Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 105 Warm-up before the finals (third update)
2003 1 Month 12 Day.

On this day, almost all sports-related topics revolved around Chen Ran.

Since the start of the ATP Tour, Chinese players have entered the finals for the first time and have the opportunity to attack the final championship.

Especially the opponent in the final is Thailand's Sri Chapan, known as Asia's best brother.

China's men's tennis is constantly making history because of Chen Ran.

Many foreign media have begun to pay attention to this game.

Could it be that China will have another athlete with international influence since Yao Ming?
Last night, CCTV C5 Sports News' special topic "The Battle for the No. [-] Tennis Brother in Asia" has whetted the appetite of sports fans.

During this period, Chen Ran accepted an exclusive video interview with "Sports Weekly" after the semi-finals, and also relied on the latter's connections to land on CCTV C5's sports news.

"Whether you've seen the tennis match or not, come and cheer for me."

"I hope you can fall in love with the beautiful sport of tennis."

Through the huge platform of CCTV, Chen Ran's words instantly spread to hundreds of millions of families in China.

In this era, although computers have begun to become popular, televisions are still the mainstream. C5 Sports' coverage and viewership have always been very large.

After hearing Chen Ran's words, the first reaction of countless Chinese people was: This young athlete is so good at talking!
This is very different from the traditional athletes they have in mind.

Since winning the Magic City Challenge last year, Chen Ran's name has once again jumped into the public eye.

Tomorrow's finals have begun to warm up and are heating up. The battle for "Asia's No. [-] Brother" has been constantly mentioned by various media.

A Grand Slam championship is so far away that no one dares to dream about it.

But the tour champion can always fantasize about it.

Especially in Chen Ran's hometown of Dongzhou City, the local government immediately seized this opportunity to promote it.

They also specially set up a screen in the square that can be projected onto the screen, calling on fellow villagers to cheer for Chen Ran together.

As for Chen Ran's alma mater, Dongzhou Middle School, a banner was hung at the school gate to warmly celebrate Chen Ran's entry into the finals of the tournament.

Competitive sports are always so inspiring.

……

At this time, even the Tennis Management Association came over to join in the fun and sent an open letter. The general content was to ask Chen Ran to continue to work hard and continue to carry forward the spirit of Chinese athletes who dare to fight and achieve great results in the international arena.

Just read these official scenes.

But there is one sentence in it that is thought-provoking.

Preparations for the Athens Olympics have entered the sprint stage, and the Tennis Management Association also hopes that Chen Ran can be ready to bring glory to the country.

This also means that Chen Ran is very likely to participate in the Olympic Games to be held in Athens, Greece next year.

The Olympic tennis competition is organized by the ITF, not the ATP, and has a total of 64 draws.

The ITF stipulates that the top 56 players in the world will be directly qualified, while the remaining 8 places are reserved for the champions of each continental games and Grand Slam singles champions.

In principle, no more than 4 players from each country or region can participate.

But in fact, many top players have chosen to withdraw from the Olympics in order to prepare for the US Open with peace of mind. Coupled with some injury problems, Chen Ran can basically lock in an Olympic spot as long as his ranking can be guaranteed to be in the top [-].

Chen Ran obviously also noticed the content related to the Olympics in the open letter sent by the Tennis Association.

From his own perspective, he is also full of desire to participate in the Olympics.Being able to represent the country on the Olympic stage is a wonderful feeling and a supreme honor.

Without the experience of the Olympic Games, Chen Ran would have felt that his career was regrettable and imperfect.

Since tennis became an official Olympic sport in 1988, Chinese men's players have only participated once with a wild card in the 2008 Yanjing Olympics held locally.

In the remaining Olympic Games, including the Tokyo Olympics before Chen Ran was reborn, Chinese men's players were not shortlisted for official competitions.

"If I can participate in the Athens Olympics next year, I will create a new history."

"Forget it, the Olympics are still too far away, let's think about tomorrow's final first."

At this moment, Chen Ran, who was in New Zealand, after reading the letter from the Tennis Association, took a deep breath and turned off the computer screen.

Vaguely, he felt his heartbeat speed up.

"Chen!" Chen Ran's physical fitness coach Sergey shouted behind him, "I know tomorrow is the final, but don't be so nervous that you can't sleep. Safin had this experience before when I took him there. .”

This old man really doesn't like to pick up any pot.

In fact, Chen Ran did feel that his body was in a state of excitement, which was something he had never experienced before.

This is a tour-level final after all, even if it's just a 250 event.

However, he also knew very well that if he really stayed up all night, let alone tomorrow's opponent being Sri Chapan's level, even if he was a player in the challenge, he would definitely lose.

"Safin's insomnia, are you referring to the eve of the US Open final?" Chen Ran asked with a frown.

"No, no, no..." Sergey shook his head like a wavy drum, "In the US Open final, Safin was already a mature professional player. He had insomnia that time, and it was also in the final of the tour. "

"For young players, reaching the finals of a tournament for the first time is a dream come true."

"This kind of strong excitement and freshness will make people temporarily lose sleep. By the time you reach a Grand Slam final in the future, you will already be a professional player who has been tempered for many times, and your adjustment ability and experience are no longer the same."

Chen Ran somewhat understood what the other party meant.

Those who can reach the Grand Slam finals are all top players, and they all have excellent self-regulation abilities.

But many of those who reach the tour finals are newbies with little experience.

"Don't worry, I won't lose sleep!" Chen Ran promised.

However, after Sergey returned to his room, Chen Ran simply washed up and lay on the bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

In fact, this was not only due to his personal reasons, but also due to the overwhelming publicity from the Chinese domestic media.

What about the dispute over "Asia's No. [-] Brother", "Asian tennis has led to a change of dynasties", "it's time to unseat Sri Chappan", and so on.

Under this atmosphere, Chen Ran also became a little worried about gains and losses.

He was a little afraid of losing in the final and letting everyone down.

After all, it was Chen Ran's own contribution that could create such a lively atmosphere.

It was Chen Ran who took the initiative to speak, and then the content was spread throughout China through "Sports Weekly" and CCTV.

In the warm-up of the finals, he himself was the one who was the most active in adding fuel to the flames.

……

(End of this chapter)