Match point

In a blink of an eye, Wimbledon has entered the fourth match day, and the second round of the men's singles bottom half and women's singles bottom half is about to kick off.

As mentioned before, this year's Wimbledon is a tournament full of turbulence and opportunities, turning points and history, from men's to women's competitions. This has been proved in just three competition days, dazzling The competition created one explosive point after another——

In the first round, the men's singles competition was relatively calm. Although some seeded players were eliminated, the most important news was that Gao Wen saved the match point and defeated Istomin to advance. The results of other matches were far from upset; real upsets From the women's singles arena, it is definitely a heavyweight.

Women’s singles No. 12 seed Halep lost to Czech player Jana-Cepelova in the first round, and No. [-] seed Bouchard also lost to Chinese player Duan Yingying in the first round. Coupled with Sock, who was eliminated in the first round of the men's singles, the youth storm suffered a blow.

Last year, Halep and Bouchard could be said to be full of glory. Halep broke into the final at the French Open and the semi-finals at Wimbledon; They are the two leaders who performed as the runner-up and are known as the women's singles youth storm.

This year, Halep drove high and low. After the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, he won consecutive titles in Dubai and Indian Wells, but he fell into a downturn when he came to his favorite clay court season. Roland Garros was upset and stopped in the second round. , Came to Wimbledon and slipped into a worse abyss.

Bouchard has been able to see fatigue since the end of last year. At the beginning of the year, his performance in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open was not bad, but after that he fell into a vicious circle where one win was hard to find. The season record in Melbourne was only a pitiful two wins and nine losses. , The French Open and Wimbledon were eliminated in the first round in a row, and the points loss was heavy.

It is unimaginable that the two most watched and most anticipated young girls both fell into a slump this season.

But when you think about it seriously, the women’s singles are all focused on Serena Williams’ “Serena Grand Slam”, and the men’s singles are witnessing the Big Four guarding the final position. The younger generation wants to seize power and take over professional tennis. It is indeed true. There is a long way to go, and it is not surprising that the youth storm has hit the wall head-on.

Immediately afterwards, the upset on the third match day also proved this speculation.

First of all, the men's singles arena.

Kei Nishikori, after a hard-fought five-set first-round promotion, announced his withdrawal from the second round due to a deteriorating calf injury. He withdrew from the competition before his debut. After a brilliant peak season last year, physical limitations slowly began It was exposed that Kei Nishikori's season was also ups and downs.

Subsequently, the biggest upset since the opening of Wimbledon in 2015 was born on the Center Court——

Nadal, the two-time tournament champion and one of the Big Four, lost four sets in the second round to the little-known qualifier Dustin Brown. Volt's season is still going on, and his No.10 position in the world ranking is in jeopardy.

There was an uproar.

Almost all eyes were focused on Nadal, so that other news on the field became overshadowed.

In fact, other news also hides many topics——

Tim lost to Verdasco and stopped in the second round. German veteran Haas lost to Raonic, who returned from injury, and failed to continue his miraculous comeback journey.

The highly anticipated youth storm player Zverev Jr. lost four sets to wild card player Denis-Kudla, missing his chance to write history; Coric, who also belongs to the "post-95" star camp, fought hard Lost to Italian veteran Seppi in four sets and missed the third round.

Only two days ago, the German media was curious about whether this year Wimbledon could witness the grand occasion of three young players advancing to the third round together. The hopes that sparked German tennis, turned out to be... all destroyed.

Topics, one after another, but all disappeared in front of the news of Nadal's upset stop in the second round. There is no doubt that this is the year's blockbuster. It has been a long, long time since the Big Four have stopped in the first week of a Grand Slam. This loss will undoubtedly set off the turmoil of last year and this year more violently.

No wonder the media reporters didn't keep chasing the scandal between Gao Wen and Lawrence.

After all, compared with the explosive news on the field, the scandal that has been declared over is of no value at all. The focus that was pursued and discussed by countless people a few hours ago has become obsolete in a blink of an eye.

Secondly, the women's singles arena.

The cold wind from the first round of competition is still continuing.

Ivanovic lost to American qualifier Bethanie-Mattek-Sands and Ka Pliskova lost to American violent hitter Coco van der Weghe. Vendeweghe still hasn't been able to usher in a breakthrough in the Grand Slam.

In addition, last year's US Open and this year's Australian Open broke into the semi-finals and ushered in a new career high Makarova, the young star Elina-Svitolina (Elina-Svitolina), and the extremely difficult French player Kone The specials and so on also all broke out with moderate upsets and stopped the second round.

Sure enough, Wimbledon is Wimbledon—

Perhaps, purely from the perspective of variables and unpopularity, grass is far inferior to clay, and Roland Garros is the hotbed of unpopularity, but the entire professional tennis world has realized that with the shortening of the grass court season, players adapt after switching channels. The difficulty increases, and there are upsets almost every year.

Moreover, there are many this year, especially in the first week of the competition, because the grass is easy to slip, accidents occur frequently, and there are indeed many situations that cannot be controlled.

It is precisely because of this that the organizing committee of the competition arranged the "Gao Wen VS Ma Hu" match to enter the center court instead of Murray, and we can see the clue——

For Wimbledon, the home favorites are important, very, very important; but the excitement and suspense of the first week of action is more important, slightly better.

Obviously, among the high-ranked men's singles players this year, Gawain, who was born but has never set foot on grass, is the most unstable and full of uncertainties; although no one expected that Nadal and Kei Nishikori would be due to different reasons. The second round was stopped early, but Gao Wen's performance in the first round also confirmed the vision of the experts:
The prospect of Gao Wen's competition is indeed full of variables. Many influencing factors on and off the field may play different roles, leading to an unknown situation in the end.

From a professional point of view, this is called suspense, and it is precisely the most fascinating part of competitive sports.

After many upsets, strong winds and torrential rain, Gao Wen and Ma Hu walked into the court one after the other, and they were about to face off in the second match on the center court.

For a long time, Gao Wen was looking forward to walking into Wimbledon's century-old center court. Maybe this game came a little earlier than expected, and the swords and swords hidden behind it were also full of anxiety; but the center court is the center court— —

Gao Wen was ready, he was ready to enjoy this match.