In 2014, the third match day of the Magic City Masters is still going smoothly, but as mentioned before, various reasons lead to the last two Masters events at the end of the year always being upset. This year's first round has already proved this, and The second round also continued this state.
The highest seed eliminated in the second round was second seed Nadal——
The dream of "Gawain VS Nadal 2.0" was shattered.
In fact, objectively speaking, Fei Lopez's defeat of Nadal cannot be regarded as an upset. Although Fei Lopez is also a Spaniard who grew up on clay, his best surface is grass, followed by hard courts.
Remember that list of men’s players with the most ACEs in history? Karlovic and Isner are competing for the title of No. 1 in history, while Lopez ranks fifth on this list. As of 2014, he has even more aces than Federer.
Fey Lopez has defeated Nadal twice in his career. The first time was in Basel in 2003 on indoor carpet; the second time was in 2010 at Wimbledon on grass; today is the third time. Still fast and hard.
But no matter what, Fei Lopez defeated his compatriot to advance to the third round and was about to face Gao Wen, so an interesting scene took shape:
Fi-Lopez defeated Kogkinakis, then Nadal, and finally stood in front of Gao Wen. The two potential opponents Gao Wen expected were both defeated by Fei Lopez, which also means that the next The third round matchup should be very interesting.
Nadal is not the only player in trouble, Federer is too.
In the second round, Federer met Argentinian player L-Mayer - yes, Gao Wen's opponent in the first round of the Imperial Open last week. Unexpectedly, Mayer came to Shanghai and made Federer break out in a cold sweat. He almost missed it. It will be the biggest upset since the start of the Magic City Masters.
Federer saved five match points and narrowly won the final set with a score of "9:7" in the tie-break. The entire audience followed Federer through a roller coaster ride.
Mayer's outstanding performance is one reason, and this game is Federer's first official match after three weeks at the US Open, another reason.
Even Federer and Nadal are like this, so other upsets don't seem so "shocking".
The fourth seed Wawrinka, like Federer, was playing for the first time since the US Open. Then Wawrinka was also in danger, but he was not so lucky. Facing the difficult tug-of-war master Simon, he broke out after three hard games. Cold out.
In addition, wild card player Monaco defeated Raonic. To be precise, when trailing "2:5" in the first set, Raonic retired due to injury. The season has come to an end, and any injury is annoying. , but it is not known whether it will affect the remaining games of the season. He still needs to undergo a doctor's examination to be sure.
French veteran Julien-Benneteau upset Dimitrov. Dimitrov was sleepwalking throughout the game, and the depth of the "Grand Slam Syndrome" could clearly be seen. Influence.
If you include Anderson, who lost to Kukushkin, then after the second round, only seven of the sixteen seeded players are left, losing more than half.
There is also a duel that attracts the attention of all Chinese fans. Wang Chuhan challenges Jia Zeli, who is ranked 75th in the world.
Jiazeri advanced to the main draw through the qualifying test. For Wang Chuhan, this is undoubtedly the best opportunity to further advance to the third round.
However, the game was a huge disappointment. "6:0", "6:4", Jiazeri easily defeated Wang Chuhan, sent a duck egg in the first set, and successfully advanced.
The dream bubble that the media so eagerly inflated just died out and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye. This also means that, except for Gao Wen, there is still no Chinese player who can win consecutively in local competitions in the Imperial Capital and the Magic Capital. Two games.
It is precisely because of this that the gaze focused on Gawain's shoulders became even more intense and crazy.
A little while ago, Gao Wen was eliminated in the third round of the Teito Open, which aroused criticism from some netizens. They believed that Gao Wen had too many off-court activities after winning the US Open and failed to prepare well for the Asian season, thus letting people down. Hope, missed the possibility of reaching the top and winning the championship in my hometown.
Complaints are not a big deal, but they do exist objectively.
Especially when Wang Chuhan upset Fognini to advance to the second round, these remarks reached a small peak. They believed that local players could also achieve such good results, so it would be natural for Gao Wen, the Grand Slam champion, to You should become a leader and perform better.
But before the words had time to ferment, in less than twenty-four hours, they had already shut their mouths——
Maybe Gao Wen is indeed not in the best condition at the moment, but the Imperial Capital has won two consecutive games, the Magic City has also won two consecutive games and is still moving forward. Such performance has proved that Gao Wen is worthy of being the representative player of China, even if it includes female players. Inside, now the banner of top players also needs to be carried by Gao Wen.
As a result, those questioning and provocative voices disappeared.
However, they all know that this is only temporary. As long as Gao Wen is still competing in the professional arena, he will be a moving target. No matter whether he wins or loses, every move will trigger countless discussions. Obviously, things will not stop so simply.
The point is still Gawain: he doesn't care.
Right and wrong off the court have no meaning or weight to him. All his attention is focused on the upcoming third round showdown.
Fey Lopez, this is not an easy opponent to deal with.
In the latest world rankings, Fey Lopez ranked 16th, but because he was ranked 21st in the world rankings when the registration deadline for the Magic City Masters, he was not among the seed seats.
Fei Lopez entered the Challenger League as early as 1997 and started his career. It is precisely because of this that his playing style follows the tradition of the 1990s. Compared with Nadal, Ferrer, Robredo, etc. In terms of the playing style of clay court masters, he is closer to the grass playing style of Sampras and Federer.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Wimbledon became his best performance in the four Grand Slam tournaments. In 2005, Fei Lopez became the first Spaniard to break into the Wimbledon quarterfinals since 1972. Making history also officially established his place in men's professional tennis.
On grass and fast hard courts, Fey Lopez can best utilize his strengths, including his strong serve, excellent forehand and excellent ability in front of the net——
As an excellent doubles player, Fei Lopez's ability in front of the net is definitely among the top players on the tour. This also makes his playing style different from most players who stick to the bottom line and frequently breaks the net. Deadlock; at the same time, he has excellent baseline ability in deadlock rounds, which has always made him have a special position in the tour.
To put it simply, this is a type of player that Gawain has never encountered before, a completely new encounter.
