After nearly four hours of fierce battle, the physical condition of both players, Gawain and Wawrinka, was undergoing severe tests:
Different from the weather in Melbourne, Paris is not humid, but slightly muggy. Sweating is still very serious, and physical energy consumption has also accelerated significantly. Both players are using bananas and energy bars to refuel, but at this stage, the two players
The players are already gritting their teeth and persisting.
The most obvious thing is that due to the influence of physical fitness, both players focus more on their own serve and strive to keep serve first; coupled with the decline in physical fitness, the accuracy of the attack has fluctuated, and the number of mistakes has also increased significantly.
The number of rounds has been reduced.
One game for you, one game for me, the two players took turns to keep serve, and the process was very fast, with not many ties. They always maintained a staggered balance of power, and the game time was actually faster than the second set.
Then, Gao Wen, who served first in the deciding set, had a slight advantage. As long as he could keep serving, he could continue to put pressure on——
Unfortunately, it was Gawain who suffered the first break in the final set.
When the game entered the second half, both players had passed their physical limit and regained their offensive touch, and the confrontation became intense again.
It has to be said that today Wawrinka has indeed entered a super state, daring to fight and fighting hard, with a fiery touch. Once he enters his area of focus, his powerful and tough offense is unstoppable.
In the ninth game, Gao Wen served.
Wawrinka suddenly broke out and broke the balance with two unreasonable backhand attacks. One backhand was at a diagonal angle so that Gao Wen did not touch the ball at all.
The ball went out of bounds, and the sharp and powerful offense once again entered a state of no solution, tearing through the high-level and airtight defense and taking the lead in breaking serve.
As a result, Wawrinka not only took the lead in the final set for the first time, but also took the lead in winning the fifth game. The next game was to serve to win the game——
This is the second chance to serve for victory after the ninth game of the fourth set.
In the tenth game, Wawrinka served.
Gawain fought back and seized the opportunity when Wawrinka's hand was obviously slightly tightened. His aggressive attack raised his status to a higher level and refused to surrender.
"0:40".
After scoring four points in a row, Gao Wen gave Wawrinka a "love-game" to break serve strongly. Wawrinka evened the score again without even letting Wawrinka see the match point. This is also one of the advantages of serving first:
Even if you fall off a cliff, there is still a glimmer of hope.
Wawrinka was very dissatisfied with his performance and screamed directly at the coaching team in the players' box. He couldn't believe his performance.
Even the commentator was amazed,
"We should not forget that Gawain is continuing his strong performance of 19 consecutive Grand Slam wins. His belief, will and determination are strong enough."
"He refused to bow his head and refused to surrender. He was still fighting for victory."
The game returned to even balance, but the situation was completely different.
Score, "5:5".
This also means that the pressure in any subsequent service game will increase exponentially, and will continue to accumulate as the game continues. Any slack will lead to losing the entire game.
Both players' concentration was at its peak.
First, Gawain kept his hair; Wawrinka also kept his hair.
Secondly, Gawain's hair was guaranteed again, and Wawrinka's hair was also guaranteed.
"7:7".
The stalemate is still continuing, but there is no tie-break at this time, and it will officially enter a long-game tie-breaker. Either side must win two games in a row to win. The Philippe-Chatier Stadium is boiling——
A great game must have a great ending.
Following Melbourne Park at the beginning of the year, Gao Wen also presented a strong candidate for the best game of the year at Roland Garros, and the whole audience went into a carnival.
This is the first long-set decider in Gao Wen's career, and everything is new; while Wawrinka defeated Djokovic in a long set in Melbourne last year to advance to the semi-finals and finally win the championship, everything is familiar.
Now, this is a battle of wills.
In the fifteenth game, Gao Wen served.
At "30:30", Wawrinka and Gao Wen once again worked together to create an unparalleled super-long tug-of-war. Both players showed their ability to switch offense and defense and faced off on the tightrope.
This time, Wawrinka had the last laugh, breaking through Gawain's net blockade with a small backhand slash, incredibly winning the point and getting a break point.
Immediately afterwards, Wawrinka once again showed his violent attack. After three consecutive powerful forehand attacks, he ended the point with a straight backhand.
Break, success!
For the third time, Wawrinka got the chance to end the game through his own serve; but this time, people were not too excited, because at this stage, the players' physical fitness has gradually reached the limit, and the serve may become a weak link——
As the receiving side, the side often dares to take action and fight, and can seize the upper hand. This is true from the two players exchanging a serve at the end of the game to Wawrinka's break in the game just now.
The game has truly entered a stage of gritting one's teeth and persisting, and the suspense of victory or defeat is getting bigger and bigger.
In the 16th game, Wawrinka served.
Sure enough, Gao Wen saved a match point, which was also the sixth match point of the match, and relied on a straight forehand return serve to get the break point.
Then, at the critical moment, Wawrinka actually made a fatal double fault, handing over his third serve to win the game.
Some people may say, double fault? Is this some kind of international joke?
But in the actual game, the trouble of one's own physical strength and the impact of the opponent's return of serve, including the uncertainty caused by the tug-of-war of the round, lead to a sense of pressure that one hopes to establish an advantage in the first three shots through serving, which is brought about layer by layer.
Pressure can indeed easily lead to consecutive serving errors.
It is precisely because of this that a player like Isner who can still maintain the power of his serve even at this stage is a true serving master.
Both Gawain and Wawrinka's first-serve success rate in the long-term decisive stage is declining, and the average second-serve speed is also declining. This is an objective reality.
What's more, Gao Wen's feat of grabbing the break point by receiving the serve and ACE also made the pressure continue to rise. This led to Wawrinka's attempt to improve the threat of the second serve and the result was a bad mistake in the net -
When you hit the net, you try to exert force, press down, and hit flat, but you exert too much force and lose control.
Then--
"8:8".
The final set pushed the intensity of the showdown to the extreme in another form.
However, Gawain also failed to overcome the shackles brought by physical strength.
In his next service game, none of his first serves entered the zone, which also put him in the predicament of continuous impact on his second serve.
After struggling to save three break points and missing a game point, he still failed to save the fourth one. This time it was Gawain's own mistake——
The forehand went straight out of bounds.
Gawain stood there, looking up at the sky, very disappointed with his mistake, very, very disappointed. This should have been an opportunity to attack.