The 2015 Monte Carlo Masters officially kicked off.
To be precise, the clay court season started last week, and the two events in Houston and Casablanca started the first round of court transition as always.
However, the Masters is different after all, because it means that the top ten players in the world have come out to officially join the clay court season.
so--
In this year’s clay court season, will Nadal still rule the roost? Can Nadal, who was obviously out of shape in the first quarter, recover quickly on clay courts?
What about Djokovic, who has won two runner-up finishes and two semi-finals at the French Open in the past four seasons? Can he finally realize his dream in Paris? At that time, after Federer lost to Nadal and finished runner-up for three consecutive years, he finally defeated Soderling and reached the top of Paris in the fourth year, while Djokovic was already in the fifth year.
What about Murray? What about Federer? What about Wawrinka?
What about Ferrer, Berdych, Kei Nishikori, etc.?
In the past few years, due to Nadal's absolute dominance, the terms "clay court expert" and "clay court expert" seem to have disappeared from the ATP. No one dares to call himself a "clay court expert" in front of Nadal easily. Come to the clay court season No matter how brilliant the players are, they cannot compete with Nadal.
So, will we see some exciting performances from some clay court experts again this year?
What about the new generation headed by Raonic? What about the new generation led by Gawain? The "Sunshine Double Crown" has already seen more "post-95s" figures. Will more fresh faces emerge and bring surprises when entering the clay court season? After all, clay soil is more likely to cause an upset.
All kinds of things, with the opening of the Monte Carlo Masters, all the mysteries will be revealed, and it is another exciting clay court season.
The first ones to bear the brunt are naturally Gawain and Federer——
In the Monte Carlo Masters, the top eight seeds enjoyed a bye in the first round, so they went directly to the second round and waited for their opponents.
On that side, French player Chardy and Schwartzman, a "post-90s" player who passed the qualification test, competed for a chance to compete with Federer.
Unfortunately, Schwarzman, who represented the Youth Storm, still did not fully adapt to the rhythm of the ATP. He lost in two sets and Chady became Federer's first-round opponent.
Here, Tim, who was born in 1993, and Puy, who was born in 1994, met in the first round. The winner will face Gao Wen in another youth showdown.
From Indian Wells to Miami to Monte Carlo, more and more young players are emerging and starting their professional journey with Gao Wen as their goal.
There is no doubt that the "youth storm" is getting more and more intense, and it is slowly taking the stage. This time, it is not the "post-95s", but more "post-90s".
Thiem and Puy are only one year apart in age, but Tim has already made a name for himself last year, while Puy's rise has been a little slower. This time in Monte Carlo, he failed to enter the main draw just relying on his world ranking, and Puy won. Received a wild card from the organizer and entered the draw.
Obviously, Tim is the more favored side; and the friend battle of "Tim VS Gawain 2.0" is also more valuable for discussion by the media.
However--
Backfired.
"6:4", "6:4".
Puy had the last laugh.
The game was very, very close. Tim tried his best, but unfortunately, he was still a little lacking and missed the opportunity to play against Gawain.
In fact, it can be said that Puy and Tim have competing styles of play. According to history, Tim lost against Puy twice in his career and did not win a set; of course, this The two encounters took place before Tim's comprehensive transformation and rise, and the reference value is not great. However, it can still be seen that Puy's playing style is just right to restrain Tim.
As mentioned before, Tim plays in a wide-open and comprehensive way. Therefore, for Tim, footwork is very important. He needs to use footwork to gain time and space for himself to draw shots and exert force. Once Without enough space and insufficient power, his competitiveness will drop sharply.
And Puy is exactly a baseline player with a fast-paced connection style. To put it simply, he suppresses his opponents by constantly increasing the rhythm of the rounds.
Therefore, when Tim and Puy played against each other, Puy always kept improving the rhythm, compressing the hitting time and movement space, and compressing Tim's opportunities to exert force, so that Tim was full of energy but couldn't use it, even if his footsteps were faster. It is too fast to keep up with the gradually shortening rhythm of the rounds, and is very passive.
The style of play is incompatible, which is indeed very difficult.
When he was a teenager, Puy was unknown, with a highest world ranking of only twenty-three. There were no highlights in the youth competitions of the four Grand Slams. Therefore, in front of the star-studded player lineup in France's golden era, Puy, the " "Post-90s" are far from attracting attention.
After turning to the professional arena in 2013, Puy never had many outstanding results. In 2015, he entered the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time.
However, such an ordinary Puyi ushered in a full-scale explosion in 2016. He defeated Del Potro at Wimbledon and Nadal in the US Open final set tie-break, and entered the quarterfinals of two Grand Slams in a row; in 2018 In 2019, the world ranking broke into the top ten for the first time; in 2019, the Australian Open entered the semi-finals.
What's the reason behind it?
The first is the maturity of his technical style. He is a typical player who hits the ball. Every time he hits the ball, he needs to grab the ball. It is not necessarily the rising point. He adjusts the rhythm according to his own tactics. Compared with the strength, , it is more about forming a dense attack through the connection of rhythm.
Therefore, this places strict requirements on game reading, shot selection, tactical awareness, etc. He needs enough games to accumulate experience.
The second is the strength of the body. When I was a teenager, my body was very thin, and I had no advantage at all in youth competitions that relied on talent. After entering the professional arena, I continued to gain weight and lose fat. After my muscle content increased, my ability to fight against the ball was improved. Improve, change the situation.
Although Puy does not rely on initiative to score points, strength is a necessary condition in a stalemate.
In addition, muscles also help Puy improve the offensive power of his forehand and serve, which are also basic and necessary abilities for the new generation of top male players.
From a certain perspective, Pui can be seen as a stronger but slightly less spiritual Kei Nishikori. Of course, his serve is stronger and his good serve is a guarantee; but equally, because of grabbing the hitting point, He has a unique style of controlling the rhythm, so injuries are particularly frequent.
After entering the top ten in the world in 2019, Puy has been plagued by a right elbow injury for more than three long years and has not found a path to recovery.
For Gao Wen, neither Tim nor Puy is actually an easy opponent to deal with. After all, these two have better clay court experience than him——
Thiem, of course, needless to say; Puy, he grew up in the Roland Garros tennis training camp set up by the French Tennis Association. Obviously, their understanding of clay soil is far better than Gao Wen.
Anyone facing Gao Wen who sets foot on clay for the first time has the ability to upset him.
(End of chapter)
