Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 132 Federer’s changes and super upset ([-] words of fishing, please subscribe!)
Of course Roddick was happy.

After he lost the game with Chen Ran, he suddenly became apathetic, and even his favorite "exercise" became boring.

But when Roddick learned that Safin was eliminated, he hugged his pillow and immediately laughed wildly.

Suddenly, he felt the suppressed desire burst out like a flood. Without saying a word, he directly picked up Hilton, who was already sleeping, and started to deliver violently.

"Well... let's break up after we return to the United States."

"These sluts will only hinder me from winning a Grand Slam!"

But Roddick didn't know that Hilton had a similar thought at the moment: a useless man who can't even beat a brat under 17 years old!When I return to the United States, I will dump him!
……

However, the public opinion effect of Safin being eliminated is still fermenting.

At this moment, except for the Chinese local media, most of the global media no longer care about the dark horse Chen Ran, because a dark horse darker than him has emerged.

Ancic, a Croatian, was born in 1984 and is only two years older than Chen Ran.

It was this guy who knocked out the third seed Safin, causing heated discussions in the global media.

Ancic also suddenly stole all the limelight from Chen Ran.

American fans were ecstatic, while Australian fans had mixed feelings.

Under normal circumstances, Agassi would meet Roddick in the quarterfinals and Safin in the semifinals.

Such a carefully arranged draw turned into a complete mess!
The difficulty for local darling Hewitt to win the Australian Open has obviously increased.

As for Chen Ran, who has now stepped out of the center of public opinion and stayed out of the matter, he is happy to be at ease.

In the quarter-finals, Chen Ran's opponent changed from fifth seed Moya to unseeded player Youzhini, which also caused his attention in this round to drop suddenly.

Except for the Chinese media, the attention of other foreign media has been diverted.

What's there to care about in a matchup between two unseeded players?
Even Chen Ran's match against Youzhini was not as popular as his match against Roddick in the previous round.

Although the Chinese media continued to pay attention to Chen Ran, there were subtle changes in their thoughts.

In the words of this group of people: Chen Ran, you can lose to Roddick, but you can never lose to Youzhini.

We can accept you stopping at the top 32, but we cannot accept you stopping at the top 16.

The expectations of Chinese fans have been infinitely raised by You, and their tastes have become picky because of you.

People's mentality is not static, but will change with changes in the external environment.

"So I have to win this game?"

After Chen Ran finished some recovery training, he patted his head gently with both hands and said.

After the first week of the Australian Open, most of the players practicing on the court have been reduced, because it is impossible for the eliminated players to stay here any longer.

Within a week, only 128 of the 16 main draw contestants were left.

"The most ideal result is of course to win this match and then join Agassi in the quarterfinals." Fitness coach Sergey said very seriously, "I believe the Chinese media must also be looking forward to this result."

"I dare say that after the results of the match come out, they have even written a script for you to reach the quarterfinals in advance."

Chen Ran smiled disapprovingly: "Maybe they prepared two drafts, one for me winning and one for me losing."

"It's possible, but you must understand that if you lose to a former opponent, it may affect your popularity in the country."

Sergey seemed to remember something and added: "So you said before that there will be no pressure in every round from now on and you can play lightly. You see the situation has changed."

At least the top eight, right?

The top eight was the expected result that Chen Ran gave himself before participating in the Australian Open.

It's just that he kept this idea in his heart and never revealed it to anyone.

Otherwise, others will definitely regard him as a lunatic.

But this time, the opportunity for the top 8 has really appeared in front of Chen Ran. It depends on whether he can grasp it.

"You should understand that I am never afraid of pressure!"

Chen Ran faced the incoming ball and completed a beautiful smash with his racket.

The tennis ball flashed through the air like a ray of yellow-green light. After bouncing inside the court, it quickly jumped towards the outside of the training ground.

After a while, the tennis ball slowly rolled to someone's feet.

That man seemed to be a player who came to the court for training. He bent down and picked up the tennis ball.

Chen Ran also saw the person coming clearly and shouted: "Roger, how about we train together for a while?"

"Okay!" The player who just walked into the training ground was none other than Roger Federer.

The two of them stood face to face, with similar heights, but Chen Ran was slightly slimmer in body shape.

"Chen, I actually saw your tennis talent at the Magic City Masters Cup last year. But I originally thought it would take you at least one to two years to establish yourself on the tour."

Federer also rarely showed surprise, "I really didn't expect your progress to be so fast."

All things considered, it only took more than three months from last year's Magic City Masters Cup to the current Australian Open.

"Today's tennis world is full of stars, and of course I want to get involved as soon as possible, so I have been training hard." Chen Ran said with a relaxed expression.

The current tennis world does belong to an era of bright stars, but a more glorious golden era is about to come.

Now the humble Swiss in front of us will become the leader of the era of giants.

"Who doesn't want to get involved? Who doesn't train hard? But the talent gap between people is sometimes bigger than that between people and animals."

Federer muttered silently in his heart and said somewhat self-deprecatingly.

"This year's Australian Open has a lot of upsets, and a lot of big-seeded players were eliminated in just the third round. It seems that I am quite lucky."

Whether it is the eliminated No. 3 seed Safin or the No. 5 seed Mo Ya, their rankings are higher than Federer, and even Roddick is more favored by the media.

Chen Ran also joked: "The biggest dark horse now is not me, but the Croatian Ancic. Everyone is paying attention to him."

"This is good news for you." Federer took out a racket from the package.

The two of them went back and forth and conducted some simple training.

However, when they had been practicing for nearly half an hour, Federer seemed to have thought of something and suddenly said: "Chen, the ingenious return of serve you used in the match against Roddick that day was very interesting to me and I want to learn it." Wouldn’t you mind for a moment?”

Chen Ran was stunned, and then replied: "This thing has no copyright restrictions. Is it useful if I mind?"

Federer smiled and replied: "After all, you are the pioneer of this technology. But my intuition tells me that this technology is also suitable for my style of play."

This is the sixth sense of top players!Chen Ran sighed inwardly, because the other party was the real inventor of this technology.

With or without him, Federer would have mastered the technique.

Sure enough, when Federer made up his mind to learn the "SABR" tactic, it only took him two hours to get a glimpse of it, which was less than Chen Ran.

What the two have in common is that they have an extremely delicate touch. However, the 22-year-old Federer is already very perfect and mature technically. Now he is just in a dormant period and may make a blockbuster at any time.

"Will you meet Hewitt in the quarterfinals?" Chen Ran suddenly asked.

He knew that according to the original timeline, the champion of this Australian Open would be Agassi, but Agassi's final opponent was not Hewitt.

In which round was Hewitt eliminated, the quarterfinals or the semifinals?Chen Ran couldn't remember either.

As for Federer, it seems that his results at this Australian Open are not too impressive.

It's just that this time, because of his own relationship, this Australian Open has already changed beyond recognition.

"If I'm lucky enough to enter the quarterfinals, I should meet Hewitt." Federer's tone was a little helpless, and he continued to laugh at himself, "Maybe those Australians think I will be a soft persimmon."

Hewitt and Federer are the same age, but the former's light shines so brightly that he holds two Grand Slams at a young age, completely overshadowing him.

However, Chen Ran could also read a trace of unwillingness in the other party's eyes.

Sure enough, Federer said with some self-praise: "But after winter training, I really feel that I am in good condition. Hewitt thought that it would not be that easy for me."

"You have to play at least five sets anyway!"

In fact, from Federer's point of view, he would rather hope that Agassi wins the championship than Hewitt.

After all, they are both 22 years old, and Federer doesn't want to be pulled too far by Hewitt. He still wants to catch up with him.

No top player wants to live in the shadow of another top player.

"Perhaps the No. 6 seed can also have a chance to play the role of a dark horse when meeting the No. 1 seed?" Chen Ran chuckled and said with a somewhat teasing tone.

"I hope so. I appreciate your kind words."

Federer smiled freely after hearing this, and then bumped fists with Chen Ran: "I hope we have good luck in the fourth round... I remember that your opponent is not a seeded player."

After the two fought for a while, they ended today's training.

"That Federer guy..." Chen Ran always felt that he was a little different from the one he met last time at the Year-End Masters Cup in Shanghai. There seemed to be some changes.

In fact, winter training in December every year is a good opportunity for professional tennis players to transform themselves.

Because after a long season, you have enough rest time and can focus on some targeted training to make up for your shortcomings.

A talented player like Federer may just need an opportunity to break through the bottleneck and soar into the sky.

Chen Ran must admit that even if Djokovic wins 24 Grand Slams in the future, and achieves the only Golden Master achievement in history (winning all nine Masters tournaments), as well as the most weeks of being ranked No. The biggest promoter of tennis is still Federer.

Even in the next ten years or so, the name Federer will represent the sport of tennis.

Many tennis players in later generations have admitted that we can make more money, and we must thank Federer.

His promotion of tennis has resulted in more viewers, more sponsors, and more bonuses.

"Maybe this time, Hewitt may not be able to beat Federer."

Chen Ran thought to himself, packed up the package again, and walked out of the training ground with Sergey.

This is a closed training and is not open to the public.

But outside the training ground, there are still a large number of Chinese fans waiting, and there are also many Chinese reporters with cameras ready to go.

When Chen Ran appeared, a group of people swarmed up.

Not only were the fans holding tennis props of various sizes hoping for Chen Ran's autograph, but the Chinese reporters kept asking questions.

"Chen Ran, are you confident of entering the quarterfinals?"

"Youzhini is your defeated general. You should have no problem beating him, right?"

"Entering the quarterfinals will create a new history for Asian players!"

Listening to the words of these people, it seems difficult to accept that they lost to Youzhini and stopped in the top [-].

"Grand Slam competitions are completely different from tour events. Youzhini's world ranking is much higher than mine..." Chen Ran said as he walked.

He really wanted to speed up and get rid of these people.

There is no point in irritating your opponents with these idiots.

You must praise each other and hold the other party up high.

"Please remember, I am a newcomer, I am a weakling, and I am here to challenge the opponent. According to the world rankings, Youzhini should win this duel under normal circumstances." Chen Ran said righteously.

This is also true.

After Chen Ran entered the fourth round, even though he scored a huge 180 points, his total ATP points reached 599, but he was still ranked 102nd in the world, still outside the top [-].

At this level, in a Grand Slam-level competition, one should play with the mentality of an underdog.

But in the eyes of these Chinese reporters, Chen Ran was almost regarded as a high-ranking seed player.

After Chen Ran broke away from those people and left these words, he ran away.

However, in the players' restaurant, Chen Ran met the biggest dark horse today - Croatian player Ancic.

This guy is too tall. According to the information provided by the organizing committee, he is 196 centimeters tall.

Judging from his slim and well-developed limbs, he must be able to move very quickly. Coupled with the serving advantage brought by his height, it is no wonder that he was able to upset the No. 3 seed Safin.

No wonder someone on the Internet in the previous life often said that guys from the former Yugoslavia region had unparalleled talents in ball games. It seems that this statement still makes some sense.

By the way, Djokovic is also from the former Yugoslavia.

At this time, there was a sudden commotion in the players' restaurant, and some people even showed expressions of disbelief.

"God, how is this possible?"

"The No. [-] seed Hewitt was eliminated?"

Listening to those people's words, in a 8/1 match that just ended, Hewitt, who plays locally, lost an upset to a player from Morocco named Ainoy.

……

(End of this chapter)