"Set, high, 6:2".
The referee's voice echoed over Court No. 1, announcing the final score of the first set amidst the roar of the audience.
Gawain, play the next game first.
Zverev was never able to find his touch in the opening stage. To be precise, he was never able to find an effective means of scoring. His shots lacked purpose, and he just blindly exerted force and returned the ball blindly. Only his body was moving on the court. At bat, the mind is not spinning.
To put it simply, it is the playing style of teenagers, which is not much different from the NCAA. They only rely on physical talent to hit the ball.
This kind of game is very familiar to Gawain. Even if little Zverev is extremely talented and is better than Salamento, he can't really shake Gawain's ability to control the game. After all, little Zverev's power and explosiveness are His shortcomings cannot suppress Gawain.
So, he first protected and then broke, and then protected and then broke, "4:0", Gao Wen gained an absolute advantage in the opening stage.
At the end of the first set, Zverev finally calmed down a little, found the state of his serve, and sent out consecutive ACEs, thus completing his first serve. However, the score in the first set was too far behind, and he could no longer catch up. In the end, Gao Wen won the first set firmly.
Is this the standard ending?
In this year's Binghamton Challenge, Zverev was always like this. In the first four rounds, in the first and third rounds, he inexplicably lost the first set victory and then won two consecutive sets to advance. The first round of the match was a straight-sets affair, but the first set was inextricably close, and it took until the semifinals to regain form.
Slow to start, this seems to have become Zverev's label, and the local audience in Binghamton has become accustomed to it.
At this time, seeing Zverev losing the first set against Gao Wen, the audience was bustling and shouting.
"Please, Sasha, wake up, don't sleep."
"Sasha, are you sober now?"
"Routine, routine, I've read this script, Sasha."
"Can you change the script, Sasha, this one doesn't look good now."
"Sasha, best actor, Oscar winner!"
Hahaha.
The audience burst into laughter and laughed at little Zverev. Because the script was so familiar, the audience was not too surprised. Just look at the last four games of the first set and you will know that little Zverev has gradually recovered. state, this also means that the second set should be good to watch, so they still have the heart to joke——
Although the first set was almost a waste.
But to little Zverev, it wasn't funny at all.
How can it be? How could this be?
He actually lost the first set against that nobody worth mentioning, and in such a humiliating way? This is simply a shame!
Hearing the roar of laughter at the scene, Zverev's first reaction was to shut them up, but his remaining reason told him that this was inappropriate, so what should he do?
Bang! Bang bang bang!
Zverev slammed the racket to the ground hard, once! Twice! Three times! Then the racket was smashed into a twisted shape and could no longer be used, and then he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Angrily returning to the players' dugout, Zverev grabbed a bottle of mineral water and drank it down. The veins on his arms popped out and it could still be seen that his anger was still lingering, but his brain finally calmed down a little. He needed to Think about it carefully, how did you lose the first set?
Is it really just a slow heat?
Because the last game of the first set was Gawain's serve, the second set started with Zverev's serve. Zverev finally got his wish and took the lead in serving.
Ping ping ping pong.
In the blink of an eye, Zverev had already taken a "30:0" lead, continuing his good state at the end of the first set. Although there was a mistake in the next point, he still maintained a "30:15" lead.
Variety?
Zverev has indeed made changes, mainly in two points. The first point is to strengthen his serve. The first point in the second set was an ACE ball. He does have such ability; the second point is to take the initiative to attack. Or in other words, taking the initiative.
Although strength and explosiveness are Zverev's shortcomings, they are only relative. In fact, he still has the ability to actively attack, even if he cannot compete with violent players like Del Potro, Kyrgios, and Safin. He has the same level of potential as a first-class player.
The three points in this game, except for the two points of ACE, were all led by Zverev. He scored once and made a mistake once.
Little Zverev is changing, while Gawain is judging: What do these signs mean?
It shows that Zverev, who is only seventeen years old, still has insufficient reading ability of the game and has not yet grown up. His summary and judgment of the first set is:
I don’t exert enough effort on my own.
Because the power level was not suppressed enough and Gao Wen was not able to bring enough impact, he repeatedly fell into passivity, so he began to exert force, improve the release of power in both the serve and forehand links, and the number of active attacks also increased significantly.
Is this judgment correct?
Can't say it's wrong.
At least for superficial reasons, Zverev Jr. failed to create more pressure on Gao Wen on the offensive end in the first set, which indeed allowed Gao Wen to deploy his hands and feet.
But the essential reason is the layout of the batting line and the wisdom of adapting to situations——
Zverev Jr.'s hitting style is monotonous and continuous, and the route is predictable and lacks changes. This also makes Gawain's changes always ahead of Zverev Jr., after strong collisions. China always has the upper hand.
As I said before, in professional competitions, talents are often almost the same. It is very, very difficult to suppress opponents with strength and speed. Even a super genius like Kyrgios has a hard time doing it; this also means that , the real competition in professional competitions is state, brain and spirit.
Zverev's hitting ability is indeed very good. At least at this stage, his ability is one position ahead of Gawain. However, his ability to hit the baseline is strong but he cannot form an advantage in the changes in the line, so it is empty. He has a lot of brute strength.
The start of the second set seemed to be like this. It seemed to be vigorous and impressive. Zverev's morale was soaring rapidly. However, on this side, Gawain remained motionless and was always observing calmly.
At least that was Gawain's judgment at the beginning, and the next point further confirmed Gawain's idea.
work hard! work hard! work hard!
Zverev fired three shots in a row, and the offensive was overwhelming, but there was nothing new in the line, and everything was accurately predicted by Gao Wen:
Slash, slash, straight line.
Gao Wen's lateral movement ability was fully displayed. Although Zverev's offense was stronger with each shot, Gao Wen was still unable to reverse the disadvantageous situation, but the defense was always in place in time. All the forehand attacks he was aiming for were defended tenaciously by Gao Wen.
boom! boom! boom!
It looked exciting, but Zverev was still unable to score, and the anxious situation made the entire audience hold their breath.
Then you can see in the next shot that Zverev has directly entered the baseline and is ready to enter the first half to put pressure——
Aggressive!
