Source network: Perseverance beyond physical strength
In the midst of all the anticipation, the 2023 World Tour Finals kicked off in Hangzhou, and the men's singles event has always been the focus of fans' attention. On December 13, the first match day of the finals, Shi Yuqi faced Axelsen, and when the schedule was announced, everyone's expectations were ignited in an instant.
After a total of 51 minutes of fierce battle in two games, Shi Yuqi showed excellent form, and finally narrowly defeated Axelsen 21:19 in two games, ending his eight-game losing streak in six years, and after the group stage of the 2017 finals, he once again achieved a breakthrough against the world No. 1 in the finals, rewriting the record to 2-8. At the same time, this is also the first time in four years that the Chinese men's singles has won against Axelsen after the 2019 finals.
This is the third meeting between Shi Yuqi and Axelsen in the 2023 season, the last time was the Kumamoto Masters in Japan in November, when Shi Yuqi lost 0:2, and the scores of both games were very close, and a month later in Hangzhou, Shi Yuqi finally crossed the last distance between that and victory and achieved a hard-won victory. This article will talk about this wonderful battle of extreme offense and defense that shows the skills and capabilities of both sides in an all-round way.
A brief description of the competition process
In the first game, Shi Yuqi started from 0:0 to 21:19 to win the last point, and was in the lead throughout the whole game. In the opening stage, Axelsen's adaptation to the game was obviously not ideal, and there were many active mistakes, Shi Yuqi quickly established a lead, made a 10-5 start, and entered the break with 11-8.
In the second half of the game, Axelsen still made many active mistakes, but by speeding up and trying to seek the initiative, he played two waves of active scoring climaxes, 13:13 and 19:19, Axelsen tied the score twice. Shi Yuqi withstood the test of mentality, stopped Axelsen's scoring streak in time, and won by two points with an excellent key point play, taking the lead in the next city.
In the second game, Axelsen started the game with a fast speed, and at the same time kept shouting to cheer himself on after scoring, showing a strong desire to win. Under the power of Axelsen, Shi Yuqi started slightly passively. In the 27 points from 0:0 to 14:13, 88.89% came from Axelsen's active scoring and active mistakes, which to a certain extent shows that Axelsen took the initiative to play and master the dominance of the court in the first half of the game, but it also reflected Shi Yuqi's tenacity that Axelsen's score was not so smooth.
After tying the score at 14:14, five consecutive active scores laid the final chance for Shi Yuqi, Shi Yuqi gritted his teeth and insisted on the decline in physical fitness at the end of the game, and after wasting two match point opportunities, he took the last step to victory with a straight line at the last match point, and narrowly defeated Axelsen with the second 21:19 to achieve the first victory of the key group stage.
In the two games, Axelsen's active scoring rate has been very high, which reflects his strong offensive ability, but the game is based on comprehensive play, Shi Yuqi is obviously better in error control, and almost every game can open up a score difference of about ten points with fewer mistakes, which is one of the key reasons for the final victory.
Talk about techniques and tactics
As offensive players, Axelsen and Shi Yuqi have their own offensive means in the backfield, whether it is relying on ball speed or landing point, the threat is great when getting the opportunity, so both sides are very efficient in grasping the opportunity ball, and no one is absolutely sure that they can withstand the opponent's offensive when they are on the defensive, which means that in the process of holding each other and controlling each other, who can maintain their own rhythm is particularly important, and the rhythm of the game is in their own hands, not only can they relatively actively limit the opponent, but also play their own offensive mode more smoothly。
Today's men's singles have strong individual ability, and it is the mainstream to form mutual restrictions and offense and defense based on playing far nets and drawing fastballs, so most of the game is a game of pushing, grabbing, pushing, and transitioning. During this period, the opportunity generally comes from one side pushing the arc is not in place and brings the opponent a surprise opportunity, or has to return to the high arc backcourt ball to get rid of it due to not holding the front of the net, being beaten and turning around, etc., so as to give the opponent the opportunity to attack calmly. In the face of Axelsen, the treatment of the arc in the standoff is particularly critical, to minimize the high arc, leaving the opponent full space for the return of the ball, because in this case, Axelsen can give full play to his height advantage, after the jump can choose the offensive line and landing point is too rich and diverse, can kill, split, hang, can be straight or diagonal, the ball can be described as freewheeling, for Shi Yuqi The difficulty of defense is extremely great.
Throughout the game, Axelsen's active score is actually not a lot, even higher than Shi Yuqi, which shows that his offensive threat is not unplayed, on the contrary, he uses his height and long arms and strong grasping and pushing ability to score repeatedly through the assault, slashing, and point killing that he is good at.
At 7:10 in the first game, Axelsen continuously pushed and controlled Shi Yuqi's bottom line, Shi Yuqi pressed, transitioned, and put far into the net, trying not to give the ball to Axelsen's backcourt. But once there was a push like the 16th beat, Axelsen raised his hand to make an assault, the action was small and the drop point was sharp, and it broke through Shi Yuqi's defense line in one shot.
In the second game 1:0, Axelsen started to play very actively, continuously putting Shi Yuqi's forehand far net, Shi Yuqi pushed the opposite corner, intending to turn around, but Axelsen's attention was already on the grab, and he quickly succeeded in a straight line with a forehand assault behind him.
At 17:19 in the first game, the short round showed the offensive style that both sides are good at.
The first is the scramble in front of the net, Axelsen took the lead, Shi Yuqi used his good forehand to split the opposite corner, mobilizing Axelsen's center of gravity at the same time, the landing point close to the sideline also gave Axelsen a lot of defensive pressure, causing him to jump to save the ball. But the defensive counterattack after that also showed Axelsen's strong ability, and he quickly and decisively grabbed Shi Yuqi's push behind him, and scored in a straight line with an overhead assault, which also hit a tricky landing point.
Shi Yuqi was able to win this game, and there were four key factors. First of all, Shi Yuqi basically maintained a fast speed throughout the game, and did not relax at any stage, even after winning the first game, in the face of Axelsen, who was in full swing at the beginning of the second game, Shi Yuqi did not compromise easily when the score was behind, but bit the score, which also brought a lot of pressure to Axelsen.
Secondly, in terms of tactics, for the tall Axelsen, Shi Yuqi implemented the tactical idea of pulling away and turning around, combining killing, splitting, and hanging at the same time, opening the left and right landing points, fully mobilizing Axelsen, forming its center of gravity as much as possible, and then appearing defensive loopholes, and then waiting for the opportunity to attack or score before grabbing the net.
In the first game, 1:0, Shi Yuqi repeated the pressure to control the net, and the first few shots were mainly played in the middle, focusing on coherence. Axelsen pushed the top area of Shi Yuqi's head, and Shi Yuqi pressed the straight line softly, opening the landing point for the first time.
Axelsen blocked the net, Shi Yuqi continued to put the middle far net, Axelsen pushed Shi Yuqi's forehand bottom line, and Shi Yuqi continued to block the ball to the middle far net after transitioning to the slash backcourt. Axelsen continued to push and pick away, Shi Yuqi in the overhead area for the second time soft pressure straight line, this time the landing point was close to the sideline, causing Axelsen's blocking line to be high, Shi Yuqi quickly went online to grab the high point, and the fake push really put to win this point.
At 8:10 in the first game, Axelsen continued to push and control, controlling Shi Yuqi's two bottom lines, and Shi Yuqi continued to move around in front of the transition net. After Axelsen made a diagonal change, Shi Yuqi pushed a straight line with his forehand to force Axelsen to turn, and then slashed the diagonal with his head and repeated the turn, winning the blow.
At 14:13 in the first game, Axelsen's hair extension was still the usual push to control the bottom line, and then intentionally grabbed Shi Yuqi's backhand transition, Shi Yuqi strengthened the far net to prevent grabbing, and pushed the straight line after blocking the net, and the two sides entered the stalemate. In the end, Shi Yuqi read Axelsen's intention to push and control the bottom line, and before and after the forehand transition diagonal net, he quickly and decisively used the Chinese jump to perform an overhead assault and score directly.
The last point of the first game, 20:19, after Shi Yuqi served, he first grabbed and pushed the forehand to kill the straight line, and then put the middle of the far net twice, Axelsen pushed Shi Yuqi's forehand bottom line again, Shi Yuqi jumped up and got the opportunity to grab and push, but did not take a force assault like the third beat, but first deceived Axelsen's center of gravity with a hook, causing his passive hook to be high diagonally, and then netting the ball to play a winning shot.
On this basis, Shi Yuqi first assaulted and gave Axelsen a signal to accelerate the attack, and then made changes to cleverly break through Axelsen's defense, and the key points also remained calm and dared to change, which is the key to Shi Yuqi's ability to finally seize the only game opportunity.
The second game was 6:7, which was also a point that reflected Shi Yuqi's changeable and purposeful ball organization.
After serving, the third beat of the head assault straight line, the net pushed diagonally, and then followed by the block, the first 7 beats Shi Yuqi's rapid coherence raised the speed very quickly, not giving Axelsen a chance to breathe. After Axelsen picked up the ball, Shi Yuqi took the initiative to change the speed again, and did not continue to maintain a strong attack, but skateboard in the overhead area split the diagonal, mobilized Axelsen's center of gravity, and then quickly pushed the net to the diagonal. After Axelsen's passive transition, Shi Yuqi, who had been waiting in front of the straight line net, pounced on the ball and scored.
At 13:12 in the second game, 28 beats and multi-shot rounds, under Shi Yuqi's patient continuous attacks, Axelsen finally made a mistake when the defense sought to change the line.
After the first few shots in front of the net, Axelsen controlled the net and grabbed the attack, got the opportunity to jump and push with his forehand, and did not turn around to slash the opposite corner. Judging from Axelsen's position, Shi Yuqi's push and pick diagonal is in place, Axelsen's assault has a little bit of fighting meaning, Shi Yuqi jumped to block the ball back, causing Axelsen to be too late to go to the net coherently, so he could only pick up the ball, and the offensive and defensive conversion was formed. Then Shi Yuqi did not rush to attack, first split the middle of the net to maintain coherence, and then chose to split the diagonal to open the landing point on the second beat. Axelsen's defensive coverage is really large, flying to save the ball. Compared with more aggressive methods such as pushing and continuing to exert pressure on the net, Shi Yuqi still chose to remain patient after the ball was brought to the net, transitioning after the replay, and waiting for the opportunity in a relatively flat rhythm.
In the next few beats, Shi Yuqi continued to press down in a straight line in the overhead area, and then kept the net coherent, seemingly conservative but very steady. On the 24th beat, Shi Yuqi aimed at the sideline with an assault above his head, and then pushed a straight line to hit Axelsen's turn, and then continued to kill a straight line above his head, and Axelsen made a mistake in blocking the diagonal line.
In addition, in this game, Shi Yuqi took a high proportion of light kills in the middle when pressing down in the backcourt, which was conducive to the coherence of his next shot and limited the angle of Axelsen's return to the ball, which effectively cracked Axelsen's tactical intention of pulling away Shi Yuqi by pushing and then looking for flaws.
At 17:19 in the second game, the longest 34-shot multi-shot round of the whole game.
Shi Yuqi was very patient, and the first three overhead returns were all in the middle of the soft press, with the aim of quickly and consistently holding the front of the net. After the third press, Axelsen made a change, no longer blocking the net, but returning to the back court above Shi Yuqi's head, Shi Yuqi used his strength to launch an attack, first assaulting a straight line, and then killing the opposite corner, pulling Axelsen through the more open landing points on both sides.
Axelsen relied on his great defensive coverage to defuse Shi Yuqi's two assaults, and the situation entered a stalemate again. Shi Yuqi slashed the straight line above his head, then pushed the net to pick the opposite corner to hit Axelsen and turned around, hooked the diagonal to force Axelsen to take the ball, and then the overhead skateboard hanging slash, from killing to splitting, and then to the hanging ball near the net, Shi Yuqi's rich landing point changes in the overhead area are vividly reflected. However, this time Axelsen's center of gravity was very stable and did not show obvious flaws, and Shi Yuqi's final forehand transition straight backcourt was a little dangerous, but Axelsen was a little more demanding on the opportunity ball, and the ball was off the sideline.
In the final stage of the second game, Shi Yuqi's physical strength was significantly depleted, and the speed of this point slowed down, but he still maintained his rhythm with the changeable downward pressure methods in the backcourt, and finally waited for Axelsen's mistake.
Third, it is an excellent network front. When it comes to the contest between offensive players, the front of the net is a must-fight. Although the two sides mainly played the far net in this game, there was still some wonderful near net competition. As mentioned above, Axelsen has a high backfield, and the offensive lines that can be taken when taking the initiative are very rich, and the threat is great when occupying the commanding heights, and Shi Yuqi is the same, although there is no obvious height advantage in Axelsen, but the victory is in the hands of the technology is changeable, through killing, splitting, and hanging changes, a variety of landing points can be formed, and there is a high level of consistency in a beat, but Shi Yuqi uses less in the face of Axelsen. Therefore, after the far net turns to the near net, both sides have no way to retreat, once the ball is raised, it will form a high arc, giving the opponent the opportunity to attack calmly, so that they fall into passivity, so in the game, we often see that even if the opponent's quality is already very high, the situation of repeatedly fighting the net, both are unwilling to take the ball easily. In the near network, which tests the delicacy of technology, Shi Yuqi's advantages are also reflected.
But let's talk about Axelsen first, he is one of the few European players with a lot of skill and delicacy, with good consistency and variety in front of the net, with pauses and feints. At 13:10 and 16:19 in the first game and 8:8 in the second game, Axelsen scored directly through the diagonal hook of the forehand with minimal action and strong concealment, and at 1:3 in the first game, Axelsen deceived Shi Yuqi's center of gravity with a pause in the backshot and scored directly, which is the main example of Axelsen's scoring through technical techniques in front of the net in this game.
And Shi Yuqi is also proficient in front of the net, the richness of technology is not lagging behind, and the overall shooting quality and stability are better than Axelsen, so most of the people who took the lead in front of the net in this game were Shi Yuqi.
4:2 in the first game, Shi Yuqi continued to press down to control the net at the beginning, and after the forehand assault straight line, the head was soft pressure in the middle, Axelsen was prepared, and quickly replayed the ball to the sideline in the middle, this shot over the net was of high quality, Axelsen stepped back and prepared to grab, Shi Yuqiyi was bold, and he still dared to replay it again when Axelsen's replay was extremely close to the net, destroying Axelsen's intentions.
Axelsen failed to control the net, restarted the ball, and the situation came into Shi Yuqi's control. On the 17th beat, Shi Yuqi slashed high and hit Axelsen's turn, Axelsen's diagonal treatment was slightly unreasonable, and he lost the best hitting point after a long distance on the net, and the low point hook diagonal was also in Shi Yuqi's prediction, Shi Yuqi grabbed the high point and rubbed the ball, and then grabbed Axelsen's back hook and scored the ball. The coherence of a rub and a pounce, a decisive shot, clean and neat.
At 17:14 in the second game, after the game of the far net in the middle lane, Axelsen took the lead in taking the initiative to push Shi Yuqi's overhead area, although Shi Yuqi was slightly passive after killing the middle lane, but judging from the pace of Axelsen's feet, he judged the wrong line of Shi Yuqi's push, and his first reaction was to grab the opposite corner, so he turned sideways to the forehand bottom line in advance, and Shi Yuqi made a straight ball, and Axelsen turned around and backshot to transition to a straight line.
After that, the situation was similar to the first game of 4:2 a ball, the two sides repeated the net, although Axelsen once again handed over a high-quality replay, Shi Yuqi still dared to fight the quality of repeated replay, after Axelsen took the ball, Shi Yuqi hung the top of his head and forehand twice to repeat the landing point, and moved Axelsen's center of gravity before and after, but did not achieve obvious results. Axelsen pushed Shi Yuqi's head area again, Shi Yuqi accelerated the assault straight line, and the landing point was very close to the sideline but was still saved by Axelsen, which reflected that Axelsen's turn on both sides was still quite flexible, and it had a large defensive coverage, and it was not easy to break through its defense.
Shi Yuqi didn't have a quick coherence after hitting the net diagonally, and could only get off the ball after Axelsen's replay, giving Axelsen the only chance to press down in this round, and hit a straight forehand. Shi Yuqi caught the block diagonally very beautifully, and then the low-point replay also exceeded Axelsen's expectations, on the one hand, it took advantage of Axelsen's attention to the slack on the net in the backcourt, and on the other hand, the high-quality release of the low-point also showed skill and confidence. In the end, Axelsen passively hooked the opposite corner and was pounced by Shi Yuqi to win this point.
Fourth, there are few active mistakes. The game situation can be broadly divided into three categories, active, passive and hold, and the end result of the standoff is either active or passive, or ends with an active error on one side. Very few people can completely limit his attack throughout the game, so it is inevitable that the two sides will attack and defend each other, so it is always very important to keep a low rate of active errors in the game. In this game, Shi Yuqi also said in an interview after the game that it is unrealistic to completely avoid Axelsen's strengths, which will make him very tired, and what he has to do is to reduce his mistakes as much as possible.
In the two games, Shi Yuqi can be said to have won in terms of control of active mistakes, on the one hand, because Axelsen's adaptation to the field is not as good as Shi Yuqi's, and the accuracy of his shots is not ideal, so there are many mistakes;
Among these four points, two and three points depend on their own skills and ball organization, which has always been an advantage for Shi Yuqi, who is good at ball business, and the other two points are more difficult, with a very high test of physical fitness, energy and mentality, it can be seen that for this game, Shi Yuqi has made very full preparations, while maintaining positivity and self-confidence, not afraid of strong opponents, daring to fight and play his own things, and finally achieved a hard-won victory.
After the game, Axelsen affirmed Shi Yuqi's excellent performance, and said that he lacked self-confidence in playing, and indeed the situation in competitive games is one and the other, and every game in the year-end finals is a peak duel, and the first game is of great significance for building self-confidence and adapting to the game. Congratulations to Shi Yuqi for getting off to a good start, and I also look forward to Axelsen's good performance in the following games and bring more excitement to the fans.