You don't need to close your eyes to feel the force of your heart hitting your chest. The anticipation and excitement are surging like hot spring water. The temperature of your blood and skin is also rising slowly. There is a faint numbness coming from your fingertips.
A little throbbing, slowly spreading in the air.
Even though I have experienced three Grand Slam finals, even though I stepped on this court last year, today is still different.
This is the year-end finals. This is the stage where the eight players with the best performance throughout the year compete on the same stage. This is the ultimate decisive battle that ends the season. This is the space where the purest and most essential charm of competitive sports shines.
, exists just like the World Cup and Olympic Games.
Every appearance, every contest, every collision is a new challenge.
But this time, he did not appear as a substitute, but made an official appearance as the second seed and became a part of this grand event.
The state of mind undergoes transformation silently.
Even three months ago, in Flushing, Gao Wen still placed himself in the position of challenger and attacker. He not only faced giants such as Federer and Djokovic, but also faced them as the defending champion.
With all the challenges and competitions, that mentality still needs to be learned from scratch.
But now, Gao Wen believes that he can already compare with these top masters.
Not because of the praise from the "Fifth Giant" in the media, but because of the victories one after another, among which the two victories at the defending US Open and the Paris Masters were the most important. They completely established Gao Wen's confidence and believed that he could win.
Defeat anyone and believe you are on top of the world.
Last year, at the O2 Arena, he was the challenger.
This year, at the O2 Arena, he is a competitor.
A little change in mentality, a little transformation, but you can see the change of the whole person's temperament from the inside out——
This is the first time that Gawain truly exudes the energy of a giant.
expect.
Jumping for joy.
Excited.
He was happy because he could compete with the masters, and he was excited because he could continue to challenge the limits. The energy transmitted by his heartbeat made Gawain slowly focus. He was already focused on the game before his official debut, completely entering the competitive mode.
The high morale burned quietly.
Go all out and fight without stopping——
He is ready to fight.
It is precisely because of this that from the first game of the game, Gao Wen quickly entered the state and was fully competitive.
After all, this is the year-end finals, every round is a fierce battle, and there is no time to proceed step by step; what's more, Wawrinka is facing each other across the net today!
Perhaps, the media and netizens may look down on Wawrinka's condition, but Gao Wen will not.
In fact, since Roland Garros defeated Federer, Gawain, and Djokovic in succession to win the championship, Wawrinka has shown a slight lack of ability.
Starting from Wimbledon and continuing all the way to the European indoor hard court season, the overall performance was unsatisfactory.
In fact, it is not that Wawrinka did not perform well, but that people demand Wawrinka with different specifications and different standards. After all, he is a two-time Grand Slam champion. This is the same as Gawain. Wawrinka is also under a lot of pressure.
, the position and mentality have quietly undergone huge changes.
Naturally, when Wawrinka stepped onto the court, the whole feeling was different.
After winning the Australian Open last year, the situation changed; after winning the French Open this year, the situation changed again.
Wawrinka had to slowly adjust again and again. The situations he faced each time were similar but slightly different. This was a long process.
Throughout the Asian season and the European indoor hard court season, Wawrinka's performance was unsatisfactory. Losing was a problem, and defeat was even more of a problem.
It wasn't until the Paris Masters, when Wawrinka defeated Nadal in a double tie-break that he made a strong comeback at the end of the season, that people finally saw some of his recovery.
However, in Gawain's view, one should never underestimate Wawrinka's explosive power.
Whether it was the Australian Open last year or the French Open this year, Wawrinka burst out with incredible energy even when he was not expected to do so. He overturned and counterattacked continuously, and finally won the championship by defeating the two giants. Only then did he gradually
This is the grand prelude to the all-round rise of the Challenger Alliance.
Coming to London, Wawrinka is an "unknown factor", especially in the Ilye-Nastase group, the future is even more unpredictable.
Sampras and Agassi analyzed Wawrinka's recent games in detail. Contrary to expectations, Wawrinka had problems not with his backhand, but with his forehand -
Of course, offense is a system, and tennis is a sport that affects the whole body. There are often complex reasons behind problems in one link, just like Wawrinka. In fact, the accuracy of his backhand attack has also declined, but in Sampdoria
According to Lars and Agassi, the forehand is fundamental.
Wawrinka's backhand can often become a weapon to break the balance in a passive situation, but in fact, Wawrinka's forehand is the source of the attack; at the same time, Wawrinka's forehand is still stable and strong, so including Gao Wen
, often choose to break through from his backhand.
But in the past few months, the stability of Wawrinka's forehand has declined, and he is somewhat unable to hold down the ball——
That means I can't stand spinning.
He often exerts too much force. The so-called exertion means using force to suppress the spin and launch an attack unreasonably. However, the reason why he exerts too much force is because the batting feel cannot withstand the rotation. Delicate control is not Wawrinka's strong point, so he tends to
In order to increase strength, this leads to loss of control.
Therefore, it has been very difficult for Wawrinka to meet Nadal in the recent period.
Even when the Paris Masters achieved revenge, the score was a double tie-break, and the scores in both sets were very close. The premise is that these are indoor hard court games, Nadal's spin has been greatly weakened, and the power is far from the usual hard court.
Comparable to the ground, Wawrinka is still struggling.
From Basel to Paris and then to London, Wawrinka has been adjusting. However, running into Gawain in the first game is not good news for Wawrinka.
Although Gawain's understanding of spin is not as good as Nadal's, Gawain's tactics are changeable, his skills are rich, and his interpretation of indoor hard courts is better than Nadal's.
and!
Gawain has not forgotten the regrettable defeat at Roland Garros. He knows that Wawrinka's energy can still defeat people even on clay, let alone indoor hard courts, so he is fully alert and vigilant.
From the beginning of the first game, he took the initiative and restricted Wawrinka.
An attentive person like Zhan Jun noticed immediately——
"Gawain's whole playing style is different."
I can't describe it in detail, but Gawain standing on the court is indeed different.
In the first game, Gao Wen broke serve.
Wawrinka saved three break points but also missed one game point. Then on the fourth break point, his forehand failed to absorb the ball deep in the baseline, and the return ball went out of bounds. He suffered a break in the first game and fell into a trap.