Sharp review of Acre vs. Musetti: Musetti's shadow reappears and Acre's broken Zen heart

"The marks on the clay court are the words carved by the heart."

As Musetti threw out his hand in the shadow of Philippe Chartier's net, the afterglow of Parisian dusk loomed over Roland Garros and the Italian's right thigh bandaged like a white flag of defeat.

Is it fate? Is it reincarnation? It's history repeating itself. At the French Open many years ago, Musetti was also leading Djokovic, but his mentality suddenly collapsed, and he finally had no choice but to retire. Many thought that Musetti's thigh strain during a save in the third set was the root cause of his retirement, but Musetti's body language in the second set and no longer swooping in the tie-break was the same as it was back then.

In sports psychology, there is a term called "fixed thinker's self-prediction", which is a strong self-psychological suggestion. This theory reveals that people's subconscious fear of fate can turn into muscle memory, which eventually leads to behavioral collapse. Therefore, his two withdrawals seem to be accidental, but in fact, they are like the same heartstring breaking again in the cycle of history.

Of course, this is just a reasonable guess on our part, and the real answer to whether or not he really retired due to injury may forever be precipitated in history.

However, if you continue to look at it from this perspective, then Alcaraz seems to not only win a match, but also completely defeat his opponent psychologically.

From the loss of the first set to the extreme reversal of the second set, the transformation of the Spanish teenager at the crucial moment was shocking: when the second set came to the crucial 4-3, the Spaniard's forehand suddenly came into play, and the three consecutive sharp forehands like a samurai steel knife fixed Musetti on the baseline, and he could only sigh at the ball! And after that, Alcaraz also started his counterattack completely, and I think it was a testament to how he turned the frustration of the first set defeat into creativity.

In the process, he accomplishes not only technical adjustments, but also "shadow integration" deep within himself - when the undercurrent of mind is transformed into offensive fuel, a new tactical dimension emerges from the ashes of defeat.

How do you judge Alcaraz this year on clay? I think it makes people "shudder"! His forehand speed and exaggerated explosiveness are overwhelming for many, but for him, what is even more powerful is the confidence that wells up from the depths of his heart. I think this kind of self-confidence has given Alcaraz the supreme state on the field as described by Zhuangzi, "meeting with God rather than with eyes", and he is very selfless in every game. I also think that he proved with his actions that "when the mind and technology are perfected in the realm of "knowing the official and the god wants to act", victory or defeat becomes an off-the-beaten-track sound. ”

This men's singles semi-final is hard not to think of the story of "Ji Chang learning to shoot". said that there was a person named Ji Chang, and he heard that there was a divine archer named Feiwei, so he apprenticed to his master. One day, Wei told Changzhi that "the accuracy of the arrow lies in being able to see, and the small is as big as the big, and then tell me." When Chang heard this, he tied lice with cow hair, hung it in front of the house, and practiced hard every day to look into the distance. After many days, Chang gradually felt that it was getting bigger; Three years later, it's as big as a wheel. And when you look at the rest of the things, they are as big as hills and mountains. So Chang immediately took a bow and led the arrow, and as soon as this arrow came out, it hung endlessly through the heart of the lice. Then he told Feiwei, who was happy and said, "Hurry! Hurry! Thou hast won it at last! ”

In this story, I think that Alcaraz is just like the archer Ji Chang, whose archery skills can already "penetrate the heart of lice and hang endlessly", and as it is said in "Archery and Zen Mind", "The shot without shooting is for the thoughtless." Musetti, on the other hand, was more like a frightened bird, with his eyes drifting to the dugout after his 6-0 defeat in the third set, and his sluggish movement – not a sudden collapse of the body, but the inevitable rupture of tense nerves under constant pressure.

In the men's singles final, Alcaraz will face Sinner, and from the semi-final performance, Sinner's return position has changed significantly, and he has greatly stepped back his return position to fully cushion his opponent's service speed, and this change has given him a return score rate of 36 against Djokovic. For Alcaraz, in the face of Sinami's airtight defense, it is necessary to pay attention to avoid excessive pursuit of gorgeous shots and ignore the stability of the return ball, and the Spanish genius must reach the "unintentional realm" in order to open up a new creative channel with the intuition of "unart".(Source: Tennis Home Author: Lu Xiaotian)