"Oh, oh oh oh, oh God!"
"incredible!"
"Receiving the ACE, Gao Wen fought in an extremely passive situation and hit an ACE receiving the serve, ending the point neatly."
"The situation has changed subtly."
"In the last game, Gao Wen was in the lead at '40:0' in his own serve, but was tied by Istomin; in this game, Istomin was in the '30:0' lead in his own serve. 'Leading, and now being tied by Gao Wen, the atmosphere of the whole game is a bit subtle, and the fluctuations in mentality are very obvious."
"Wow!"
"Now the game has come to a critical moment. Although Istomin still leads the score, Gao Wen is pulling back bit by bit and the situation is still unclear."
"The next point is a test, for both players."
"From a psychological perspective, Gao Wen is undoubtedly the best player among the new generation of players in interpreting and grasping the game. He knows how to seize opportunities."
"But the key is that from a state perspective, Istomin is the dominant side in this game. This is his serve. We need to pay attention to one statistic. In today's game, he has not lost anything. There weren’t even many break points in the service game, only three.”
"So, how will the two players choose next?"
Buzz buzz...
The entire No. 2 Stadium became quiet again after a short period of noise. There was no sound at all. But it was precisely this quietness that made the tense and depressing atmosphere spread more and more. The heart that was hitting the chest so hard seemed to be about to explode at any time, and the palms of the hands couldn't help but A thin layer of sweat broke out.
"30:30".
Istomin felt the crisis, not the kind where his life was hanging by a thread, but the kind that was gradually approaching. He could still recover and change. Therefore, he did not panic for the time being. Instead, he stood firm and launched a vigorous counterattack. After one point, he regained his offensive touch.
——Istomin, firmly in the upper hand.
In the first area, a close serve with a speed of 188 kilometers per hour found the route accurately, successfully squeezed Gao Wen, and contained Gao Wen's serve attack. The quality of the returned serve was also unsatisfactory, but it was against Is. For Tomin, this was an opportunity to attack and he took action without hesitation.
As mentioned before, Istomin's hitting is similar to Djokovic in some aspects. The most typical point is that he lacks explosive power.
Istomin's offense is not a ping-pong-pong, tiger-to-dog type - of course, in terms of strength, he is better than Nishikori Kei, but his strength does not have sudden bursts of energy, and is often sustained. The output is low and even, so his offense tends to be consistent.
In other words, there is no combination of fast and slow, alternating light and heavy changes, and the continuous output of power does not have the energy to reduce ten times with one force. In the end, suppression must be formed through the distribution of landing points, and finally through finding gaps and quick connections. Looking for winning points.
In this game, Gao Wen failed to find the ball feel for a long time, so that he was unable to put enough pressure on Istomin on both offense and defense, and gave Istomin enough room to play, making himself passive. Tomin's offense also scored frequently.
However, in this round, Gawain slightly changed his strategy——
Fight.
In fact, grass courts are not suitable for fighting. This is a classic tactic on clay courts:
Rely on landing point control to continuously send the tennis ball back to the opposite court; and rely on the combination of different hitting techniques to constantly test the opponent's offensive ability. Through long rounds of see-saws, the offensive pressure will continue to accumulate and stack up, and finally find opportunities for defensive counterattacks. Gear up, turn around and win.
The same tactic, when used on a grass court, becomes extremely difficult due to the low-bounce and fast-paced nature of the court, and it is easy to fall into passivity.
To be precise, clay courts are suitable for a variety of styles. Although offensive players may be slightly weakened, they can still find a place; but grass courts are not, this is the world of offensive players, and defensive counterattack players have almost no survival here. space--
It can be said to be extreme, but it can also be said to be distinct.
From the moment he entered the grass court season, Sampras kept emphasizing that Gao Wen must forget all about his clay court tactical style and enter a new mode:
Attack, attack, attack again.
Gao Wen also did this in the first two sets of today's game, but the effect was not satisfactory. The main problem was the ball feel.
Gao Wen is a player who relies on his mind to play, so he began to think about how to adjust his game.
He believes that Sampras's tactics are correct and that offense is the correct way to open the grass court. He is not prepared to overturn and deny this. Otherwise, even if he is lucky enough to defeat Istomin and advance to the next round, the next game will be difficult. He still needs to face the same problem.
However, when you have a poor sense of the ball, attacking rashly is like a headless fly. Not only is it ineffective, but it will also make you passive, just like Kyrgios in the Queen's Club Cup. There is no need to be high at all. Wen took action and Kyrgios defeated himself.
Therefore, at the beginning of the third set, Gao Wen consciously increased the entanglement of the ball in the round and adjusted the rhythm of the game through the tactical combination of the baseline round.
On the one hand, looking for the feeling of the ball is also looking for the offensive touch; on the other hand, disrupting Istomin's rhythm and entering his own comfort zone as much as possible.
The effect can be seen directly from the score. In the third set, Gao Wen's set point reached five for the first time, which was a small improvement compared to the first two sets.
Although the speed is not fast, Gawain is indeed exploring his own grassland style——
Just like the clay court season, this requires a process, but this time Gao Wen must continue to complete the process on the Wimbledon stage.
His eyes returned to the point in front of him.
The tug of war was a situation deliberately created by Gawain.
Gawain sensed Istomin's impatience and hoped to win this point and even this game as soon as possible, regain his footing, take the lead again, and try his best to throw the pressure on Gawain's side.
Therefore, Gawain's first task was to stall the game, and through this tug-of-war, Istomin's turbulent emotions continued to ferment and remain uneasy.
Maybe he can score this point, maybe not; but the layout is more important than the score, and he needs to shake Istomin's belief.
The round ball was formed like this.
Originally, Istomin's offense was not explosive. If Gawain did not take risks to attack, but contained Istomin's attack through distribution of placement points, then the back-and-forth back-and-forth would have easily ended in a stalemate——
The grass-court game was abruptly transformed into a clay-court game.
Back and forth.
Ten rounds.
Mutual exchange.
Fifteen rounds.
There is a stalemate.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the 20th round. Istomin completely dominated the attack, but the line and placement were not threatening, so he could not find a gap. Instead, he was mobilized by Gawain's placement distribution, and the two figures Running all over the field, the back and forth rounds always maintained an even balance without breaking the balance.
It can be clearly felt that the air is slowly getting stiffer——
Twenty-five rounds, the stalemate continues!
