The so-called "Grand Slam Syndrome" is known as a curse in professional tennis. From men to women, professional players are troubled without exception.
In fact, that is to say, after experiencing the fierce competition in the Grand Slam, the physical and energy consumption are very obvious. In addition, the excellent Grand Slam record will inevitably put the players on the back and become the target of other players' challenges. One plus and one minus. In this case, subsequent performance is prone to fluctuations.
In 2001, Australian player Hewitt defeated Sampras in the US Open final to win the championship. Then he participated non-stop in the Neon Tournament and won the championship. At the same time, he also represented his country in the Davis Cup and ushered in two consecutive victories. As of 2021, he is also the last player among all men's and women's players to win the championship in the first tournament after winning a Grand Slam championship.
So, what about the Big Four?
In 2003, Federer reached Wimbledon for the first time. After the match, he returned to his hometown to participate in the Gstaad clay court event, but unfortunately lost to Czech player Jiri Novak in the final and finished second.
In 2005, Nadal reached the French Open for the first time, and went to Halle to participate in a grass-court event the next day. He was unable to adapt to the venue and was eliminated in the first round.
In 2008, Djokovic won the Australian Open for the first time. After winning, he took a break before competing again. However, he still felt bad and lost to the French player Simon after winning only one game in Marseille.
In 2012, Murray won the US Open for the first time. After a full month of rest, he went to Neon to compete. As a result, he unfortunately lost in the semi-finals to Raonic, who had defeated him during the US Open summit a month ago.
This is even more true for female players.
Especially for the new members of the "Grand Slam" who have won a Grand Slam championship for the first time, the Grand Slam syndrome is even more obvious. The reasons behind it are complicated, but completely understandable.
Because not only the Grand Slam champions, but also all players participating in the Grand Slam must undergo a double test of physical strength and energy. Adjustment after the event is bound to be a problem; even the Big Four have won the Grand Slam many times. After that, they all made the same choice:
No matter what the Grand Slam record is, they will not compete for the time being after the tournament, but will go home to rest and adjust for a period of time.
Among them, increasing age is one of the reasons that cannot be ignored, but more importantly, with the increase in competition experience, they also realize that Grand Slam wins and losses are often more impactful. They are also ordinary people and need to It takes a period of time to digest and settle before you can meet new challenges.
Similarly, Gawain is also learning this, everything is new; and Gulbis is no exception.
In the US Open match, Gulbis faced Thiem. He played two sets first and had an absolute advantage. The victory was already in hand. However, he encountered a strong counterattack by Thiem and lost three sets. It was a duck in his mouth. It just flew away, which was undoubtedly a blow to Gulbis's confidence.
Especially after reaching the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the French Open, Gulbis has higher expectations for himself. Losing is not the end of the world, but losing in such a devastating way is indeed difficult to accept, even if Farah Sheng's story happened a month ago, and it's still hard to get rid of.
In the first round of the Imperial City Open, he could not feel the pressure for the time being against Fognini, who was not doing well. But in the second round, Gulbis could feel the pressure deeply when facing Gao Wen, who was actively looking for touch.
The game "Gulbis vs. Gawain" is nicknamed the "Battle of the Backhand" by professionals. Both players' abilities in the backhand position are obvious to all. They can defend and attack, and can withstand the impact, even in extreme situations. The situation can also be changed in difficult situations, and the state of the backhand determines the lower limit of the game.
Sure enough, after the game started, Gulbis repeatedly tried to create breakthroughs on the backhand position——
Although Gulbis is not a player with strong offensive firepower, he is definitely a player with a tough style and a courage to play hard.
He has won against Federer, Djokovic and Murray, which is the best proof that his tough offense and solid baseline ability are particularly outstanding.
However, facing Nadal, he lost all seven encounters in his career. This is the best portrayal of the fact that Nadal's backhand is completely defeated by his left-hand shot.
Obviously, Gawain is not Nadal, so Gulbis took the lead and applied pressure, trying to control the game and seize the initiative in this confrontation.
But how did Gawain win the U.S. Open?
Facing heavy-handed attackers like Isner, Kyrgios, and Wawrinka, players who can still withstand the continuous firepower output are full of tenacity.
Especially now that he has poor touch, Gao Wen relies more on layout to create traps. His focus shifts from offense to defense, and he uses anticipation, movement, rotation and wrapping to complete the return. Although the defensive kick-off rate has dropped compared to the US Open, the success rate is still excellent.
As a result, Gulbis was under tremendous pressure.
In the first game of the game, Gao Wen took the lead in serving. However, he could not find the feeling for the ball at the beginning. The placement rate of the entire landing point was not satisfactory, which gave Gulbis room to attack and score; coupled with his own An active error gave the opponent two consecutive break points in the blink of an eye.
"15:40".
On the first break point, Gao Wen's performance was very good.
After his first serve went off the net, facing the pressure of his second serve, Gao Wen boldly chose the inside corner and challenged Gulbis's backhand head-on.
Gulbis tried to grab the second serve, but the bounce height of the serve was higher than expected. Gulbis grabbed the hitting point, but was unable to suppress the spin. The execution effect of the entire grab-and-return tactic was mediocre. Gaowen had breathing room.
but!
Gao Wen did not attack directly, but suppressed the middle and returned a deep ball from the baseline. It was almost a repeating line shot with the serve, once again throwing the offensive problem to Gulbis.
Gulbis's backhand is very tough. He adjusted his backhand in small steps continuously to hit the backslash. When the left and right half-court spaces were almost equal and it was difficult to break the angle, the backhand attack hit the triangle area of Gawain's forehand baseline. Inside, the angle is forcibly broken, breaking the balance of the ball in the round.
If Gao Wen is a little slower in position, the ball will continue to jump out after it hits the ground and rebound, which will put pressure on Gao Wen's stance and swing.
However, Gao Wen predicted Gulbis's hitting line in advance and adjusted his steps very timely. Not only did he arrive in advance, but his forehand directly swept diagonally across the shot. He did not pursue the angle and landing point, but suddenly adopted Flat strike to increase speed and power——
In order to ensure the safety factor of the shot, Gao Wen did not pursue a blind spot, and finally chose to land near the sideline. There is still two feet of space before going out of bounds. However, the relatively shallow landing point combined with strong side spin can allow the tennis ball to continue to move outward after landing. jump up.
Gulbis immediately fell into passivity.
While continuing to move laterally, Gulbis still tried to exert force with his forehand, but in order to ensure successful defense, his foot position was nearly three meters away from the baseline. Even if he forced the ball to hit the ball, he was unable to fully unleash his power. The landing point of the return ball was obviously shallow, and the arc was not suppressed.
Gawain entered the baseline immediately and hit a diagonal shot with his backhand, entering Gulbis's backhand gap.
Score easily and save a break point.
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