After Zhang Guan played in front of the net, Nalbandian lost his serve.
Nalbandian felt a little depressed. He took a sip of water, calmed down quickly, and began to think about countermeasures.
"Although volley play is extremely threatening, the probability of mistakes is also much greater, so I have to be more proactive and more oppressive, forcing Zhang Guan to make mistakes. It's like dealing with Karlovic, that's it!" Nalbandian quickly developed a new tactical strategy.
Karlovic is the tallest player among the top 100 players in ATP history, reaching 2.08 meters. He is a Croatian and has a career ranking of 14th. However, in the Grand Slam game, his's best result is only entering the quarter-finals, for the games. It is worth mentioning that, today, everyone is using the bottom-line style of play, but Karlovic still insists on using the netplay, he can be regarded as the heir of the netplay.
Nalbandian became a professional tennis player in 2000, and when he was able to step onto the stage of the competition, top net players such as Sampras and Ivanisevic retired. So the strongest front-line player Nalbandian has faced is Karlovic.
Also as a pre-net player, the gap between Karlovic and Sampras is really a difference. Karlovic is only a Grand Slam round player, while Sampras is a player with fourteen Grand Slams, the two can be said to be completely incomparable.
Zhang Guan, as the world's first flying man, has better mobility than Sampras, and Zhang Guan has learned Sampras's experience book. It can be said that the current Zhang Guan is a slightly faster Sampras. Nalbandian used his experience against Karlovic to deal with Zhang Guan, so the results can be imagined.
...
"Zhang Guan went for a volley, a beautiful volley before the net!"
"Catch the ball in front of the net and play diagonally. Nalbandian's ball is back! The high-pressure ball is beautiful! Zhang Guan's ball is so beautiful!"
"Zhang Guan... directly in front of the net! In the world! The ball is not out of bounds! It happens to be on the line. The referee has no problem with the penalty!"
Serving a volley, receiving a volley, or going for a volley has become the main theme of this game.
Zhang Guan has gone for a volley for almost every ball. Although not every ball can be successful, the overall success rate is still good. This is also reflected in the score. The final score of the first set is 6- 3. Nalbandian's style is obviously extremely unsuitable for Zhang Guan's volley play. In addition to the success of the first round, the other two rounds were won by Zhang Guan's volley batting mistakes.
Nalbandian sat in a chair on the sidelines and silently calculated Zhang Guan's volley success rate. In Zhang Guan's serve game, his serve-volley almost failed, and occasionally one or two failures will not affect the final result. In Nalbandian's serve game, Zhang Guan's volley success rate reached about 50%. If the probability of Nurbandian's unforced errors is counted, Zhang Guan's chance of completing a break is greater than 50%.
"How can there be such a high success rate in this world! This is unscientific and unreasonable. Even the former king Sampras, was just a bit more than that. It must be that I have not given enough pressure to Zhang Guan, so Zhang Guan has a relatively high volley success rate. He, therefore, has to continue to put pressure on Zhang Guan, the ball has to spin more sharply, to force him to make mistakes." Nalbandian thought about it in his heart.
In theory, Nalbandian's strategy is completely correct. The power of playing in front of the net is that it occupies the initiative on the field and can give the enemy a fatal blow. The disadvantage of playing in front of the net is also obvious since the chance of mistakes is too high.
Twenty years ago, it was also the era of the former king of tennis, Sampras. The pre-net play was very popular. The pre-net play of that era was not just serving the in front of the net, but resolutely going for a volley regardless of the ball. The access to the net is required for the first shot and then being in front of the net for the second shot; the grass needs to be connected to the in front of the net, the hard ground needs to be connected to the in front of the net, and even the red land that is not suitable for playing in front of the net should also be connected to them in front of the net. It is precisely because of this that the fourteenth Grand Slam champion Sampras didn't win the French Open championship, because the French Open is a red land, it is not suitable for playing before the net.
Nowadays, the pre-net play has gradually been eliminated, partly because the technique has been improved due to the development of tennis equipment and courts, but the main thing is that players led by Federer began to pursue rotation, whether it is Federer's bottom line offensive play, or Nadal's bottom line defensive play, all of which are high-rotation and high-pressure play, which makes the chance of players making mistakes when serving in front of the net greatly increased, and players gradually find that the bottom line is more stable and easier to master. Eventually everyone's style of play has evolved into a variety of bottom line draws.
The high-speed spin ball really restrained opponents from going for a volley, just like Zhang Guan's last game against Grosjean. "Nadal turn" directly blinded Grosjean, making Grosjean's serve-volley useless. In today's game, Nalbandian also made the same choice.
...
The second set game between the two sides began. Nalbandian strengthened the rotation of the ball. He also played more actively. Sometimes he even gave up his best hands backhand and used the positive shot to return the ball. The purpose is to make the tennis ball get a stronger spin.
However, the effect achieved by Nalbandian is very general. Nalbandian's style of play is inherently stable, and his best weapon is the accuracy of the hitting point. Whether it is a forehand or a backhand, Nalbandian can be said to refer to where to play, this style of play is originally based on mobilizing opponents to run back and forth to score. As for rotation, it is clearly not what Nalbandian is good at.
After dozens of minutes, Nalbandian panted and looked at the scoreboard. The 6-2 score was even worse than the first set.
"I'm underestimating Zhang Guan. His pre-net skill is definitely the best in the world! Every volley before the net hits me in a dead-end. I managed to grasp it very accurately, and the landing point was just where I couldn't get it! There is a time to go for a volley, in my opinion, it is a terrible time to go volley, but he will still choose the front of the net very decisively! In addition to the handling of the ball, the experience is extremely old, compared with Zhang Guan, Karlovic's forward play is simply too pediatric!"
"This damn play in front of the net! Nowadays athletes all over the world are using the bottom line. Why was there a sudden emergence of Zhang Guan who uses the front of the net, and it happened to restrain my play style? My backhand is over. I can't use Nadal's type of spin, how can I deal with Zhang Guan's play in front of the net?"
Nalbandian couldn't help feeling anxious, and at the same time, he felt some pain in his hips.
"It hurts a bit, is it an old injury?" Nalbandian's eyes flashed with worry.
In last year's French Open semi-final, Nalbandian was suddenly injured while leading Federer and retired from injury. Since then, hip injuries have been accompanied by Nalbandian's career, It was because of injuries that Nalbandian was in a sluggish state for the second half of the 2006 season, and then had to undergo surgery in 2009.
The most feared thing for a professional athlete is injuries. Sometimes injuries can kill athletes not only physically, but also psychologically.
At this time, Nalbandian had been worrying about whether his old injury would recur. As a result, he was completely sluggish in the third set. He finally lost the third set 6-2, and he also lost this game.
In the third round of the Australian Open, Zhang Guan defeated No. 8 seed David Nalbandian 3-0.