Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 207: Today’s insult to the law, lottery ceremony (4K)

The French Open is held at Roland Garros, which has three large courts, Center Court, Suzanne Langren Court, and Court One.

Like most comprehensive tennis courts in the world, only the central court can accommodate 1 spectators, while the other two courts can accommodate 5000 and 1 spectators respectively.

The tournament organizing committee also stipulated that no players are allowed to train at Roland Garros before the official opening of the tournament.

In addition to the complicated maintenance of clay courts, the main reason is the limited space.

The Paris city government rejected the French Open's request to expand the capacity, so that there were not enough venues to meet the training needs of the players when the qualifying rounds were held.

Only the top eight seeds have the opportunity to practice three times before the start of the tournament.

But the players need to train and adapt to the climate and environment in Paris.Even for the top 8 seeds, three training opportunities are far from enough, so most people can only choose to conduct daily training in private clubs, and the same is true for Chen Ran.

Because of this, qualifying players often have more advantages at the French Open. After all, they have withstood three rounds of tests here, which slightly increases the chance of an upset.

This day was the first time Chen Ran trained at Roland Garros.

Because there are very few players who enjoy this treatment, and the training time is also very short, it is easier for fans to meet their favorite players.

As a result, many fans flocked here, hoping to catch a glimpse of these top tennis players.

Although Chen Ran has only played one game in the Rome Masters and stopped in the second round, it has not affected his popularity in Paris at all.

Winning the Madrid Masters strongly, coupled with the glory of the "Sunshine Double Crown", has accumulated huge popularity for Chen Ran.

After all, no European player today has achieved the "Sunshine Double" achievement, and even among the European players participating in the French Open this time, there are very few who have won a Grand Slam.

During Chen Ran's short training time, the training ground was packed. In addition to the fans who came to watch the fun, there were also many reporters, not only from China, but from various countries.

As far as the eye can see, there are a lot of long guns and short cannons lined up densely. The formation is really not small, almost all the reporters must have rushed out.

Chen Ran looked at this lively scene and finally realized that the French Open was approaching and that he would also usher in his second Grand Slam season.

In five months, Chen Ran went from being an Australian Open qualifier to being the No. 4 seed at the French Open. Such a huge contrast made Chen Ran feel like he was in another world.

Signing autographs, taking photos, and hugging each other, Chen Ran completed these actions one by one after finishing today's training.

This is just basic courtesy and a must for tennis players to build a good image.

Although for Chen Ran, in many cases he fights despite the boos from the away team, but that is on the field.Those who will come to the training ground to see you today will basically be your fans and supporters.

Unfortunately, there were too many people.

Although Chen Ran had slowed down, the surging crowd around him seemed to have no end in sight. After all, he could not satisfy everyone's wishes.

Amid the laughter and noise, Chen Ran stayed for 15 minutes before waving goodbye to everyone.

"The lottery will be drawn soon, I hope you have good luck!"

"I hope you can make it to the end!"

Chen Ran expressed his gratitude repeatedly and left the French Open training ground under the protection of security personnel.

In the past few days, in addition to training and resting in the hotel, Chen Ran has not been to any tourist attractions since arriving in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame de Paris, the Champs Elysées, any place I haven’t been to yet.

Chen Ran suddenly felt that he was a little too nervous, which was not a good thing.

He needs to find some feeling, the feeling of traveling light when he participated in the Australian Open last time, to relieve himself.

Chen Ran immediately decided to visit three scenic spots: the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysées, and the banks of the Seine.

But before setting off, Chen Ran thought of some memories from his past life and had an idea. He asked his assistant to buy some ghost coins and mobile phone model toys from local Chinese.

Then Chen Ran felt that bringing only some ghost coins was not exciting enough, so he bought another stack of Zimbabwean coins.

Zhang Depei is very familiar with Paris. This was the highlight of his career. The fitness coach Sergei also came to Paris. In addition, Chen Ran hired bodyguards and called a few familiar Chinese reporters. The group of people walked leisurely Walking the streets of Paris.

They spent nearly half a day visiting these three scenic spots.

Every scenic spot has a lot of people, crowded in front and behind, including local French people and foreign tourists.

People like Chen Ran look like foreign tourists at first glance, and all of them seem to be worth a lot of money. Especially Chen Ran is wearing a hat and a pair of cool sunglasses. This is a perfect match for those who hang out in Paris. It's very attractive to thieves in the streets and alleys.

North African immigrants, African immigrants, and those Gypsies are the most likely to target foreign tourists.

In their perception, this group of people represent people who are stupid and have a lot of money.

Especially when Chen Ran "accidentally" dropped a stack of banknotes in his pocket at a tourist attraction, a group of gypsies wandering around immediately swarmed up to him, picked up the banknotes and ran away. The speed of this [-]-meter sprint was a little... No less than a professional athlete.

In order to grab the banknotes, many people started fighting with the North African immigrants, mumbling something.

At this time, both foreign tourists and local French people seemed to know what these two types of people were, and they all ran away in disgust, fearing that they would be harmed.

"Let's go, let's leave this place of right and wrong." Zhang Depei has participated in clay court competitions in Europe all year round and seems to have become accustomed to all this.

A Chinese reporter who accompanied us covered the 1998 World Cup in France and murmured: "I remember that in 98, there were not so many thieves in Paris."

Hehe, just because France won the 98 World Cup through immigration, it accelerated the evolution of Paris into Paris.

"Chen Ran, was that Ming coin in your pocket just now?" an accompanying reporter asked curiously.

His head couldn't turn around for a while.

"No, that's Zimbabwean currency!" Chen Ran said seriously.

Indeed, in the pile of banknotes that he "accidentally" dropped outside just now, there were Hades coins and Zimbabwe dollars mixed together. Anyway, the values ​​of these two currencies are almost the same.

But speaking to the outside world, Chen Ran would mention the Zimbabwean currency, not the underworld currency.

After all, one can still be regarded as the currency of the world, and the other can only be regarded as the currency of the underworld.

"Zimbabwe coins?" The Chinese reporter was still confused as to what was the difference between that junk and waste paper. "Why do you bring so many Zimbabwe coins?"

"I'm just curious... I want to experience what it's like to be a billionaire."

"..."

Chen Ran then patted his pocket: "God, my phone seems to have been stolen."

"The phone was stolen? These nasty French thieves." Sergey jumped up excitedly.

Then Chen Ran took out a mobile phone from the inner pocket of his clothes and said with a somewhat thankful tone: "I'm pretty lucky... It turns out that the stolen mobile phone was a toy model I bought for my relatives and children at home. My mobile phone Still there." "..."

"You see, many thieves are pregnant Gypsy women. This toy phone should be regarded as a meeting gift for their unborn children."

"..."

The few Chinese reporters who were accompanying him were not as slow-minded as that old man. They always felt that Chen Ran had another purpose when he brought a stack of Zimbabwean coins and a mobile phone with toy models.

After returning to the hotel, Chen Ran, who had been holding back for a long time, just wanted to laugh.

During this period, he was actually under a lot of pressure under the intense attention of so many people.

These little episodes today actually made Chen Ran feel a lot more relaxed.

……

When the qualifying round officially comes to an end and the 24 main draw places are decided, the draw ceremony of this French Open will officially begin. 128 players will be divided into upper and lower halves to compete fiercely.

Chen Ran was listed as the No. 4 seed and exclusively occupied one of the quarters.

Although this result has long been expected, when the lottery ceremony officially came, it still excited the reporters and media from China, and also caused a small sensation on the Internet.

The new Australian Open champion, the Monte Carlo Masters champion, and now the world's number one Spanish star Ferrero is the focus of all media attention.

He was placed in the top half, and then No. [-] seed Andre Agassi was in the bottom half.

"Is it better for Chen Ran to be in the top half or the bottom half?" Regarding this issue, some Chinese reporters also debated endlessly.

Although Agassi is known as the only king in men's professional tennis today and has also won the French Open championship, his current strength on clay courts is indeed not as good as Ferrero's.

"So it's better for Chen Ran to be ranked in the bottom half. He has a great chance of entering the finals."

"I hope so."

Some Chinese reporters said this with deep understanding.

It seems that their prayers worked, and Chen Ran was actually assigned to the lower half of the district, and was in charge of the third and fourth districts alone.

Federer and Ferrero sit in the upper half.

After the result came out, the audience burst into applause.

Especially those Spanish reporters, because Ferrero had an advantage against Federer, but failed to win against Chen Ran.

Although these people firmly believe that in the French Open, Ferrero has rich Grand Slam experience and can definitely defeat Chen Ran, but if he can avoid the opponent in his own half, it will undoubtedly be fine.

Therefore, Federer, who had just won the Rome Masters, was regarded as a soft persimmon by the Spaniards.

Seeing the ecstatic expressions of the Spanish reporters really shocked the Chinese reporters for a while.

In the world of men's professional tennis, reporters from the country of the world's number one player actually cheered because they avoided Chen Ran in their own half.

How dare you imagine this before?You must know that in the grouping of football matches, those powerful Asian teams all hope to be grouped with the national football team!

Chen Ran has won the respect of everyone by virtue of his own strength. No one wants to meet such an opponent.

Will Chen Ran and Agassi meet in the semi-finals and repeat the five-set battle at the Australian Open?

Many people are looking forward to this, especially the Spaniards who have some thoughts.

The drawing of lots continues, and the seeded players will be listed in sequence.

Then comes the matchup in the quarterfinals. No. 6 seed Roddick is in the same quarters as Chen Ran.

If the draw is followed, Chen Ran will face Roddick in the quarter-finals.

First Roddick, then Agassi, is this a repeat of the Australian Open?

But almost everyone believes that it will be difficult for Roddick to join Chen Ran in the top eight, because this guy has been either a first-rounder or a second-rounder at the French Open in the past, and his performance in the Clay Court Masters has been lackluster.

Roddick even publicly stated that I just don’t like clay.

He didn't even complete the first step of "falling in love with clay" to become a true clay court master.

Therefore, it is very likely that if Chen Ran can enter the quarterfinals, his opponent will most likely not be Roddick.

The draw continued, and soon Chen Ran's opponent in the first round appeared, and it turned out to be Ancic, a young player from Croatia.

What a tough draw!
Many Chinese reporters couldn't help but exclaimed.

Ancic, who was born in 1984, is two years older than Chen Ran. He upset No. 3 seed Safin in the previous Australian Open match.

At that time, Ancic and Chen Ran were competing as the two biggest dark horses in the Australian Open.

But after the Australian Open, his progress seemed to have stalled, and he did not have a very eye-catching performance, which was in sharp contrast to Chen Ran, who had unlimited fame.

But no one can ignore this young player from Croatia. Maybe he was born for the big scene?

"It's this guy." Chen Ran sighed secretly after learning the result.

He still remembers that in the restaurant of the Australian Open, this Croatian took the initiative to talk to him.

It seems that I have to go all out in the first round, otherwise it is not impossible to be upset.

After the draw ceremony, Chen Ran also observed the new faces of this French Open.

At the Australian Open, he was the only player born after 85; but after this French Open, the number of players born after 85 has increased to three.

In addition to Chen Ran, there are Nadal from Spain and Wawrinka from Switzerland.

Wawrinka, in particular, has received a lot of media attention after reaching the semi-finals of the Rome Masters and is in the spotlight.

Wawrinka and Nadal are both very lucky. They met unseeded players in the first round and are very likely to advance to another round.

Hey, Nadal's draw... Chen Ran discovered that if Nadal could win the first round, he would meet him in the second round.

The organizing committee is giving itself assists again.

……

(End of this chapter)