"Receiving the ACE, Gao Wen fought in an extremely passive situation and hit an ACE to receive the serve, ending the point neatly."
"The situation has undergone subtle changes."
"In the last game, Gao Wen led '40:0' in his own serve, but was tied by Istomin; in this game, Istomin led '30:0' in his own serve.
'Leading the lead, and now being tied by Gao Wen, the atmosphere of the whole game is a bit subtle, and the fluctuations in mentality are very obvious."
"Wow!"
"Now the game has come to a critical moment. Although Istomin still leads the score, Gao Wen is pulling back bit by bit and the situation is still unclear."
"The next point is a test, for both players."
"From a psychological perspective, Gao Wen is undoubtedly the best player among the new generation of players in interpreting and grasping the game. He knows how to seize opportunities."
"But the key is that from a state perspective, Istomin is the dominant side in this game. This is his serve. We need to pay attention to one statistic. In today's game, he has not lost anything.
In the service game, there weren’t even many break points, only three.”
"So, how will the two players choose next?"
Buzz buzz...
The entire No. 2 Stadium quieted down again after a short period of noise. There was no sound at all. But it was precisely this quietness that made the tense and depressing atmosphere spread more and more. The heart that was hitting the chest so hard seemed to be about to explode at any time. The palms of the hands couldn't help but
A thin layer of sweat broke out.
"30:30".
Istomin felt the crisis, not the kind where his life was hanging by a thread, but the kind that was gradually approaching. He could still recover and change. Therefore, he did not panic for the time being. Instead, he stood firm and launched a vigorous counterattack.
After one point, I regained my offensive touch.
——Istomin firmly has the upper hand.
In the first area, a close serve, with a speed of 188 kilometers per hour, found the route accurately, successfully squeezed Gao Wen, and contained Gao Wen's serve attack. The quality of the return serve was also unsatisfactory, but against Is.
For Tomin, this was an opportunity to attack, so he took action without hesitation.
As mentioned before, Istomin's hitting is similar to Djokovic in some aspects. The most typical point is that he lacks explosive power.
Istomin's offense is not a ping-pong-pong, tiger-to-tiger type - of course, in terms of strength, he is better than Nishikori Kei, but his strength does not have sudden bursts of energy, and is often sustained.
The ground output is average, so his attacks tend to have a consistent rhythm.
In other words, there is a lack of combination of fast and slow, alternating changes of light and heavy, and the continuous output of power does not have the energy to reduce ten times with one force. In the end, suppression must be formed through the distribution of landing points, and finally by finding gaps and quick connections.
Looking for winning points.
In this game, Gao Wen failed to find the ball sense for a long time, so that he was unable to put enough pressure on Istomin on both offense and defense, and gave Istomin enough room to play, making himself passive.
Tomin's offense also scored frequently.
However, in this round, Gawain slightly changed some strategies——
Fight.
In fact, grass courts are not suitable for fighting. This is a classic tactic on clay courts:
Rely on landing point control to continuously send the tennis ball back to the opposite court; and rely on the combination of different hitting techniques to constantly test the opponent's offensive ability. Through long rounds, the offensive pressure will continue to accumulate and stack, and finally find opportunities for defensive counterattacks.
Gear up, turn around and win.
The same tactic, when used on a grass court, becomes extremely difficult due to the low-bouncing and fast-paced nature of the court, and it is easy to fall into a passive position.
To be precise, clay courts are suitable for a variety of styles. Although offensive players may have their advantages slightly weakened, they can still find a space; but grass courts are not. This is the world of offensive players, and defensive and counterattack players have almost no survival here.
space--
It can be said to be extreme, but it can also be said to be distinct.
From the moment he entered the grass court season, Sampras kept emphasizing that Gao Wen must forget all his clay court tactics and enter a new mode:
Attack, attack, attack again.
Gao Wen also did this in the first two sets of today's game, but the effect was not satisfactory. The main problem was the ball feel.
Gao Wen is a player who relies on his mind to play, so he began to think about how to adjust his game.
He believes that Sampras' tactics are correct and that offense is the correct way to open the grass court. He is not prepared to subvert or deny this. Otherwise, even if he is lucky enough to defeat Istomin and advance to the next round, the next game will be difficult.
He still needs to face the same problem.
However, when you have a poor sense of the ball, attacking rashly is like a headless fly. Not only is it ineffective, but it will also make you passive, just like Kyrgios in the Queen's Club Cup. There is no need to be high at all.
Wen took action and Kyrgios defeated himself.
Therefore, from the beginning of the third set, Gao Wen consciously increased the entanglement of the ball in the round and adjusted the rhythm of the game through the tactical combination of the baseline round.
On the one hand, looking for the feeling of the ball is also looking for the offensive touch; on the other hand, disrupting Istomin's rhythm and entering his own comfort zone as much as possible.
The effect can be seen directly from the score. In the third set, Gao Wen's set point reached five for the first time, which was a small improvement compared to the first two sets.
Although the speed is not fast, Gawain is indeed exploring his own grassland style——
Just like the clay court season, this requires a process, but this time Gao Wen must continue to complete this process on the stage of Wimbledon.
His eyes returned to the point in front of him.
The tug of war was a situation deliberately created by Gawain.
Gawain sensed Istomin's impatience and hoped to win this point and even this game as soon as possible, regain his footing, take the lead again, and try to throw the pressure off Gawain's side as much as possible.
Therefore, Gawain's first task was to stall the game, and through this tug-of-war, Istomin's turbulent emotions continued to ferment and remain uneasy.
Maybe, he can score this point, maybe not; but more important than the score is the layout, and he needs to shake Istomin's belief.
This is how the round ball was formed.
Originally, Istomin's attack was not explosive. If Gawain did not risk the attack, but contained Istomin's attack through distribution of landing points, then the back-and-forth back-and-forth would have easily ended in a stalemate——
The grass-court game was abruptly transformed into a clay-court game.
Back and forth.
Ten rounds.
Mutual exchange.
Fifteen rounds.
Deadlocked.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the 20th round. Istomin completely dominated the attack, but the line and landing point were not threatening, so he could not get out of the gap. Instead, he was mobilized by Gawain's placement distribution, and the two figures
Running all over the field, the balance was always maintained in the rounds that came and went without breaking the balance.
It can be clearly felt that the air is slowly getting stiffer——
