Chapter Ninety-Six: One Win and One Loss
Like yesterday, in order to take care of the two singles and doubles players of the Beijing team, the organizing committee has scheduled the doubles semifinals in the morning and the two men's singles semifinals in the afternoon.
In the doubles semifinals, the Pansiqi combination really met a strong opponent this time. The doubles pair, from Guangdong, were the champions of the last Grand Prix. This year is also very popular, and before the game it was considered quite promising to complete the title defense.
For the dark horse combination of Pansiqi, the defending champions were not in sight. But after watching the coach's video of Pancic's last round of abuse, they realised they could be in big trouble in the semifinals.
In the face of Pansiqi's unreasonable play, they felt unbelievable at first, but after thinking about it, they found that they could hardly find a suitable way to crack it. This can be a big headache for them, and they don't know what to do.
After thinking about a variety of different tactical combinations, the two players were depressed to find that no matter what tactics they adopted, they could hardly get rid of the head-on confrontation with Pancic. Unless Pansiqi is confused for a while, he gives up the bottom line and comes to the net. Of course, the likelihood of such a situation is basically zero.
There was no way, the Guangdong pair had to bite the bullet. At the beginning, they had a bit of momentum and wanted to show the momentum of the defending champions and the hosts. However, in the face of Pansiqi's impactful baseline offensive, they still desperately realized that the gap between themselves and Pansiqi was too big.
And after the run-in of the previous games, Lin Teng and Pan Xiqi's cooperation has become more and more proficient. Now, Lin Teng's ability to catch fighters in front of the net has been significantly enhanced, and he has even scored several wonderful points by leaping over the net. This also means that Lin Teng's threat in front of the net has greatly increased. This welcome change further eases the pressure on Pansiqi on the baseline. In this way, Pansiqi is even more comfortable on the bottom line.
There was no suspense, and the Panci combination kept two sets of clean sheets against their opponents and reached the final strongly. As for the exit of the defending doubles champion, everyone believes that this is the first big upset of the day. But for both sides of the game, such a result could not be more natural.
Reaching the final of doubles should be a major breakthrough for the Beijing team. But at the moment, the Beijing team did not show corresponding excitement, because all their eyes were on the highlight of the afternoon, the two men's singles semifinals played by Pan Xiqi and Lin Teng.
It can be said that in tennis, the influence of singles is more than that of doubles, and it is not of the same magnitude at all. A national men's singles champion is estimated to be heavier than several men's doubles champions, especially in Grand Slams. When we usually talk about tennis Grand Slam champions, we usually default to singles champions. If you're only winning a doubles Grand Slam, you're not eligible for that title.
Therefore, if Panci and Panci can reach the men's singles final, then the doubles result will be insignificant, at most just the icing on the cake.
Nervous time always flies very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it came to two o'clock in the afternoon, and Lin Teng's first men's singles semi-final against Wu Di officially began!
In the semi-finals, coupled with the appearance of the top seed, the match was naturally arranged on the biggest center court. This stadium can accommodate nearly seven or eight thousand spectators, which can be regarded as a relatively large-scale stadium in China.
Compared with the popularity of the women's event, men's tennis seems to be much more deserted. But Rao was like this, and there were still three or four thousand spectators who came to watch the game. In the stands, some fans also held posters and signs of Wu Di, and shouted and cheered for Wu Di in an organized manner. It seems that Wu Di, as the first brother in China, also has a lot of fans.
Feeling the warm atmosphere on the court, Lin Teng began to get a little nervous. At the end of the day, he's still a teenager at heart, and he doesn't really see himself as an adult. In terms of pressure resistance, it is naturally far weaker than Wu's enemies, who have been fighting in the arena for many years and have seen countless big scenes. In the first few rounds, with his impact power, Lin Teng was able to pass the test smoothly. But this time in the face of Wu's enemy, this alone is not enough.
Wu Di deserves to be the best male player in China today, and he is also very good at observing his opponents. At the beginning, Lin Teng's somewhat deformed movements due to nervousness were seen by him. Wu Di didn't give Lin Teng any respite at this time, and launched a fierce offensive as soon as he came up, and the rhythm was also very fast.
It stands to reason that this rhythm is Lin Teng's favorite mode. But due to nervousness, Lin Teng made a lot more mistakes than before. Coupled with Wu Di's very solid bottom-line ability, the fast-paced confrontation with Lin Teng not only did not fall behind, but showed stronger stability.
In such a comparison, Lin Teng was immediately in a disadvantageous situation. Without much effort, Wu Di directly broke Lin Teng's serve and brought the score to a 2:0 lead.
After two rounds of adaptation, Lin Teng gradually entered the rhythm of the game, and the tension in his heart was greatly reduced. This is first manifested in the fact that his unnecessary mistakes have quickly decreased, and the bottom line with Wu's enemies has also begun to become evenly matched.
Feeling the improvement of Lin Teng's state, Wu Di's rich game experience immediately played a role. Faced with such a situation, Wu changed his strategy and no longer sought a fast-paced attack, but played steadily and steadily, trying to keep his serve.
It turned out that due to the break at the beginning, as long as Wu Di successfully held his serve in the next match, he could keep Lin Teng down in terms of points and win the first set. Therefore, in Lin Teng's serve, Wu Di also relaxed a lot strategically.
Although it is getting easier and easier to hold serve in his service game, as the number of rounds increases, Lin Teng's pressure is getting bigger and bigger. Because Lin Teng knew that if the two sides maintained the balance of their respective service games and could not get a break, he would still lose the first set.
Next, in Wu Di's service game, Lin Teng was like crazy and launched an extremely fierce attack. However, Wu Di relied on his delicate skills and changeable line combinations to firmly control the serve game in his own hands.
With Lin Teng's active attack out of bounds, Wu Di once again held his serve and won the first set 6:4.
In the first set, it can be said that Wu Di took advantage of Lin Teng's nervousness at the beginning and took advantage of his unstable foothold to gain an advantage, thus establishing an advantage and maintaining it until the end. This shows how important experience is in tennis.
Lin Teng, who fell behind in the first set, completely let go of his hands and feet in the second set. Young and energetic, he fully demonstrated the impact of the new generation of tennis, and it was an inextricable match with Wu Di. With his physical advantage, Lin Teng overwhelmed Wu Di in terms of strength. However, Wu Enemy relied on subtle techniques to often turn the opponent's attack into invisibility, so that the opponent would return in vain.
And just like that, the score alternated again. Both sides were very strong in their own service games and did not give the opponent many break opportunities. The score came to 5:4, and Wu Di took the lead. It can be said that the final decisive moment has arrived.
In the tenth game, Lin Teng's serve. This is his unbreakable serve, and once broken, he will be eliminated. Lin Teng, who realized the importance of this game, actually began to get nervous again.
Although he kept telling himself to be calm, Lin Teng still couldn't help but start trembling. This terrible tension immediately affected his feel, and he issued two double faults as soon as he came up.
For Wu Di, how could he miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Finding the fighter, he immediately strengthened his attack as if he had been beaten with blood. Sure enough, under the strong pressure exerted by Wu Di, Lin Teng's heart finally collapsed, and he regretfully handed over this game and lost the second set 4:6.
It can be said that it was precisely because of the two tensions at the beginning and the end that Lin Teng's entire game was ruined, and the defending champion Wu Di entered the final again!