. 2 brother face off again.
But wait, Kei Nishikori? How could it be Kei Nishikori?