"Gawain: Sarkisian is the strongest opponent in the quarterfinals!"
"Gawain: I'm ready to lose."
"Gawain: Sarkisian has the ability to beat any player."
When Macdonald opened his Twitter account, he saw all the horrifying headlines from major media outlets, and his face was filled with shock and confusion:
What kind of painting style is this?
Something doesn't seem right!
And, that's not all.
"Gaowen is about to face a severe test in the quarterfinals, and Sarkeesian is likely to continue his upset journey."
"Dark horse VS even more dark horse! After Sakison's consecutive upsets, he is about to face the biggest dark horse in this season's United States Championship, Gao Wen. Who can have the last laugh?"
"The game is in conflict? Gawain's miraculous journey is about to end?"
"ESPN expert: This game may be the most difficult game for Gao Wen since arriving in Athens."
“Sports Column: Sarkisian’s odds of winning?”
"Gawain's nemesis appears, and the Bruins' new star faces a tough challenge."
Wait, wait, wait, what are these news headlines about?
What happened overnight? Why did all the media suddenly have the same tone, as if Gao Wen was really about to stop in the top eight?
They have never been treated like this since the beginning of the United States Championship——
In the first half, the Bruins were the clear favorites to win the championship and were favored all the way; in the second half, Gao Wen had already established a foothold with his performance in the team competition, and the singles competition was naturally favored by more experts. The news headlines were always smooth, but today The situation has changed suddenly, what happened?
"...Gawain, did I miss something?"
MacDonald blinked, unsure of what to respond.
Gawain didn't know why, and then he looked at Macdonald's mobile phone screen, briefly glanced at a few news headlines, and couldn't help but laugh happily.
"Oh, it's indeed what I said. They just used a magnifying glass to focus on the key words, but the basic fact is this."
Looking at Gawain with a smile on his face, he seemed to have no nervousness at all, which made Macdonald relax a little, but he still asked nervously.
"But, Gawain, is Sarkisian really that difficult to deal with? Do you need to learn from Clay and Marcus?"
"Mike, this is what a tennis match is. Every match is brand new, because the state and strength are changing, and the game between the two sides is always changing. Sarkisian was able to break through three levels in Athens and reach the quarterfinals. , which means that he is in good condition now and naturally needs attention."
Gawain answered very seriously, paused, and then gave a slight reminder.
"You too, we are going to have a tough fight today. Hess-Olesen is the only seed besides Marcos. Are you ready for a tough fight?"
When the game reached the quarterfinals, there were only two seeds left among the sixteen, all in the top half, namely Marcos Giron of UCLA and Solon Hess of the University of Texas. -Soren-Hess-Olesen.
If MacDonald and Geelong want to meet the semi-finals, MacDonald must pass the Hess-Oleson hurdle today.
In his last life, Macdonald unfortunately stopped in the quarterfinals.
But objectively speaking, MacDonald is only a freshman this year, and he does not have the help of the system like Gao Wen. He does need more time to grow slowly and steadily form his own playing style.
According to the original trajectory, after two years of hard work, he successfully reached the national singles championship in his junior year, and then turned professional and started a new life.
MacDonald also has his own development trajectory, so Gawain only gave a slight reminder——
Maybe this little butterfly changed history and could also change Macdonald's trajectory? See if you can bring any surprises.
MacDonald nodded in the affirmative.
"I know."
"Huh... I'm also looking forward to today's game."
Confronting a powerful enemy inspired a more high-spirited and burning fighting spirit, which was really exciting, and MacDonald was eager to give it a try.
"But, Gawain, what happened to Sarkisian?"
Sakissian, whose full name is Alexander-Sakissian, why does he get so much attention?
In fact, Gawain and MacDonald are no strangers to Sarkisian.
Sarkisian comes from Pepperdine University, which is also a university located in Los Angeles, located on Malibu Beach. It is a Catholic college affiliated with the NCAA Division I West Coast Conference.
Pepperdine University's strongest program is golf, which is a strong contender for championships in the NCAA every year, but tennis is mediocre overall. Relatively speaking, women's tennis is stronger, but the overall performance of men's tennis is lackluster.
This season, UCLA and Pepperdine University have played against each other twice in the regular season, once at home and away. The scores in both games were "4:0". The Bruins defeated their opponents without any blood and had almost no encounters. What a challenge, the whole process was very easy.
Sarkisian is Pepperdine University's undisputed No. 1 singles player, ranked 36th in the country. In the two regular season matches, against Thompson and Geelong respectively, she lost four sets in a row, losing both games, and her performance was mediocre.
Simply put, Sarkeeson is a player they don't pay special attention to.
However, entering the singles competition stage of the United States Championship, Sarkeeson shone brightly and stood out from the trend of dark horses shining in Athens. He became the dark horse among the dark horses and was known as the "Black Mark Star".
In the first round, the No. 13 seed was knocked out.
In the second round, he defeated another dark horse who had an upset victory in the first round.
In the third round, he faced another dark horse. The player from the University of Minnesota defeated Domyan and Libitis to advance to the third round, "dark horse VS dark horse", and then Sarkisian won again.
So Sarkisian came to Gawain.
According to the development trajectory of the previous life, Gawain was absent from the singles match of the United States Championship. In the second half, Sarkeeson truly interpreted the title of "Dark Horse", and then defeated two dark horses in a row and reached the finals in one go. Facing Geelong across the net, the championship competition begins.
However, Geelong is not a "dark horse", but the only remaining seeded player. As a result, the light of Sarkisian's "dark horse" has dimmed. He failed to win the game and unfortunately lost to Geelong, ending his run in the National Championship. A miraculous journey in the singles arena.
As Gao Wen said in an interview, regardless of the national ranking, Sarkisian was indeed in excellent condition and hot in the singles competition this week. Coupled with a little bit of luck, in the draw of the Siberian cold wave, The miraculous journey of "Black Mark Star" was also staged.
Now, the trajectory of history has changed slightly.
After Sarkisian defeated dark horses in succession, he came before Gawain, the "King of Dark Horses" in Athens this year. Between the two dark horses, who can continue to be dark horses will definitely be the focus.
Moreover, from a paper analysis, Sarkeeson's playing style restrains Gawain to a certain extent, which is also an important reason why the news media is so lively.
