At the moment when he was about to touch the ball, Gao Wen changed the way he hit the ball and used an unconventional cut to cut the ball from the baseline into a small ball in front of the net.
Unexpected!
In fact, the quality of Gawain's small ball was unsatisfactory. In order to fool Nishikori Kei with a fake move, it was already difficult to offload and control the baseline lob, and it was even more difficult to control the racket face; and Gawain's small ball was extremely difficult to control.
His ability is indeed average, but as a result, he cannot control the arc of the ball in front of the net well——
If it's too long, the landing point is deep in the teeing area; if it's too high, the force is not released at all, and there is still room left after the rebound.
but!
Very very unexpected!
He completely deceived Kei Nishikori with a fake move that looked real. Kei Nishikori, who was concentrating on running to defend, was shaken by a shot. He shifted his focus and restarted his pace obviously slower. Although he changed his running route immediately, Gawain's
The ball missed the target by a carbine, forcing Kei Nishikori to make a sharp turn and come back as if he was drifting. His steps were obviously a little confused.
After all, it was still a little slow.
After landing and two jumps, Kei Nishikori was helpless. He looked up at the bouncing tennis ball and sighed.
boom!
The counter-break was successful!
In this quarterfinal match, both sides exchanged a serve in the opening stage, but... wait! How did Gao Wen successfully break serve?
Judging from the batting selection and route layout, Gawain's game was indeed a bit ridiculous, and Kei Nishikori was the one who took the initiative. What's going on?
A layman watching the excitement, an expert watching the door. Agassi reacted immediately and involuntarily leaned forward slightly. He thought Gawain's game was a bit interesting.
If someone asked Kei Nishikori, among the Big Four, which player does he least like to face?
The answer may be a little surprising. Judging from the data, it should be Andy Murray.
As of 2021, Kei Nishikori has been completely defeated in the face of the Big Four. Like most players, this is not surprising. What is worth noting is the specific record——
Facing Federer, it was three wins and eight losses, facing Nadal, it was two wins and 12 losses, facing Djokovic, it was two wins and 18 losses, and facing Murray, it was two wins and nine losses. From this point of view, the Jin
Kei Kei lost the most to Djokovic and won the most to Federer.
But if you adjust the time point, as of 2014, the data is slightly different——
He has two wins and two losses against Federer and Djokovic, seven consecutive defeats against Nadal, and three consecutive losses against Murray. In other words, Nishikori Kei’s style of play is indeed not afraid of confrontation.
Federer and Djokovic.
Among them, Nadal lost the most, and a win was hard to come by, but as mentioned before, Kei Nishikori's point-grabbing style always made Nadal very uncomfortable, and the scores were often very close.
However, facing Murray was a different story. In a total of seven sets during the three-game losing streak, Kei Nishikori not only failed to win a single set, but also only managed 14 games, including two sweet gold medals.
A circle and a dough stick, he was simply in a state of being crushed. Even at the peak of his competitive state, Murray was a pain in the neck for Kei Nishikori.
Looking at Kei Nishikori's games against the Big Four, most of the sets he lost "0:6" or "1:6" came from Murray.
why?
In fact, it is not complicated. Kei Nishikori is a player with excellent ball feel and touch. Facing the hitting methods of Federer and Djokovic, he can wrap the ball at both ends of the offense and defense, and can not only create mistakes for his opponents
, and can often hit magic balls with amazing skills.
Moreover, under the training of Zhang Depei, Nishikori Kei began to learn to use his strengths and avoid weaknesses. In order to make up for his shortcomings, he often needed to use his brain to complete the line layout, creating traps one after another, forcing the opponent to enter his own routine, and then he completed it
The winning shot.
The key is here. Murray is a master tactician. His game is to clear mines. How to lay mines and how to defuse them are all running in his brain at high speed. In terms of pure tactical layout, Murray can also do it among the Big Four.
Dominance, coupled with his ability to balance both offense and defense, makes Murray's game very rich and complex.
Kei Nishikori, it will be very difficult to break through Murray's tactical blockade——
To put it simply, it's like a chess game, Kei Nishikori can't beat Murray.
Now, facing Gawain, Nishikori Kei also feels like this:
Calculations and counter-calculations, suppression and counter-suppression, the two players' batting layouts, Gawain always seems to be slightly one and a half steps ahead of Nishikori Kei.
The break point in Kei Nishikori's service game was like this. Both sides were "calculating", but in the end it was Gawain who counted the last shot and broke serve.
Agassi was finally able to understand the reason why Sampras was so stable. Gawain's test was not a nonsense. Everything was planned. It was an attempt, an interference, or an impact. At the beginning of the game,
In this stage, the error tolerance rate is relatively high, so Gawain is more bold and adventurous, and continues to test.
Kei Nishikori really, really dislikes this feeling, not only because the initiative is out of his control, but also because his rhythm has been disrupted; however, Kei Nishikori is indeed in good form this year, with more than one or two magical goals in both offense and defense.
One, seems to have a feeling of being able to fight no matter how hard he fights.
It is precisely because of this that the game between the two players is not like a direct punch to the flesh on the boxing ring, but more like an elusive insidious attack amidst the light and shadow of swords. Both players are trying to take the initiative and change the rhythm of the game.
Drag into your familiar routine and see whose computing power is more advanced——
No, this is slightly less accurate.
Now it can be seen that Gawain's calculations are ahead of Kei Nishikori, while Kei Nishikori is trying to find ways to deal with them, but because Kei Nishikori's touch is really good, he not only resolves many of Gawain's traps, but is also able to hit out
The incredible return made all Gawain's plans fail.
Does the east wind prevail over the west wind, or does the west wind overpower the east wind?
"1:1", "2:2", "3:3", after exchanging a service game at the beginning, the two players each maintained two service games and still maintained balance.
But it can be seen that Gawain's serve still has a slight advantage. He established offensive opportunities through changeable service combinations, and then scored points strongly. After the first game, he never sent a break point, while Nishikori Kei's serve
As always, it withstood huge firepower, and Gao Wen was able to score at least two points.
Then, after Gawain held another serve and took a "4:3" lead, the situation changed subtly. This time Gawain got another break point in Nishikori Kei's serve.
So far, Kei Nishikori has had break points in three of his four service games. In the previous two times, one was broken and the other was saved. So what about this time?
Zone 2, outer corner.
Kei Nishikori chose to suppress Gawain's backhand, but his serve speed was only 103 miles (166 kilometers) per hour——
This is a shot!
It can be clearly seen that at the critical moment, Kei Nishikori's serve was not only not strong, but also obviously weak. The priority was to ensure the first-server scoring rate.