"Out of bounds!"
The baseline linesman's gesture was very firm, his eyes were focused, and he was sure of his decision. However, the entire court No. 2 erupted in exclamations, unable to believe his eyes——
Huh!
At this point, Gao Wen established an advantage through serving, and further created pressure with his forehand and diagonal attack. At the same time, he combined with the net to win the absolute initiative in front of the net.
Istomin staggered on his feet and barely managed to save the ball. He tried to use his forehand to destroy Gawain's balance with a chasing ball. As a result, Gawain used his forehand to handle the close ball in front of his chest, overwhelming Istomin. The backhand baseline was called out of bounds.
Seeing that Gao Wen was completely in control of the situation and only needed to complete this shot in front of the net to score, something like this happened and the whole audience was shocked.
"...Oh, God! It's unbelievable!"
"Out of bounds, actually out of bounds!"
"Gawain raised the Eagle Eye challenge, let us see the Eagle Eye system replay."
"Things are not good, and things are very, very bad for Gawain right now."
"In this game, with a '40:0' lead, there was a double fault that shouldn't have occurred, a wonderful straight-line winner from Istomin's forehand, and then this push out of bounds in front of the net. The two players were back on equal terms and the whole situation was getting worse and worse for Gawain.”
"incredible!"
"The next point is crucial. If you are not careful, you may be out of the match point..."
If someone had just turned on the TV to watch the live broadcast of Wimbledon at this time, they might not be able to believe their eyes and unable to understand what was happening.
"6:3", "6:4", "5:4".
Istomin is in front and Gao Wen is behind. Now it is Gao Wen's serve that must be guaranteed in the whole game. The fifth seed is already standing on the edge of the cliff.
Etc., etc! What happened on the scene, are you sure there are no errors in the score? For example, should the positions of the two players be reversed?
It can be judged from the expressions of the audience and the words of the live broadcast commentator: there is no mistake, the incredible situation is indeed happening.
This situation reminds people of the final in Melbourne Park at the beginning of the year. Gauvin also lost the first two sets and fell into despair in the third set. Five months later, the same situation happened again, and this time It was the first round match at Wimbledon.
To be precise, the situation at hand is even more difficult than the Australian Open final.
In the Australian Open final, Gao Wen's state was up and down, including weather, physical fitness and pressure from Djokovic, which objectively affected Gao Wen's performance, but overall, after all, Gao Wen has played six games at Melbourne Park. , his own condition and game adaptation have reached a certain height.
Therefore, the key to that game was concentration and the belief that you could win - in other words, it was all psychological.
This game is different. Although the psychological impact also exists objectively, it is more of a technical adjustment. Gao Wen's youthfulness and lack of experience are gradually exposed during the grassland season when the channel changes. It is not that he is not good, but that Lack of experience, the adjustment speed cannot keep up.
Simply put, the key to the problem is ball feel.
I have said before that ball feel and hand feel are not fixed items, but variables. Even in the same game, there may be ups and downs. The influencing factors include one's physical fitness, mentality, concentration, etc. etc., as well as the opponent's pressure, impact, tactical changes, etc.
In addition, apart from the players on both sides, the "texture" of the tennis ball itself also changes. The venue, temperature, humidity, wind, etc. may affect the rotation, power, speed and flight of the tennis ball. Naturally, when the tennis ball touches the racket, the For a moment, the feel and feel of the ball are different.
Of course, if it is in the same game, the change in the quality of the tennis itself is often not too drastic, and it depends more on the changes in the status of both opponents.
Top players headed by the Big Four often have the ability to adjust the feel and feel of the ball in a game, but they are not successful every time. This is just because the Big Four have stronger adjustment abilities and ensure a higher success rate of adjustment. That's why they distanced themselves and wrote countless miracles.
But if you switch from hard court to clay, or from clay to grass, in addition to your own state, the change in court conditions will completely change the texture of tennis. Naturally, players will need to re-find the feel and feel of the ball——
The biggest challenge of the "Channel Slam" is that there is basically no buffer time from clay to grass, and the grass season itself is only one month. Many players have not had time to find the ball, and the grass season is over.
In addition, the field characteristics of the grass itself are also a problem. Because of the low bounce and fast pace, the contact time between the tennis ball and the racket is shorter, and sufficient friction cannot be achieved. Correspondingly, the adjustment space for the ball feel is narrower. Finally, , the accuracy and control of hitting the ball will decrease.
Now, Gawain is facing such a problem.
Today is only the third official game of the entire grass-court season.
In the first game against Kyrgios, Gawain didn't need to exert any force at all. Kyrgios was already making mistakes and made almost no confrontation.
In the second game against Anderson, both sets were tie-breaks. Anderson's excellent serve became the protagonist. There were not many opportunities to serve in the baseline round. He basically served and received the serve. In the end, the key to the outcome of the game was just a few points. There is limited room for Gao Wen to find the feel of the ball and adjust his hand.
Then, it was already time to come to Wimbledon.
If you are an experienced player, even if you don't have enough warm-up time, you can use your experience to slowly adjust your condition through training; but Gao Wen cannot do that. He needs the fierce confrontation in official games to feel the grass and feel the hitting. The importance of these experiences There is no shortcut to accumulation.
During the clay court season, Gao Wen slowly adjusted and explored through two months of events, and finally had the breakthrough at Roland Garros, but not during the grass court season.
Now, Gawain was finally able to experience for himself why the "Channel Slam" was known to be so difficult.
In his career debut at Wimbledon, Gawain's performance was far from just bad - it was almost a nightmare.
Ball feel, nothing at all.
There is no ball feel, which means that Gao Wen has no control over the tennis ball. The details of the moment when the tennis ball and the racket string come into contact, including rotation, speed, friction, etc., the whole feeling is wrong; it can be imagined that when the ball is hit, In tennis, everything from the line to the landing point to the parabola is wrong.
This is completely different from the Australian Open final.
Moreover, in the Australian Open final, no matter how difficult and terrible it was, Gao Wen never faced a match point. Djokovic did not get a match point in the entire match; but now, Gao Wen is already teetering on the edge. If you don't pay attention, you may face match point.
"...In Wimbledon, the second court has always been known as the 'seed graveyard'. Countless top players have failed here, and more than once."
“Coming to this year, I never thought that Court No. 2 might experience a shocking upset on the second match day. As this year’s Australian Open champion and French Open semi-finalist, Gao Wen already had half a foot on the cliff of being eliminated in the first round. On the edge."
"Oh, God, this is definitely something no one expected."
Some people died, but not completely...
