Match point

Chapter 1214
Previously, it was mentioned that in 2017, Puy became another player who won all championships across different types of venues, and he was also the third player among the "post-90s" players after Dimitrov and Tim; After him, it took another five years for another player to accomplish such a feat.

It can be seen from this that Pui can perfectly adapt to different venues. His batting style and game type have the ability to open up situations in different types of courts.

In fact, Puy's favorite venue is the hard court. The best performance in his career is the Australian Open, and the first breakthroughs in his career are Wimbledon and the US Open.

On the contrary, in the French Open, the best result of his career was only two third rounds.

It can be seen that Pui is a player more suitable for fast courts.

But is it really so?
Before breaking into the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2019, Puy's career record at the Australian Open was five first-round exits and one win was hard to come by.

Before and after his breakthroughs at Wimbledon and the US Open, Puy's performance here was generally in the second and third rounds.

As for the French Open, although he has never been able to break through the third round and has been eliminated in the first round four times, his wins at the French Open are the most among the four Grand Slams.

In other words, Puy's personal preference is indeed fast courts; but his playing style is indeed universal, and he can perform well on any court; at the same time, he grew up on clay courts since he was a child. Your understanding and habits are still engraved in your batting swing.

In Monte Carlo, Pui was able to beat the future "little prince of clay" Tim, which is the best proof.

For Gao Wen, he missed the opportunity to meet Tim on clay, but he also needs to go all out in the game against Pui, and his mentality must be corrected——

On a hard court, there is no need to adapt or adjust, everything is about the opponent and about yourself.

On clay, in addition to the opponent, the venue and the environment will also become part of the game. Everything is brand new, and the mentality will naturally be different.

In fact, to be precise, this is not Gao Wen's clay court debut in the strict sense of his career, but the first round of the doubles event.

Before entering the singles arena, the doubles partner of Gao Wen and Dimitrov had already appeared in the Monte Carlo Masters, making his debut on clay.

In the first round of doubles, the Gao Wen team faced another pair of "post-90s" young teams:
Henri-Kontinen from Finland, born in 1990; Marin-Draganja from Croatia, born in 1991.

Both players have been in the professional arena for some years, but unfortunately, their singles performance was mediocre, so they began to think about the way out of their careers, that is, around this year, both of them switched to doubles, hoping to break out of the sky here and continue own career.

At such a young age, I have completely given up on singles. It also shows that it is really unsustainable, and I can’t even open up the situation in the challenge stage; but at the same time, because I am young, I dare to fight and fight hard. With the support of my partners in the doubles field, I slowly accumulate experience. It is indeed a way out.

In this game, it can be seen that Dimitrov's state of mind has indeed changed, and he is more proactive; on the contrary, Gao Wen, who is playing a formal match on clay for the first time, is a little cautious, so Dimitrov took the initiative. Control the game, unlike Indian Wells.

finally--

"6:1", "6:3".

Gao Wen and Dimitrov's "two matches" started the journey smoothly, and the whole game took less than 10 minutes to usher in a good start with a complete victory.

Victory is a good thing at any time; but for Gao Wen, the only regret is that the time to hit the ball on the court is too short and he has not adapted enough.

Therefore, it still takes some time for Gao Wen to switch from doubles to singles.

The first game directly proved that clay and hard courts are actually two worlds.

Although they are all tennis, the content of the entire game is quite different; moreover, the practice match and the official match are two different things, and the intensity is different!
"40:0".

In the opening serve game, Puy easily scored four straight points, "love-game" kept the serve, and basically encountered no challenges.

Gao Wen obviously hasn't figured it out yet, the route, landing point, and method of returning the ball are not clear enough, that is, he hasn't thought it through.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Wen's serve.

"40:40".

Although Gao Wen saved two break points by serving as a cover, he never saw the game point. In the end, Puy scored a straight forehand to complete the break point.

In a blink of an eye, the score of the first set reached "2:0", with Pui leading.

Of course, on the hard court, Gao Wen has faced such a dilemma more than once, but the reason is completely different. Here, on the clay court, everything is strange.

Gao Wen didn't panic.

If you just look at the score, there is nothing to be nervous about. The game is very long and there is still a lot of time. There is no need to panic because of a break; moreover, compared with hard courts, the serve advantage is weakened on clay courts, so breaks on clay courts are more important. Common, there are opportunities in the future.

What Gao Wen really cared about was the competition content.

Pui, as expected—

One is that the ability to use force to strike is outstanding, and at the same time has the ability to actively exert force, with a sharp forehand, but Pui does not rely solely on the style of muscle force, but relies on increasing the speed of the racket head to increase the quality of the shot Rhythm, somewhat similar to Murray, relies on speed to form suppression.

The second is the ability to grab the ball point is very outstanding. On the whole, this is Puy's style. According to the bounce height of the return ball, he can attack the ball with his own style and method at any time.

His height is 185 cm. Although he is not tall, he is taller than Kei Nishikori, so he does not need to work as hard as Kei Nishikori, and his physical fitness is also stronger, which means that he can easily improve the rhythm of the game Get up as fast as you can, enjoying the quick back and forth bumps.

Of course, the premise is that he relies on speed to form a suppression, forcing the opponent into a trap, completing the return according to his own design, and omitting the time of prediction; otherwise, once the opponent finds a chance to break the routine, he will fall into a passive position. What does this mean? ?
Pui is a player with very strong tactical design, with an instinct, he can lay out the speed and line of tennis in a flash, and improve the entire rhythm; but at the same time, Pui is also a player who lacks inspiration and change. As a player, he only has one set of tactics and no alternative tactics. Once the tactical routine is disrupted, the situation will be overturned.

Therefore, Pui just keeps speeding up, speeding up, and speeding up again, but in terms of on-the-spot response, he is far less rich and varied than Kei Nishikori.

In addition, not only Puyi, Gao Wen himself also needs to review.

If it is a hard court, Gao Wen can often form a suppression and break the balance through the depth of the hitting point, but on clay, this method will not work.

First, the speed of the ball has slowed down; second, after the landing point is deep, the bounce height also gives the opponent time to react.

Especially in the face of Pui, no matter what the ball is returned, he can grab the hitting point, subtly hide the rhythm change in his constantly accelerating hitting rounds, and the hard court tactics will not work.

So, what should Gao Wen do?

The first singles in the clay court game brought a new experience.

(End of this chapter)