Kei Nishikori, like Gawain, both uses two-handed backhands, but Kei Nishikori’s backhand has a unique skill:
When his position is oppressed but he refuses to retreat and lose his position, that is, he must hit the rebound ball. Kei Nishikori can complete this shot with both forehand and backhand, and he will choose to hold the racket with one hand and rely on his wrist.
The muscles twitch slightly to complete a light and agile line change.
This is a unique skill that only Federer can perform regularly in the entire tour, but even Federer rarely changes his line when hitting rebound balls. However, Kei Nishikori has such an ability - he can also copy stickiness.
Repeated use of the stickers can even guarantee a certain success rate.
This is the talent of touch, as well as the talent of interpreting the three-dimensional space of the entire court.
On the third break point of Gawain's first service game, Kei Nishikori was extremely passive and made a straight line with a one-handed backhand that shocked everyone.
Gawain didn't expect it at all, he just rushed to the diagonal position to defend, but was caught off guard by Kei Nishikori.
Lost the first serve in the opening game.
Gao Wen was a little upset, not because his serve was broken, but because his hitting line layout was not careful enough and his prediction was wrong.
He needs to be more careful.
At the end of the first game, the venues are changed, and then the positions of the two players are swapped.
In Kei Nishikori's first serve game, Gawain was also very proactive——
Kei Nishikori is not the only one who is ready for this game.
First point.
In the first area, Kei Nishikori serves an outside corner. Due to limitations in height and strength, his serve speed has never been fast. The first serve speed is about 118 miles (190 kilometers) per hour. This is basically his average speed when he is in the best condition.
, if the physical strength drops, the speed will often drop rapidly.
Moreover, the most important thing is that compared to pure speed, Kei Nishikori's serve has limited tail power and ball quality. This is the biggest factor limiting the threat of the serve.
Kei Nishikori understands this, so he will more often choose to serve at wide angles, trying to avoid improper control of the close serve and directly hitting the target - the close serve is more of a secret weapon to disrupt the opponent.
Anticipated tactical use.
It can be seen from the outside corner at this time that the line change pressing on the outside of the service line bounces out high, trying to use the rebound height of the landing to limit the hitting position.
But Gao Wen's height of 193 centimeters is not afraid of this at all.
With one step and one swing, the conditioned reflex movements are very smooth. He raises his hand to complete a full forehand stroke, using the power of the stroke to blast the tennis ball back diagonally diagonally.
boom!
90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour)!
You can immediately see on the speedometer that the speed of Gawain's return is almost comparable to Kei Nishikori's second serve, which hits back like a cannonball.
Nishikori Kei's return speed was a little slower after his serving. He hurriedly stretched his forehand towards the triangle on the baseline. He had no time to swing the racket, so he could only barely block it for a beat, and then used his wrist movements to hit Gawain's shot.
All the power of the ball is removed.
If it were another player, there would be basically no next shot for this ball, and it might be a direct return serve to an ACE, because Gawain's racket head speed was so high that the speed of the return ball basically left no reaction time; but Nishikori
Kei relied on his conditioned reflex ability to touch the tennis ball.
And also completed the ball return!
Slowly. Slowly.
Seeing the tennis ball drawing a shallow arc like a feather, Gawain immediately started his steps and rushed over.
However!
Straight line! Kei Nishikori actually used his hand to cut a straight line.
Small ball! The unloaded force made the tennis ball almost stand still, flying over the net and then falling immediately.
Gawain's speed increased to the extreme, and he crossed the entire diagonal line of the court, barely catching up. However, the tennis ball had almost no bounce power after it hit the ground, which also left Gawain with no room to hit the ball, and it had already formed two jumps when he touched the ball.
pretty!
With one backhand and one forehand, Kei Nishikori really showed his fiery touch, and some seemingly impossible shots were actually performed before his eyes, initially showing the peak state that he achieved at the US Open this year.
Gawain also applauded Nishikori Kei's shot. This kind of inspired stroke is indeed worthy of appreciation.
But why does tennis need not be limited to one point?
This is because there are four points in a tennis game, and you must produce four wonderful performances to win a game. If you lose confidence because of one wonderful point, then the game will be out of your control.
Second point.
Gao Wen immediately changed his approach to catching the ball, cutting a beat very unexpectedly, but instead consciously slowed down his batting rhythm.
Many players who are not so strong and unable to suppress will use tactical cutting to change the rhythm when facing Kei Nishikori. Because Kei Nishikori's initiative is not very threatening, he can often win some initiative for himself.
.
But as the number of times gradually increased, Nishikori Kei also found a way. He would not take the initiative to exert force, but more to take the initiative to speed up, just like this time——
Kei Nishikori immediately increased his speed, took a step forward to enter the baseline, hit the rising point, raised his hand and hit the tennis ball back flatly, and the rhythm of the ball in the entire round immediately increased to a higher level.
As a result, this time, Gao Wen accurately predicted it in advance and waited in the backhand position. He used the strength of his backhand to increase the speed and hit a straight backhand.
Use quick to make quick!
boom!
Score directly!
Nishikori Kei couldn't keep up with his footsteps, and only when he noticed Gawain's movement did he realize that he had been deceived.
It turns out that cutting the return of serve was a trap created by Gawain. He deliberately used cutting to show weakness. Kei Nishikori, who had a weak serve, thought that he had escaped the passive situation in the first shot after serving and couldn't wait to increase the rhythm. Instead, it was because of the speed-up line selection of the first shot.
Nothing new, he was caught in the act by Gawain.
It has just begun, and Gawain has already entered the "experimental" stage——
This game is different from any previous games at this year's US Open, because Kei Nishikori himself is not a powerful player, and the entire hitting rhythm and strength are different. It is also different from Borrelli, who was born on clay. Originally, Gao Wen
He needed to re-adapt to the rhythm of the game, and Kei Nishikori's impact was not that obvious, so Gawain returned to the mode he was most familiar with.
Experiment with batting.
He continued to use different hitting combinations to test his opponent's response plan, and even some changes made no sense at all, but Gawain did this, even Nishikori Kei was confused.
What's more, he actually dared to do this even after Gao Wen lost his first serve.
Everyone including the commentator, the audience, and Kei Nishikori are full of questions:
What's wrong with Gawain? Is he acting abnormally?
Even Agassi, who appeared in the player's box again, was confused. He looked at his old friend, but Sampras looked like he was sitting on a fishing platform and said, "No rush, no rush, just keep reading and you'll find out."