Chapter 578 First Attempt

"Gao Wen! Come on! Tim! Come on!"

"Gao Wen! Come on! Tim! Come on!"

The uniform cheers surged over the No. 2 court of Qizhong Tennis Center, and the bustling crowd spread out in the field of vision. More than one-third of the court stands were full of spectators, waving their five-stars happily. The red flag fluttering in the wind is all over the sky, which is very spectacular.

On the court, Gao Wen, who had just completed the overhead high pressure by jumping on the spot and successfully scored, clenched his fists, turned his head to look at Tim, and let out a passionate roar.

Tim rushed up in small steps, gave Gao Wen a high-five in celebration, and roared together, and the cheers of the entire stadium were pushed to the peak at this moment.

With such a scene, passers-by who didn't know why thought it was the World Cup preliminaries being staged in front of them, but they didn't know that it was just the first round of doubles.

Warm atmosphere!

It was the first time for Gao Wen to try doubles at the ATP level. He partnered Tim to play, but because of the wild card, the signing was not good. In the first round, he encountered the Australian Open doubles champion Lukas Kubert (Lukasz- Kubot) and Robert-Lindstedt.

Lindstead is a veteran player born in 1977, specializing in doubles. His career highest ranking came to third place in doubles in May 2013.

Wimbledon is his most outstanding Grand Slam. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, he reached the men's doubles final for three consecutive years, but all ended in failure.

Kubert was born in 1982. He focused on singles in the early stages of his career. His career highest ranking was 41st in April 2010.

The masterpiece of Kubert's singles career also appeared at Wimbledon. In 2013, he made it all the way to the quarter-finals, and finally lost to fellow Polish youngster Jerzy-Janowicz. Historically became the first "post-90s" to break into the semi-finals of the Grand Slam.

However, after that, Kubert realized that he was not competitive enough in the singles field, and tried to focus on the doubles field in his career, but he did not expect that he soared into the sky and partnered with Lindstead for the first time in the Grand Slam. Just climb to the top of the championship.

It is worth mentioning that Kubert discovered his doubles talent in this way, and later focused on doubles and achieved very brilliant results. In 2018, he became the first Polish in history to reach the top of the world—whether it is Singles and doubles, or men's and women's competitions.

The most incredible thing is that the doubles combination of Kubert and Lindstead just started this year.

Lindstede was going to play alongside Austrian Jurgen-Melzer at the Australian Open, but Melzer withdrew from the Australian season due to a wrist injury, forcing Lindstede to play with Kubert on a temporary basis .

They lost in the first round of both tournaments before heading to Melbourne, taking a winless doubles pair to a Grand Slam.

As a result, it was black to the end.

Hey, does the story sound familiar?

Now, the "Australian Open doubles dark horse" VS "US Open singles dark horse" duel is staged at the Shanghai Masters. For senior tennis fans, it is actually very interesting.

Professionals know that singles and doubles are two different things. A famous singles player may not be able to perform well in doubles, because the entire technique, tactics, and layout are all different, and the entire content of the game is simply different.

It is precisely because of this that the technical points honed in doubles matches are different; and it can open players' horizons and update their interpretation of the entire court space.

So, what kind of sparks can Gao Wen and Tim, two young players who have performed well in singles, collide with Kubert and Lindstead, two veteran players who are more suitable for doubles competitions?

"Dark Horse VS Dark Horse", an alternative dark horse showdown.

However, at this moment, it was the youthful pair of Gao Wen and Tim who had the upper hand on the court.

With the score "5:4" leading, Gao Wen and Tim forced two consecutive break points and counts in the opponent's serve game, igniting all the enthusiasm on the second court.

In tennis doubles, like badminton and table tennis, the serve is served in turn.

For example, the first game was served by Gawain, the second by Lindstead, the third by Tim, the fourth by Kubert, and the fifth by Gawain.

And so on, in turn.

Because of the particularity of the doubles game, the role of the serve is greatly weakened. After all, there are two more players on the court, and the space for returning the serve is compressed; however, the skill and combination of the serve are still very important, which can often be your own. Teammates create more chances.

In Gao Wen's combination, Tim's serve is slightly weaker, and there are still fewer permutations and combinations, but overall, the strength of the two's serve is relatively average.

In the Kubert combination, Lindstead's serve is weak, and the entire layout of the serve always exposes more loopholes and becomes the opponent's target.

The tenth game was Lindstead's serve, which was Lindstead's second serve since the start of the game.

After "15:30", Lindstead's serving speed and strength were good, but his serving action failed to hide his tactical intentions, and he was caught by Tim, who was standing on the bottom line and responsible for receiving the serve.

At the moment of hitting the ball, Tim flicked his wrist lightly and made an unconventional hitting action. No one else knew how Tim did it, but when he returned the serve, he drew a weird small slash —

Thin and biased.

Turn and rush.

Completely crossed Kubert who was waiting in front of the net to kill, forcibly tore a hole, and returned to the teeing area in Lindstead's service half, and it was a shallow and light ball, which was unbelievable. Attached to the external rotation, you can clearly feel that Gao Wen is using his strength to push, and he jumps out quickly after landing.

Lindstead started to catch up from the bottom line, but the speed was too slow; Kubert moved laterally to complete the defense, but his footsteps were not fully in place, and he barely hooked his forehand to look back at the moon, but he had no control at all , the rotation, arc, and direction are all messed up.

Gao Wen, who was waiting in front of the net, was very alert~lightnovelpub.net~ quickly moved laterally, took off from the spot, and directly smashed the high-pressure ball to death.

Light, ingenious, and full of inspiration!

The audience was in a state of thunder, and people were amazed at the agility of Gao Wen's replacement, and even more amazed at Tim's unconstrained style of returning the ball.

In fact, it was the doubles game that gave Tim inspiration: How can he complete the return serve, while avoiding Kubert's interception in front of the net and giving Lindstead enough pressure?

The stadium is so big, how should the three-dimensional space be used?

The game went back and forth for 30 minutes. Tim seized a flash of inspiration and hit a fairy ball, which won them a chance to take the next set at the end of the set.

It was the first time to try doubles. Both Gao Wen and Tim were very uncomfortable. They were unfamiliar and rusty, and their cooperation was not tacit enough. In addition, since the Australian Open, the opponent team has also continued the bad situation of poor form for most of the season. Now it is Gao Wen who created the opportunity.

Fourth update.

(end of this chapter)