Match Point: Chapter 809 1 enchantment
Chapter 810 A Curse
In professional tennis, reaching the top of the Grand Slam is undoubtedly a feat. Two weeks of events, seven games, a gathering of masters, and Huashan discussing swords.
If it is a men's match, then the difficulty of the five-set best-of-three system will be even more difficult.
It is precisely because of the difficulty of winning the championship that the Grand Slam championship is so precious. Even if there are four Grand Slams every year, the rarity is far less than that of the Olympic Games and World Cup held every four years, but the value of the championship is beyond doubt.
It is not easy for any player to win a Grand Slam championship; after winning the first championship, he quickly became the target of public criticism, and it is even more difficult to win the second championship. Helplessness and struggle are always unavoidable stories in professional tennis.
Among them, the situation of men's tennis and women's tennis is slightly different.
In women's tennis, the phenomenon of "one grand slam" is so common because it is difficult to perform stably; in men's tennis, it is because of fierce competition that the difficulty of reaching the top is beyond imagination.
However, the difficulty is the difficulty. The most beautiful and moving part of competitive sports is that you constantly challenge yourself to challenge the limit. There are always people who can do it, and then create one record after another, and wait for the latecomers to catch up and break the record again. , Write a new peak.
Limits are always being refreshed.
However, there is such an unknown "curse" in men's professional tennis, which has not been able to break so far—
After winning the first Grand Slam trophy in his career, he won the second one immediately.
In other words, after ushering in a breakthrough, we will continue to break through.
The difficulty can be imagined, but it is not impossible. There is more than one player in women's tennis who has accomplished such a feat.
Evonne-Fay--Cawley (Evonne-Fay--Cawley), won the French Open for the first time in 1971, and won Wimbledon in turn.
Chris-Evert, 1974, won Wimbledon immediately after winning French Open for the first time.
Venus Williams, in 2000, after reaching the top of Wimbledon for the first time, followed by the top of the US Open.
Jennifer-Capriati won the Australian Open for the first time in 2001, followed by the French Open.
Osaka-Naomi (Osaka-Naomi), from 2018 to 2019, won the Australian Open the following year after reaching the top of the US Open for the first time.
Etc., etc.
Although the number is not large, there are not many. It can be seen that the degree of difficulty is very high, but there are still many challengers who have completed breakthroughs.
But, very, very unexpectedly, in men's professional tennis, no one has ever been able to do it.
Obviously, after reaching the top of the Grand Slam championship for the first time in his career, male players seem to fall into a trough and get lost for a while.
If you study carefully, you will find that, including before and after the Open era, after winning the first Grand Slam, there is only one poor one who reached the Grand Slam finals back to back:
In 2012, Murray reached the top of the US Open and finally ushered in a breakthrough in his career. Immediately after the Australian Open at the beginning of the following year, Murray once again performed well and reached the final.
That is to say, in the century-old history of professional tennis, it was not until 2012 that Murray broke through the shackles and completed the feat of reaching the finals back-to-back after winning the championship for the first time.
It is a pity that in the 2013 Australian Open final, Murray lost to Djokovic and missed making history.
In fact, even if it is pushed back ten years, in 2021, Medvedev won the US Open for the first time, and then reached the final of the Australian Open the following year. He is only the second person to complete such a feat after Murray Players, however, regrettably lost to Nadal in the final and finished runner-up.
This is really unbelievable, even if you don't want to believe it, but the reality is like this... ghosts hit the wall.
Take a look at a simple horizontal comparison:
Federer reached the top of Wimbledon for the first time in 2003, and then stopped in the fourth round of the US Open.
Nadal, who reached the top of the French Open for the first time in 2005, followed by Wimbledon in the second round.
Djokovic reached the top of the Australian Open for the first time in 2008, and then stopped in the semi-finals of the French Open.
Countless professionals and senior fans are very curious about this matter. One record after another has been broken and updated, but this record has always been rock-solid.
So, in this, is there a curse and a shackle that restricts male players?
It would seem absurd to say so: how is it possible.
But if you think about it seriously, female players have accomplished such a brilliant feat more than once, and they have appeared three times since the turn of the millennium. However, male players did not have a "Hope Seed" until 2012, which is really too exaggerated.
Perhaps, the term "curse" is not so absurd.
At the beginning of last year, Wawrinka made a breakthrough for the first time in his career and reached the top of the Australian Open. At that time, people have been discussing:
Other players were too young and inexperienced when they reached the top of the championship for the first time, so they couldn't handle the pressure and disputes well, so they couldn't break the curse, so Wawrinka didn't have such a shackle—
After all, Wawrinka is already twenty-eight years old.
The pressure surged towards Wawrinka overwhelmingly, and reached its peak after Wawrinka reached the top of the Monte Carlo Masters. Because this is a clay-court Masters, people have reason to have more expectations for Wawrinka's prospects in the French Open.
Expectations, doubts, curiosity, provocations, and disturbing opinions flocked in. Before going to Paris, Wawrinka was also generally considered to be the favorite to win the French Open. His momentum even surpassed Federer and Djokovic, and he went straight to Nadal.
The results of it?
Out in the first round.
Breaking through so many glasses that the post-match press conference exploded.
In a blink of an eye, one year later, the players gathered in Melbourne again to compete for the new year's Australian Open championship. Does everything that happened just now look familiar?
Basically, everything that Wawrinka experienced at the French Open last year is now directly passed on to Gao Wen.
It is precisely because of this that Agassi went to great lengths to avoid any kind of positive response.
But Agassi soon realized that if the reporters couldn't do what they wanted, they must be stalking, and this matter would definitely not end so easily.
Endless, endless... Infinite loop, which also means that the pressure focused on Gao Wen's shoulders will inevitably continue to accumulate.
what to do?
In the blink of an eye, Agassi had a bold idea, and then he did it—
Djokovic is the champion, who can refute it?
After all ~www.mtlnovel.com~ so far, Djokovic has reached the top four times at Melbourne Park, accounting for 57% of his seven Grand Slam titles so far.
Djokovic has already tied Federer and Agassi's four championships, tied for the most Australian Open titles in the Open era, and is becoming a new generation of "Melbourne Park King".
Now imagine the news outlet's headline:
"Agassi: Djokovic is the champion."
"Gowon's coach thinks the chances of winning the championship are slim."
"Agassi is optimistic about Djokovic winning the championship, but he is not optimistic about his disciples."
"Agassi's pick, spoiler alert: it's not Gawain."
"A bucket of cold water, Agassi calmed down his disciples in his own way."
And so on.
The social network is sure to be buzzing again, but Agassi doesn't mind:
No matter what the media and netizens say, the pressure on Gao Wen to win the championship can be relieved anyway. The last thing they need now is "spell trouble".
(end of this chapter)