Match point

Chapter 1302 Invisible Shackles
Perhaps, there are countless sunspots and trolls on the social network, and it seems that there are always people who can't understand Gao Wen's praise, but the fact remains unchanged.

When people mentioned the favorites to win the French Open, even though his clay court performance has dropped, he still appears at the top of the list:
Second only to the Big Four, he has deservedly and uprightly become the fifth favorite to win the championship this year. After all, he is now ranked second in the world.

Not only experts, not only sports betting companies, those passers-by, those people who eat melons, Gao Wen's name automatically appeared in their minds.

This is the expectation, of course, it can also be regarded as a kind of recognition——

On the one hand, Nadal, who has always been the number one favorite to win the French Open in the past ten years, is in poor form, and the competitive landscape of Roland Garros is open for the first time.

On the one hand, Gao Wen has remained unbeaten in the Grand Slam so far, and the best-of-five matches always seem to be able to stimulate Gao Wen's potential.

This is how the opportunity appeared, not only Djokovic's opportunity, but also Gao Wen's opportunity; moreover, the two players who are currently competing for the world's number one position have not met on clay this year, but Gao Wen still maintains the lead in previous records.

Therefore, in the French Open final, if the two players Djokovic and Gao Wen join forces, and the dream scene of the No. [-] seed and the No. [-] seed competing for the championship happens, the outcome may really be uncertain, and the championship situation will become more confusing than ever.

Just by imagining it, goosebumps will come out crazily.

Of course, that's not all.

Players such as Berdych, Kei Nishikori, and Ferrer also performed well in this year's clay court season, and have appeared in the forefront of the list of favorites to win the championship.

Among them, Kei Nishikori was an unexpected surprise. Except for Monte Carlo, which did not participate, he performed very well in the next three clay court events, losing to the final champion in all of them. He showed good competitiveness throughout the process. It has all the conditions to complete a breakthrough at the French Open.

As both Asian men's singles players, Gao Wen's all-round rise is a kind of motivation and pressure for Kei Nishikori. If it can be transformed into motivation and form a healthy cycle of competition, then the two players can join hands in men's tennis. Set off a more crazy storm.

His gaze finally returned to Gao Wen again.

Such a situation, such a situation, is obviously brand new, and it is different from the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.

When he arrived in Melbourne at the beginning of the year, Gao Wen was not the favorite to win the championship. Although the expectations and pressure existed objectively, the focus was slightly different:
Every new Grand Slam champion must face the same problem, that is, he is burdened with expectations, and his position is in the awkward buffer zone between the challenger and the challenged. It may often be very difficult to adjust his mentality. The pressure will also affect the competitive state.

Once unable to overcome, the performance of the new Grand Slam champion in the next Grand Slam will often be a disaster.

Therefore, under the pressure at that time, there was a little curiosity in the expectation, and some caution in the attention. People's attitudes were still relatively cautious:

It feels like novice parents watching their children learn to walk for the first time. They expect their children to walk steadily for a while, but they can't help guarding and protecting them carefully to prevent their children from being injured. Control your expectations.

Even if it was "Selyan's provocation", the media reporters gathered around and watched lively, but they did not expect that Gao Wen could actually break into the final and win the championship.

In Melbourne Park, the real problem is the boos and attacks against the "home killer".

Arriving in Paris this time, from the first day, the attention of the media and fans has been different. Subtle changes have created a completely different atmosphere.

It doesn't even have to wait until the pre-match press conference, during the daily practice, those eyes, those shouts, those attentions are already different——

Fourteen consecutive Grand Slam victories, the aura of undefeated Grand Slam, the potential to reach the top of three Grand Slams in a row, everything is becoming a shackle.

When people expect to get 99 points in every exam, 99 points is a failure; at the same time, even if they get 99 points, there are still a bunch of gloating voices sweeping over, repeating [-] over and over again A score is a failure.

Even if 99 points is not a failure at all, even if everyone knows that no one can maintain perfection, the pressure is still enough to swallow the soul.

Now, Gao Wen is facing such a dilemma of contradictions, expectations and pressures, positive and negative, different voices collide and intertwine, and finally condense into layers of dark clouds, covering Gao Wen's head tightly. Condensed an invisible depression and embarrassment.

In fact, it's not just Gao Wen?

From Gao Hongli and Jiang Yanyun, to Sampras and Agassi, all of them can feel this kind of predicament, and it has spread from the inside to the outside.

Everyone has their own worries, and everyone has their own way of dealing with them. The only thing that is certain is that they are surrounded by Gao Wen.

Today is my third day in Paris.

On the one hand, the draw ceremony is getting closer and closer, and the focus on Roland Garros is getting more and more turbulent.

On the other hand, the effect of Gao Wen's training has declined slightly, and the adjustments brought about by the changes in the weather, Gao Wen is still struggling and unsatisfactory. Obviously, he still needs more time to slowly polish.

Sampras stood on the sidelines, kept calm and rational, collected information as much as possible, hoping to help Gao Wen, but he could feel Gao Hongli's worry.

Although Gao Hongli tried his best to suppress and try to remain rational and objective, as a father, his position was different after all, and his worries were still revealed.

Normally, Sampras seldom gets involved in Gao Wen's personal life. He hopes to keep some distance, distinguish between public and private, and continue to treat coaching as a job. Only in this way can he continue to guarantee his professionalism.

But as Agassi said, when Sampras took this job, he just wanted to try it out, but gradually changed his mentality as time went on, becoming more and more attentive and devoted. It seems that there is not much left from the original intention; similarly, he and Gao Wen's family have more and more intersections, and how much of the boundary between public and private is left?
Initially, Sampras, like Tobias, expected Gao Wen to fulfill his dream and pursue the goal that he could not achieve.

Now, Sampras thinks otherwise.

He doesn't care about his dreams, let alone whether Gawain can complete his unfinished business; what he cares about is Gawain, and he hopes to witness Gawain creating a world of his own, getting rid of "Sampras" and "Agassi". "The shadows of these two names have made great achievements.

He is more than happy to be a part of this journey.

Therefore, at the end of hesitation and hesitation, Sampras finally spoke, taking a step to break the boundary.

(End of this chapter)