Match point

First of all, it needs to be affirmed. Nike chose the Thunder to sign Gao Wen, and even gave up the jersey dividend, which proved their determination——

From the very beginning, Nike expected and believed that Gao Wen could become a superstar, which is beyond doubt.

However, even with high expectations, Gao Wen's growth and rise have exceeded Nike's expectations.

Step by step, Gao Wen is indeed becoming a leader of the new generation, and has shown infinite potential and vitality in the global market.

This raises a question for Nike and for everyone, whether Gao Wen can become the next generation of top superstars?
What I'm talking about here is not an ordinary superstar, but a top superstar selected from a million:
Beckham, Ronaldo, Messi, Jordan, Schumacher, Serena Williams, Woods, Federer and so on and so forth.

Any name can break the shackles of its own sports, and set off stormy waves in other fields, in the whole society, and in the world.

Everyone has been looking for it all along, but not everyone can have such luck.

In this regard, Nike always has infinite courage, always dares to try and make mistakes, and dares to take risks, just like signing Bouchard last year.

Last year, Bouchard experienced a perfect year, Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, three consecutive semi-finals, and also reached the final at Wimbledon; although the US Open was regrettable and stopped in the fourth round, the year-end world Ranked among the top five and refreshed the record of Canadian players, it is indeed an extraordinary performance.

This also established Nike's determination to support Bouchard in one fell swoop. In the new season, commercial activities are fully laid out——

In terms of commercial promotion, female players always have a slight advantage. After all, who can say no to a "sweetheart"?

To a certain extent, Bouchard's promotion resources are slightly ahead of Gao Wen's.

However, it is counterproductive.

Entering the new season, this young and beautiful girl has repeatedly hit the wall under various pressures, ushering in the "growing pains" that all young players must face.

In the Australian Open, Bouchard performed pretty well, advancing all the way to the quarter-finals, and finally lost to Sharapova. Although he could not hold on to last year's semi-finals points, he was already very good.

Unfortunately, after entering the spring hard-court season, Bouchard slowly lost his touch. Since Miami, his record has only been a poor record of [-] win and [-] losses. Not only did he suffer two defeats in the Confederations Cup, but he was also eliminated in the first round of all four competitions. , just won the only game in Rome.

Then, the French Open came——

Bouchard's signing was mediocre, and he encountered the host player Kristina-Mladenovic (Kristina-Mladenovic) in the first round.

Although the current world ranking is only 44th, Mladenovic is no stranger to Chinese fans. Last year, she upset and eliminated Li Na in the first round of Roland Garros. For Bouchard, who is not doing well recently, This is not good news.

really.

"6:4", "6:4".

Mladenovic defeated Bouchard and overturned the high-ranked seeds in the first round of the French Open for the second consecutive year.

This also means that Bouchard lost points from last year's French Open semi-finals, and the world ranking will fall directly out of the top ten.

awful.

miserable.

Obviously, Bouchard has had a hard time recently, so Nike must face a problem:
Is this a short-term downturn, or the beginning of a crash?
After all, Bouchard's rise is too fast. Last year, the Australian Open suddenly emerged, and he came to the ranks of the top WTA players in just one season; Short-term labor pains, or the beginning of decline.

The same is true for Gao Wen. He was born in the US Open last year, and it has not been a year yet. No one knows how he will develop in the future.

From Bouchard to Gao Wen, Nike is gambling and will continue to gamble, but the point is, should they increase their bets on Gao Wen?
This is a subject that belongs to Nike.

From an objective point of view, every young player must face growing pains——

From nobody to the target of public criticism, from being unburdened to being under pressure, from no one paying attention to being under the spotlight, the change of the whole feeling and attitude will quietly change the psychological state and affect the performance of the game; and the long and difficult season of tennis is is another source of stress.

Especially clay season.

On clay, the double test of body and will is a subject that every player must face, especially for young players.

Therefore, when Nike makes adjustments to its plans for the future, the factors they need to take into account are not so simple.

Not only Gao Wen and Bouchard, but also all other young players——

It is precisely because of this that when the first round of the three-day competition was over, a series of upsets appeared, unexpected but not unexpected.

Women's singles.

Both young players Bouchard and Garcia are out; in addition, Jankovic, Venus Williams, A-Radwanska and Vinci are all out.

Among them, Venus Williams lost to American teenager Sloane-Stephens (Sloane-Stephens), who was born in 1993, and witnessed the rise of another rising star; A-Radwanska lost to little-known German player Annie Card - Baker (Anika-Beck), definitely the biggest surprise in the first round.

Men's singles.

Karlovic, Jar Lopez, Faye Lopez, and Dimitrov all lost.

Although there are not many upsets, they are all strong; however, no matter whether Karlovic, who broke into the quarter-finals at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, lost, or the two Spanish veterans Lopez both stopped in the first round, none of them can compare with Dimit Love's exit came as a shock——

After the lottery came out, people seemed to have expected it in the dark. Dimitrov's lottery this year is indeed hard enough, and the unpopularity is not an unpopularity.

In the first round, the match of "Dimitrov VS Sock" was originally a battle of focus.

In the end, Sock lived up to people's expectations and defeated Dimitrov in straight sets. The tie-break in the first set was fierce and the score was fixed at "9:7".

For Dimitrov, this is a very, very difficult result to accept.

Since the "Sunshine Double Championship", his state has shown obvious signs of recovery. The Monte Carlo doubles championship is a shot in the arm, which makes him look forward to the clay court season. Although this is not the venue he is best at, Di Mitrov is still looking forward to his performance in Paris.

However, being out in the first round was even worse than the Australian Open——

For the second year in a row, Dimitrov missed the first round at Roland Garros.

In fact, Dimitrov has never been good at clay. This year is the fifth consecutive year that he has appeared in the main draw of the French Open, but his best result was only the third round in 2013. The other three years were Out of the first round, only won three games in five years, poor performance.

In other words, such a result is not shocking; moreover, from the point of view of points, last year is the same as this year, and there is no loss of points.

But from the perspective of confidence, it is still a heavy blow——

As a top ten player in the world, he was eliminated in the first round of the Grand Slam. He was burdened with expectations and high-profile results, but he was unsatisfactory.

It is really hard to imagine the pressure and impact Dimitrov faced.