Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 27 The top eight opponents, Treasure Island No. 1

The ITF10K Hope Tournament is a formal competition, but it is much more formal than the previous Ningzhou Youth Tennis Championships. There will be no such psychedelic operation of allowing players who have byes to compete against each other.

After the qualifying players enter the main draw, the players they will face off with are already determined after the draw is made and cannot be changed.

Chen Ran looked at the lottery table and finally realized what it meant to "make wedding clothes for others".

He found that before entering the quarterfinals, he would not encounter any strong opponents.

Even in the quarterfinals, they will face a player from mainland China or Taiwan.

In the Hope Tournament held in China, the lottery is clearly arranged for you.

Chen Ran touched his pockets a little shyly. After entering the main game, he finally no longer had to pay for hotel stays, but he still had to pay for meals.

He decisively checked out of the room he originally booked and ran away to check into the hotel arranged by the organizing committee.

At the same time, Chen Ran also secretly observed the strong opponents he might encounter in this competition.

All European and American players who travel thousands of miles to China to score points cannot be that weak.

However, after he secretly observed a few people, he couldn't help but have some doubts about this view.

This is not a doubt about their strength, but a doubt about their professionalism.

Are some European and American players really coming to compete?

Not only flying all over the world, but also taking his girlfriend with him, and more than one family member, are they going to compete during the day and have a threesome at night?
Tennis is such a physically demanding game. Even if it is a best-of-three set, once you get into a state of anxiety, it is common to play for two and a half, or even three hours.

Even though these European and American players are relatively wealthy, they don't spend money like this. No wonder they seem to be over [-] years old and can only stay in the lowest level of hope competition.

Some people do not regard tennis as a career, but just a hobby. They use the reason of participating in competitions to travel around the world, eat, drink and have fun. Of course, only players from developed countries can have this kind of capital.

Very good, it seems that it will be less difficult to achieve good results in this competition.

After Chen Ran took a bath, he fell asleep happily.

……

The third day of competition is still two games a day, which is a great test of the players' physical fitness.

This is also a deliberate arrangement by the organizing committee, the so-called survival of the fittest.

If you are a player with insufficient strength, in the first round of the main event, even if you are lucky enough to pass the risk and enter the top [-], it will probably be a hard battle and reach the limit of physical fitness. Then in the second round of the main event , usually losing very cleanly.

Thanks to the Northern Jiangsu player, Chen Ran entered the top 8 without any hindrance and successfully obtained 2 ATP points.

Among these games, Chen Ran had the most difficult time in the first round of qualifying.

"We are also people with ATP rankings!"

Chen Ran's current real-time ranking is 1672, and his opponent in the quarterfinals is Lu Yanxun from Taiwan.

It turned out to be this person!
Chen Ran was impressed by this guy.

Lu Yanxun is three years older than Chen Ran. He just turned professional last year. In his previous life, he had a nickname called "King of ATP Challenger Tour".

This guy has won 29 Challenge singles championships and 17 Challenge singles runner-ups in his career, and his best result in the ATP Tour is the runner-up in the 250 event.

But his achievements go far beyond that. Among the four Grand Slams at Wimbledon, Lu Yanxun's best result was the quarterfinals!
This is a result that all Chinese men's tennis players can look up to.

"Does the organizing committee regard this Taiwanese as a soft persimmon and deliberately arranges a meeting between him and Na Gaoqi in the quarterfinals?" Chen Ran couldn't help but wonder in his heart.However, after careful observation, he also found that the top eight players were basically from Europe and the United States.From this point of view, Lu Yanxun from Taiwan, China does look like a soft persimmon, but in fact it is a hard nut to crack.

Chen Ran knew that he had to go all out in this game. Even if he was careless in the slightest, he would probably stop there.

When Chen Ran was observing the other party, the other party was also observing him.

"You started playing professionally at the age of 16?"

"When did such a talented player appear in China?"

Lu Yanxun was also confused. At this time, he was only 19 years old. He did not expect that one day he would be able to reach the top 8 of the Grand Slam and become the king of the challenge. He did not dare to do anything when facing players from the Chinese mainland. Not the slightest bit of contempt.

In the world of tennis, there are indeed many 16-year-olds who can play professionally, but in the impression of Chinese players, there is only one Zhang Depei.

Chen Ran's victory may be due to luck, but he has won five games in a row including the qualifying rounds. Such strength should not be underestimated.

The two of them looked at each other for a while on the baselines at both ends of the tennis court.

"If I get the right to serve, at least my luck isn't that bad!"

da da~
Chen Ran stood on the baseline, hitting the tennis ball rhythmically, while adjusting his body condition to maintain a high degree of concentration.

Of course, there is also the idea of ​​deliberately delaying time and playing psychological warfare with the other party.

In this regard, Chen Ran studied under the giant master Djokovic.

Djokovic is famous for his ink marks during the serving stage. Of course, he is also known as a master of psychological warfare. He even slaps the tennis ball more than ten times before serving.

The time Chen Ran spent in the serving phase was not as exaggerated as Djokovic, but it also made the opponent Lu Yanxun a little anxious.

Generally, the younger the tennis players are, the more impatient they are. They will slap the ball a few times and then swing it out vigorously.

Chen Ran had reservations about his first serve. Whether it was a topspin serve pursuing an angle or a bomb serve pursuing speed, he did not use it. Instead, he started with a relatively ordinary serve to test the opponent's return of serve. ability.

When Lu Yanxun saw the ball hit by Chen Ran flying towards him, his whole body was highly concentrated.

"Are you testing me?" He instantly guessed Chen Ran's intention.

Lu Yanxun has not observed Chen Ran's previous games, but he understands how it is possible for the opponent to reach the top 8 if the opponent only has such quality of serve.

He decisively returned a high-quality baseline ball, and Chen Ran also accompanied the opponent in a baseline battle.

The two sides went back and forth, taking multiple shots in a stalemate. In the end, Chen Ran scored the first point with an unexpected ball.

15: 0.

"Why are you so skilled at releasing small balls!" Lu Yanxun was surprised inwardly.

This style of play is really novel and rarely seen.

Generally speaking, the position of most tennis players when releasing the ball is usually in the service area and no man's land.

It is indeed very rare for a talented person like Chen Ran to be bold and dare to put the ball directly on the baseline.

"There are such young talents in China!"

……

(End of this chapter)