Balanced, average and stable, this is the intuitive feeling of the 2015 French Open men's singles draw.
First, the bright players in the four divisions are evenly distributed.
Secondly, the advancement routes for the top eight seeded players in the first four rounds are relatively balanced. No player has an especially easy time, but no player has a particularly difficult time either.
Thanks to this, the distribution of draws in the first three rounds appears to be extremely balanced. Leaving aside the top eight seeds, there are many matchups worthy of attention:
In other words, blue-collar players or stars of tomorrow who are close in strength may meet first. After winning, they can win the opportunity to challenge the top eight seeds in the fourth round, avoiding a shocking upset to a large extent, and also ensuring the first three rounds.
The excitement of the game.
To be precise, in the first round alone, there were many focus matches.
"Coric vs Querrey", "Pospisil vs Sousa", "Istomin vs Kyrgios", "Goffin vs Krajinovic".
"Seppi vs. Isner", "Johnson vs. Garfield Lopez", "Karovic vs. Baghdatis".
Etc., etc.
All of these games will be staged in the first round and are evenly distributed in different positions in the four divisions, which is absolutely exciting.
In addition, "Dmitrov vs. Sock" is also a focus showdown.
For Dimitrov, this year's draw was not good and it was very, very tough. He met Sock in the first round, which was a tough nut. They met in the Monte Carlo doubles final not long ago, and Dimitrov won at that time.
But when I came to Roland Garros, the singles met again, everything was brand new.
If he can win, Dimitrov is likely to face the young Spanish player Busta in the second round, and will continue to encounter the impact of the new generation of players.
At the beginning of the year, Gao Wen encountered a youth storm in Melbourne; this time when he came to Paris, it was Dimitrov's turn, and every game was a tough battle.
However, the most noteworthy battle in the first round is the French Civil War:
"Pouille vs Mahut".
It is still a battle between the new generation and the Mesozoic. Judging from this year’s clay court season, the Mesozoic has risen in an all-round way, while the rising momentum of the new generation has hit a wall. But we don’t know whether the new generation can turn the situation around on the ultimate stage of the Clay Court Grand Slam.
Back to the main theme of the season.
In comparison, the first-round draws of the Big Four and Gao Wen are lucky, with almost no challenges——
Both Federer and Murray will play lucky losers.
Both Nadal and Gauvin will face wild card players.
Djokovic will face Finnish veteran Nieminen.
Although Nieminen wrote countless history for Finnish tennis when he was young and reached the highest ranking of 13 in the world, this veteran's career has come to an end. Earlier, he announced that he will retire after the US Open.
, this time at the French Open, it may be difficult to pose a threat to the world's No. 1 player.
Obviously, the four giants and Gauvin have pretty good fortunes and may not face too many challenges entering the first round of a Grand Slam.
In fact, they are not the only ones——
Kei Nishikori and Berdych's opponents in the first round are qualifiers, while Ferrer will face a low-ranked player who has only won one game at the French Open in his career.
In other words, the top eight seeded players all had good draws. This situation has not been seen at the French Open for many years, which once again proves the balance of this year's draws.
The real challenge should start from the second and third rounds one after another——
For example, Gawain.
On the other side, Dimitrov was surrounded by the youth storm and was continuously attacked by potential players born in the 1990s. There was a question mark over his performance.
Here, after Monte Carlo, Gao Wen and Tim once again have the opportunity to continue their careers against each other:
second round.
If Gao Wen and Tim can win smoothly in the first round, then these two good friends will compete in the second round, exactly like Monte Carlo.
Last time, Tim was in mediocre form and was upset in the first round. It was a pity that he missed the opportunity to face off against Gao Wen on the court. It was very, very regretful.
This time, Tim naturally hopes to seize the opportunity; moreover, this is the French Open, the ultimate stage that Tim has dreamed of since he was a child.
Entering the clay court season, Thiem, who is originally best at clay court, has been unable to find his form. His performance in warm-up matches was generally sluggish. He also realized the difficulty of the situation, so he has been training with matches. He did not take a break this week and went to France.
Nice, on the southern French Riviera, continues to compete.
There is no doubt that Thiem was looking forward to a top performance at Roland Garros, so he gave up the opportunity to adapt to the venue and continued to fight in Nice.
Currently, Tim has made it to the semi-finals and seems to have finally gotten back on track.
Tim is like this, and so is Gao Wen, who is looking forward to meeting his friends on clay for a duel; in addition, there are thousands of professionals and tennis enthusiasts who are also looking forward to this potential second-round showdown.
, can’t wait for this collision to take place.
Overall, the intensity of the competition continues to increase from round to round, fully in line with the spiral ladder model of Grand Slam status adjustment.
Judging purely from the draw, people have every reason to look forward to a wonderful event and once again look forward to the writing of history——
Among them are Chinese fans.
"oh……"
On the TV screen, when Sharapova personally pushed Nadal to the 4/4 area, Qiao Wangsheng wailed in disbelief and covered his forehead with his hands.
Not only him, but the entire bar was wailing.
Even though it was already eleven o'clock in the night in the East Eighth District, the bar was still bustling with a large number of fans, and the scene was as noisy as the World Cup.
It's incredible to say that this isn't even a formal competition, it's just a drawing ceremony——
People enjoy competitive sports and may gather together to watch games, but a drawing ceremony?
Are you serious?
Among the four Grand Slams, only the draw ceremonies for the Australian Open and the French Open are broadcast live around the world and are conducted under the spotlight. But honestly, how many people watch it?
I am afraid that even for the draw of the Champions League and World Cup, fans will only follow the live broadcast at their own homes and will not go to bars to watch.
When Qiao Wangsheng posted on the forum calling for fans to go to the bar for a party, he had no expectations at all. After all, the fan base of tennis was still too small, and the lottery ceremony was even less attractive. But he did not expect that the bar would actually flood in.
More than fifty people.
Crowded.
Completely breaking expectations not only proves Gao Wen's appeal in China at this time, but also proves the expectations and attention of the majority of fans for Gao Wen.
Even though this is clay, even though clay and hard courts are completely different things, and even though Gao Wen's performance in the warm-up match has dropped significantly, it still can't stop the enthusiasm of the fans. One by two, they flock to the bar and discuss the upcoming French Open.
A rolling heat wave.
Everyone is discussing, "Just avoid Nadal", "As long as we are not in the same division as Nadal" - the deterrent power of the King of Clay is still strong enough.
However, it just so happens that good things don’t work and bad things work—
For a moment, Qiao Wangsheng's heart stopped beating.