"The next opponent is Davydenko. If he wins, he will advance to the quarter-finals." Zhang Guan looked at the match list and continued: "The game will be on June 3, still at Philip Stadium."
Zhang Guan was in the upper half of the 2/4 zone. After seeing his matchup, Zhang Guan set his sights on the lower half of the 2/4 zone.
Only one of the four seeds in the bottom half is left. No. 5 seed Gonzalez was eliminated in the first round. No. 11 seed Gasquet and No. 27 seed Melzer both stopped in the second round. Now The two players in the bottom half who advanced to the top 16 are No. 19 seed Canas and unseeded player Monaco, both of whom are Argentinian.
"Don't look at the lower half yet. Your next opponent is Davydenko, who is not that easy to deal with." Coach Zhang said.
Zhang Guan showed a very confident expression: "I beat Davydenko at the Australian Open, but I feel that he is not very strong. Although 'model worker' Davydenko has participated in many competitions, he is also ranked fourth in ATP points. position, but his real strength cannot compare with his fame."
"Did that guy Joyce tell you?" Coach Zhang shook his head slightly, obviously not agreeing with Coach Joyce's statement. He introduced: "Davydenko's clay court strength should not be underestimated. So far, Davydenko's strength Among the 10 ATP championships won, five were on clay courts. The 2003 Estoril Tour, the 2004 Munich Tour, the 2005 St. Pierten Tour and the Brahms Tour, the 2006 The Supo Tour is all on clay courts. In addition, the three runner-up places he has won so far were all on clay courts. It can be said that clay courts are Davydenko’s best venue.”
Coach Zhang threw Davydenko’s transcript to Zhang Guan and continued: “Although Davydenko has no obvious strengths, he also has no obvious weaknesses, and he is a very stable and patient player, which makes him It’s easy to get results on clay.”
Zhang Guan nodded with a serious face, and then asked: "Then what should I pay attention to during the game?"
"Be careful and patient. You can't be careless with every ball. You have to treat it carefully. If you do this, you will have won half the victory. And the other half of the victory, you need to be patient. On the clay court, Davydenko will definitely play very patiently, and you have to be at least as patient as him." Coach Zhang said.
…
In the match on June 2, Sharapova defeated Kudryazeva 2-0 and advanced to the fourth round of women's singles. Also on this day, Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama lost to Chakvetadze and missed the top 16. So far, all Asian women's singles players have been wiped out, and only Zhang Guan is left among the singles players in Asia.
On the same day, Nadal celebrated his 21st birthday. On his birthday, he swept Montanes 3-0 and advanced to the top 16 of the men's singles. In this game, Nadal gradually found his best form. It can be seen that Nadal at this time is completely different from a week ago. Even the media said that Nadal has entered the French Open championship mode.
On June 3, Zhang Guan and Sharapova began their respective fourth-round journeys. Zhang Guan will face No. 4 seed Davydenko at Philip Stadium, while Sharapova will face Schneider at Susan Stadium. Challenge, coincidentally, the two games were scheduled to be played in the fourth game, so the start time of the games was almost the same.
…
"Dear viewers, the next match is between the men's singles No. 4 seed Davydenko and the men's singles No. 15 seed Zhang Guan. The two have played against each other before, that was at this year's Australian Open. Zhang Guan 3 -0 defeated Davydenko easily. So today’s game is a battle of revenge for Davydenko!”
The camera was focused on Davydenko, hoping to capture something, and Davydenko showed a gentleman-like smile, showing a relaxed state.
For a player like Davydenko, who can participate in more than 30 games a year, he has indeed forgotten the feeling of nervousness.
After a few warm-up shots, the two sides began the official match.
In the first four games, the two sides tied at 2-2, and no one was able to break serve. In the following games, although Zhang Guan strengthened his offense, he still failed to find a chance to break Davydenko's serve. You come and go, and the 10 games are over in the blink of an eye, and the score becomes 5-5.
"Davydenko played so steadily today." Zhang Guan has noticed the tactics Davydenko used today, which is one word - steady!
Whether serving or receiving, Davydenko was extremely stable. In the five service games of the first set, Davydenko did not even send an ACE. This is not because Davydenko did not send ACEs. It was because he had no intention of serving the ACE ball at all. In Davydenko's serve game, his serve was not aimed at scoring directly, but to gain the initiative and better suppress Zhang Guan.
When receiving the ball, Davydenko also put stability first. In some places where Zhang Guan thought he could attack boldly, Davydenko chose to give up. Even if he launched an attack, it was not an all-or-nothing attack. Once the attack was frustrated, , immediately stopped and continued the stable stalemate.
Although this method cannot break Zhang Guan's "running attack style", the stability of serving and receiving prevents Zhang Guan from finding a very suitable offensive opportunity. Even if Zhang Guan constantly changes the offensive and defensive rhythm, he can Davydenko is as stable as a rock and rarely shows any flaws.
If it were a hard court or a grass court, Zhang Guan would definitely be able to use offense and suppression to create more opportunities, but this is a clay court, and the pace is inherently slower. Davydenko's use of this stability-seeking style of play basically A stalemate lasting more than ten or twenty beats was formed.
After twelve games, the two sides were still tied, and then entered the first tie-break between the two sides.
"It's finally the tie-break!" Davydenko showed a relieved smile on his face. His stable style of play had an extremely huge advantage in the tie-break. In the tie-break, no ball can be missed easily, so the more stable the style of play, the more advantageous it is to play the tie-break.
"Although Zhang Guan still sent a few aces, compared with the Australian Open, the clay court of the French Open has greatly reduced the power of his serve. Without this important weapon, Zhang Guan's advantage in the tie-break will no longer be It was weakened once. So when Zhang Guan serves, maybe it is my chance." Davydenko started to serve while thinking.
This was a long shot of twenty-eight shots, and Davydenko finally saved the shot.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Guan served. What Davydenko didn't expect was that Zhang Guan also used a relatively conservative way of serving.
It was another long round of 21 shots, and Zhang Guan scored one point.
The next ball was another long round of twenty-five beats. Then came eighteen beats, twenty-two beats, and nineteen beats. In the seventh ball of both sides, the two sides actually played thirty-two shots, and immediately after the eighth ball, the two sides played an astonishing thirty-nine shots!
Although it is a clay court and the ball is slower, it is rare in modern tennis to play twenty shots. The ultra-long round of thirty-nine shots has set a record for the longest number of shots at this French Open.
The score at this time was 4-4, and the two sides were still tied in the tie-break.
The audience burst into applause, and the TV screen also showed that this was the longest number of shots in this French Open.
However, in the ninth ball that followed, the number of shots the two sides held in a stalemate exceeded this number, reaching an astonishing forty shots.
This long round of competition made the audience shout that it was so enjoyable that the audience in front of the TV could not wait to rewind the program and watch the 40-shot competition again.
However, on the field, Davydenko rubbed his slightly sore biceps and moved his wrists constantly, with a complicated expression on his face.
"Something feels wrong, I seem to have been tricked!" Davydenko thought silently.
The second update is here. During the double monthly pass period, please support me with monthly passes. Thank you to the leader, Purple Prison Moon, for the half-thousand-point reward!
(End of chapter)