Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 126 Supernova Showdown (Please subscribe)
The showdown between the supernovas of China and the United States has become the focus of the third round of the Australian Open.

When Chen Ran arrived at Rod Laver Arena, the center court of the Australian Open, the number of reporters gathered here had increased several times compared to before.

Generally speaking, men's Grand Slam matches will lead to the first wave of climax after entering the third round.

The players who can break into the top 32 are all strong players, and every game in the third round is a duel between players.

Even the always proud American media paid a lot of attention to this game.

In early 2003, American tennis was still unmatched in the world, although their advantage was not as great as that in basketball.

In the past, even if American players participated in a third-round game, they would not be so excited. This is also thanks to the contribution of the Chinese media who are afraid of chaos in the world.

However, those American sports reporters have no doubt that Roddick will easily advance to the fourth round.

Unlike those Chinese reporters who only focus on their opponents in the third round, American reporters are already thinking about Roddick's opponents in the next round, or even the next round.

"Those Australians are bad!"

An American reporter complained to his Chinese media colleagues.

"Why did you say that?" This Chinese reporter, who was covering a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, was as confused as a new recruit.

"Roddick will meet Agassi in the quarterfinals." The American reporter said with a somewhat angry tone, "Doesn't this make us American players kill each other?"

They firmly believe that when Agassi ages, Roddick will inherit his mantle.

"These Americans haven't even played in the third round and are already thinking about the fifth round. They are so self-righteous."

The young reporter from China cursed secretly, but smiled: "Actually... you can take revenge on those Australians in the US Open draw in the future."

They are the best at sowing discord.

"Yes, that's what we think!" the American reporter said bitterly.

Then he seemed to have thought of something, and said in a polite tone: "The players from your country are already very good, and you are so young in your first Grand Slam trip. Being able to reach the third round is definitely a huge success!"

"His goal today should be to win a set from Roddick."

The young reporter from China shook his head after hearing this, praying that Chen Ran would slap these Americans in the face.

……

"Dear viewers, welcome to CCTV5."

"It is now six o'clock in the evening, Yanjing time, and we are live broadcasting the sixth match day of the Australian Open for you."

"At this moment, everyone must be eating dinner and staying in front of the TV, waiting for the game to start."

"Okay, the players from both sides are already warming up, and the fans in the audience are applauding."

"The game is about to start, let us wish Chen Ran good luck!"

In the live broadcast room of C5 Sports, Zhan Jun was talking excitedly.

He has been commentating on tennis for more than ten years, and this is the first time he feels like a home team.

"I think today's game time is obviously much more friendly to our Chinese audience than to our American audience."

It's six o'clock in China right now, but it's midnight in the United States.

"You can see from the broadcast that the Rod Laver Arena is packed tonight, and the enthusiastic Chinese fans have already sold out all the tickets for this game."

"Of course, many local fans from the United States and Australia also came. It seems that everyone is looking forward to this game."

"The special guest this time is Wang Liangzuo, the head coach of our country's Huaxia Tennis Team."

As the Athens Olympics approaches, Wang Liangzuo has just taken office with a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, and his task is to lead Chinese women's tennis out of the doldrums in the Athens Olympics.

In fact, Chinese women's tennis began to take off at the 2004 Athens Olympics and won the women's doubles championship at that time.

"Is Coach Wang only responsible for the training of our national women's tennis team? What about the men?" Zhan Jun asked curiously.

Wang Liangzuo also responded frankly: "All our work now is centered around next year's Olympic Games. Currently, only women's tennis can participate in next year's Olympic Games, but men's tennis basically has no chance. The gap is a bit big..."

His words suddenly stopped here because he found that there seemed to be something obviously wrong with what he just said.

Chen Ran represents the Chinese men's tennis and has reached the top 32 of the Grand Slam, while the women's players have stopped in the Australian Open qualifying rounds.

What does it mean that men’s tennis is not good?Aren't you talking nonsense?

By the way, there are also several young female players participating in the Australian Open youth group.

However, Chen Ran and these female players participating in the Australian Open youth group are almost the same age.

Zhan Jun also clearly realized the slip of the tongue and said: "Chen Ran should be able to directly enter next year's Olympics with his ATP ranking."

"I am not responsible for his...Chen Ran's training. He has never trained with the national team." Wang Liangzuo smiled bitterly.

According to the regulations of the International Tennis Federation, if Chen Ran wants to participate in the Olympics, he can just register directly. He does not need permission from the Chinese Tennis Association at all. This is also the biggest difference between tennis and other sports.

Zhan Jun nodded and asked again: "What about the doubles event?"

"Doubles? Then we have to have time to practice together." Wang Liangzuo then shook his head, "Doubles also has points rankings. But Chen Ran's singles results are so good, how can he bother to rack up doubles points."

"Also..." Zhan Jun said thoughtfully, "In the world of tennis, doubles is just an embellishment of singles, and the influence is far different."

Unlike singles events, the local tennis association has a certain degree of autonomy in doubles events and can adjust candidates as needed.

But is Chen Ran someone who cares about doubles?
Generally in the four Grand Slams and the ATP Tour, doubles players often come from different countries, but in the Olympics or Asian Games, doubles players must be from the same country.

Therefore, many tennis players cannot fix their doubles partners. They often find a random partner and make up the numbers to cope with it.

If you expect that like table tennis or badminton, doubles players will have to train together for many years and have a tacit understanding with each other, that is impossible.

Most male tennis players, including Chen Ran, would not be able to specialize in doubles unless their performance in singles has been unsatisfactory.

At this time, Chen Ran and Roddick had already shaken hands with each other.

Zhan Jun in the live broadcast room also recovered his thoughts and continued to explain the game: "Chen Ran was lucky. He got the right to serve first."

Wherever the host could see, the bustling sea of ​​people was spectacular.

Because of this showdown between Chinese and American supernovas, the air seems to have begun to burn.

This is not only a night game, but also the finale on Center Court.

When will it be finished?

Maybe 12pm, maybe 1am, 2am, or even later...

At this moment, it is said that more than 100 countries and regions are live broadcasting this game, not to mention the ratings, but it is certain that the exposure rate has directly exceeded the charts.

"Chen Ran is about to serve. I hope the young people can withstand the huge pressure!"

"Come on, behind you are thousands of Chinese fans!"

……

"Oh~~"

The entire Chinese audience took a breath, and then their mood became obviously depressed.

"Damn!"

After Roddick broke Chen Ran's serve again, he lowered his head and cursed to himself.

Roddick was very excited about this matchup.

From the first ball, this guy was in the groove and fully committed to the game.

Roddick's explosive forehand shot did not spin but was purely flat. It was very sudden and impactful. It was no less impressive than Russian Tsar Safin.

But his current state is much better than the Safin that Chen Ran met before.It is also far stronger than when the two of them competed in training before.

Chen Ran actually fell into a passive position in his first serving game.

15: 40!

The two sides fought for less than 5 minutes before Chen Ran was given two break points by Roddick.

Da~da~da

Chen Ran slapped the tennis ball a few times, then gently threw it up, then kicked off the ground, turned around, and swung the racket.

Oops!

The moment Chen Ran hit the ball, he felt bad.

Sure enough, the ball hit the net and the first serve was a mistake.

Chen Ran's second serve, for the sake of safety, had to reduce the ball speed, but the quality was not bad, and the landing point and spin were both good.

However, Roddick, who had a hot touch, rushed forward, waved his arm and slapped hard.

With unscrupulous hitting, overwhelming power, and lightning speed, the tennis ball drew an arc and landed directly in the far corner on the other side of the court.

Chen Ran watched the ball coming without making any reaction.

Break!

Roddick broke serve in the first game!
This guy faced the audience on one side of the stand, raised his left arm high and clenched his fist, looking excited.

Roddick used his passionate playing style to forcefully break Chen Ran's serve.

The entire Chinese audience was immediately silent, while the American audience cheered with joy, and the Australian audience gave endless applause.

"The situation is not going to last seconds!" Zhou Yuan, a reporter from "Sports Weekly" who was at the scene, couldn't help but swallowed silently.

Chen Ran was broken by the opponent at the beginning, and Roddick was full of momentum. Today's game will be very passive.

"By the way, this seems to be the first time Chen Ran has been broken by his opponent in this Grand Slam match."

In Zhou Yuan's ears, the voice of another sports reporter came from Five Star Sports in Shanghai.

The second game was Roddick's serve.

He gave Chen Ran a good taste of what it means to be the best server in the world.

Two aces, one straight serve, and one serve that caused Chen Ran to hit a low-quality half-high ball, and Roddick immediately followed up with a volley to score the winning point.

At the end of this game, Chen Ran only touched the ball twice, and was given a "love game" by the opponent.

Less than a quarter of an hour into the game, Chen Ran fell behind Roddick 0-2.

Judging from the scene, it seemed that he had no room for resistance.

"Rodick's strength is not just as simple as being in the top ten in the world, he has the ability to hit the world's number one and win the Grand Slam championship." Zhan Jun, who has rich experience in tennis commentary, said slowly.

"The gap is a bit big!" Guest Wang Liangzuo also muttered quietly.

What he was thinking was that if the men's tennis players on the national team faced Roddick today, they might even be beaten until they cried and wanted to change careers.

As for Chen Ran, he at least looked calm, but of course he might be pretending.

"Roddick deserves to be Roddick!"

Chen Ran sighed softly in his heart, "Many of the returns that seemed to be of acceptable quality would have been a tug-of-war if they were replaced by other players, but in Roddick's hands, they were like drinking water and eating. Hitting a high-quality smash with ease.”

The opponent's extremely sharp offensive made him fall into a passive state where he was tired of parrying.

In the third game, it was back to Chen Ran's serve.

Although he made a beautiful ACE ball in the first ball.

But throughout the game, facing Roddick who was in hot form, Chen Ran was still very passive.

When he was leading 40:30, he failed to hold serve and was chased 40-40 by his opponent.

Immediately afterwards, Roddick was on full fire, winning two more points in a row with his unreasonable playing style, and actually broke serve for the second consecutive game.

3 is better than 0!

Not long after the game started, Roddick took a 3-0 lead.

After being broken in two games, and with his opponent in a hot state, his serve was as sharp as a cannon.

Chen Ran knew very well that even if the three giants combined, there would be little hope of making a comeback in the first set.

In the fourth game, Roddick's serve.

He received almost no challenge and easily kept serve.

The game only lasted more than 30 minutes, and Roddick had an absolute advantage 4-0.

"It's over!"

"Chen Ran's first Grand Slam journey ends here!"

"The gap is too big. It's adults beating children!"

"Down, I'm going to play "Legend"."

Sina Sports' text live broadcast room was filled with emotions of frustration and loss.

Just half an hour ago, netizens were still very enthusiastic and talking about this game with great anticipation, but they were given a slap in the face.

"Don't be like this, this is only the first set!"

"That's right, there are still two chances, maybe Chen Ran can turn defeat into victory!"

Chen Ran's fans are unwilling to give up and are looking forward to his reversal.

"Friends, please give up your unrealistic fantasies!"

"If Chen Ran can beat Roddick, I will go streaking in the shopping street!"

"Second, brother, I will go to the pedestrian street to wear women's clothing!"

Many netizens expressed their opinions.

At this time on the court, Chen Ran finally saved a serve and chased the score to 1-4, but it was still to no avail.

Roddick used cannon-style serves one after another to impact Chen Ran.

Another ACE!

It’s also time to take stock of the first set.

Roddick nodded with satisfaction, then quickly clapped the tennis ball a few times and continued to serve.

Chen Ran guessed the right direction with his excellent prediction and slapped the ball back with his forehand.

Roddick stood there, jumped high in the air, and hammered a shot with his forehand. The tennis ball was too fast. Although Chen Ran's body started quickly, he still returned the ball out of bounds.

6: 2!

Roddick won the first set with a strong attitude in less than 50 minutes.

……

　Thanks to Ani Yilllleng, Maxim Xiaomianqiu, Book Friends 20190625234846381, and Lintian Wanzi for their tips.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)