Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 324: Forced to smash the racket again!

Chen Ran originally wanted to call a "medical timeout", but found that it was an even-numbered game, which was not allowed by the rules. There was not even a game break. The two players needed to devote themselves to the next game without stopping.

"Do you really want to be eliminated in the first round?"

In fact, for a long season, or even an entire career, it is normal for even giant-level players to take a nap occasionally.

It's not like Chen Ran can't accept losing to a player of Safin's level.

But when he thought about this being the first game of the new season and the faces of some people, he still felt that he could never lose this battle.

2004 is the year of his big exam, and Chen Ran doesn't want to start with a failure.

The Grand Slam is not the end of the year. In the latter, you still have a chance to lose a game, but in the former, it is "win" or "go home."

It must be admitted that the quality of every ball hit by Safin is very high, and the depth, bounce, power and spin of the returned ball are all top-notch in the world.

He is even stronger than before the injury.

He is worthy of being a guy who can overthrow Federer at his peak.

"Thanks to his excellent physical talent, both Safin's forehand and backhand are as smooth as a cloud when hitting the ball. They are very crisp, violent and full of power."

"Also...it seems that the whole audience except the Chinese fans are cheering for Safin, who has just returned from injury."

Human nature dictates that they like to see upsets and hope that the lower-ranked players will overturn the higher-ranked players.

In addition, although Safin is Russian, his playing style is very entertaining and he is widely welcomed by fans all over the world.

In 2005, Safin defeated the then king Federer in a fierce battle to advance to the final. Almost the entire Australia cheered for this.

In the final, he defeated Australia's local darling Hewitt.

This was the closest Hewitt came to the Australian Open, but was perfectly intercepted by Safin.

Even so, Safin still won applause from many Australians.

Now, when he returned to the court after a year, he also won the support of the fans with his wonderful performance.

The Tsar remains the same Tsar.

From Safin's perspective, there is nothing more perfect than defeating Chen Ran, the world's number one, to announce his return.

There are also new Chinese journalists who look puzzled.

Last year, Chen Ran, who was just starting out, also won Safin once in the Auckland Tour of New Zealand.

This year has passed, and he has won two Grand Slams and five Masters.

It stands to reason that Chen Ran's strength should be improving rapidly, soaring like a rocket, but the fact is that Chen Ran was forced into a desperate situation by this former defeated general.

He obviously forgot.

Sometimes competitive sports cannot be judged by common sense.

A very simple example, A can beat B, and B can beat C, but this does not mean that A can definitely beat C.

Just like the World Cup two years ago, no one would have thought that France and Argentina, the two favorites to win the championship, would both stop in the group stage.

"call……"

Chen Ran took a deep breath.

At this moment, his eyes were staring straight ahead.

With all his concentration, Chen Ran only had eyes for Safin, who was playing tennis.

The applause, noise, and other sounds in such a large stadium all ignored him, as if he couldn't hear it.

Chen Ran put aside all distracting thoughts and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the "selfless" competition.

What he didn't know was that the host of C5 Sports had just received a notification.

If Chen Ran loses the second set, the C5 signal will be temporarily transferred to Li Na's match.

Now, Li Na leads her opponent 1-0 with a total score, and she broke serve again in the second set.

If nothing else, the first Grand Slam victory for Chinese women’s tennis is about to come.

Of course, CCTV cannot miss such a historic moment.

Even the leaders in the station kept shouting: "We should let this kid have a longer memory and not get too carried away. There will be the Olympics this year, and it is better to discover problems early than late."

Zhang Sheng, the host of C5 Sports, was speechless to the leader who only had the Olympic Games on his mind.

But after all, he is his boss, and he can only obey orders.

Zhang Sheng rubbed his forehead helplessly, praying for a miracle to happen.

"nice shot!"

Suddenly, he shouted excitedly.

During the stalemate, Chen Ran made Safin sigh with excitement with an exquisite ball, and took the lead to score a point.

"By the way, the Australian Open is a slow hard court. Although its ball speed is faster than the clay court, it is slower than the US Open."

"So for Chen Ran, the difficulty of releasing a small ball is obviously less than that of the US Open."

The host of C5 Sports said excitedly.

I saw another small ball from Chen Ran, and Safin quickly caught up and pushed the ball back.

However, Chen Ran was already ready. He made a beautiful volley in front of the net and pushed the ball far away.

At the moment of hitting the ball, Chen Ran still made a fake move with ease, causing Safin to misjudge.

30 is better than 0!

Once again, the game situation took an unexpected turn.

When the audience thought that Safin would easily maintain his serve again and expand his advantage to two sets, Chen Ran seemed to wake up and scored two points in a row.

The game started to become suspenseful, it was really exciting!

In the audience, there was once again uniform applause.

The same Chinese fans who had been quiet for the whole game began to wave the five-star red flag excitedly.

Don't forget that although Safin has kept all his serve games so far in this game, no one can deny that Chen Ran is a break serve master.

If a tennis player does not have excellent breaking ability, it is impossible for him to become the world's number one.

"Come on, get two more points!" Zhang Sheng in the C5 live broadcast room almost stood up with excitement.

For the next ball, Safin decisively used the serve and net tactics that he is good at.

With his tall body and excellent net skills, he has great coverage ability in front of the net.

In the previous rounds, Chen Ran tried to penetrate Safin's defense in front of the net, but usually ended in failure. At the critical moment, Safin repeated his old tricks.

Obviously, this is a reasonable and sane tactic.

In the flash of lightning, Chen Ran squatted down, took a step, and then swung the racket to lift the tennis ball high.

This... is so courageous!

The entire audience exclaimed in unison.

Safin is tall and has excellent high-pressure ability, but Chen Ran still dares to do this.

I saw the tennis ball just flying over the sky, drawing a beautiful and full parabola.

Chen Ran's hitting is very high, which also shows his delicate touch.

However, the higher the ball flies, the harder it is to control its landing point.

But Chen Ran's sudden inspiration showed his talent vividly.

boom!

The tennis ball landed!

Although it is not right next to the baseline, it is only four or five centimeters away from the intersection of the sideline and the baseline.

When Safin was running back, he was actually silently praying that the tennis ball could fly out of the baseline.

However, it backfired.

Because the tennis ball flies very high, it also flies very high after rebounding.

Safin had his back to Chen Ran and had to turn around to hit the ball, which made him feel very awkward.

If he's just after hitting the tennis ball back to the opposite half, it's not that difficult.

But Safin still has to pursue the quality of the ball return and cannot let Chen Ran catch the ball so comfortably.

boom!

He tried to return a ball with strong topspin, and in order to prevent Chen Ran from intercepting it at the net, he also deliberately pursued an angle.

Chen Ran's first plan was just as Safin predicted, he tried to volley on the tennis ball.

However, when he saw the path of the ball, his heart moved and he decisively retracted his outstretched arm.

Chen Ran gave up the volley and watched the tennis ball fly past.

The outside world!

Sure enough, his calm judgment at critical moments worked.

40 is better than 0!

At this time, the entire audience could not sit still.

In Safin's winning service game, Chen Ran hit 40-0!

As long as Safin wins this game, he will win the second set.

How could the victory so close at hand be lost before our eyes?

"Opportunity, the best chance to break serve!"

"If you can deliver a love game in the opponent's winning service game, it is the most ideal result and can also greatly boost morale."

Chen Ran held the racket in both hands and continued to look ahead intently.

One point left!

boom!

One wrong serve!

砰

The second serve is in bounds!

But the quality of the serve is obviously lower than before.

Safin was obviously a little panicked.

Although his mental quality has improved greatly compared to before the injury, it is not impeccable, not to mention that he is facing a master like Chen Ran.

Chen Ran rushed into the field decisively.

He took advantage of the opponent's second serve and adopted the "SABR" tactic.

Safin had seen Chen Ran play in this way, but he had never prepared for the opponent to use it at such an important moment.

He stared at the return ball dumbfounded without any reaction.

Chen Ran's first break of serve in this game was completed!

4: 5!

Still a beautiful "love game"!

"Real top players should survive in desperate situations!" The host of C5 Sports also jumped out excitedly regardless of the occasion.

Although it cannot be said that the balance of victory in this game has tilted, the two sides have indeed returned to the same starting line.

Safin was extremely annoyed and once again made a move to smash the racket.

But he reluctantly stopped this action.

"I warned myself not to smash the racket again!" Safin reluctantly held back.

Immediately afterwards, in Chen Ran's serve game, his morale was high and he did not give Safin any chance and gave Safin another "love game".

Chen Ran won 8 points in a row.

5 is better than 5!

"It seems that Safin is getting impatient again..." the host at the scene muttered silently.

Nature is hard to change!

In fact, Safin is not anxious, his mentality and emotional control are much better than before.

It was because Chen Ran kept exerting pressure, forcing out his impatient side step by step.

This requires extraordinary strength and super mental quality.

In the eleventh game, although Safin sent an ACE ball.

But he was still controlled by Chen Ran's changeable tactics and excellent placement, which made him feel powerless.

Mainly because of the winning game just now, Chen Ran scored 4 points in a row, which really hurt morale.

Break of serve for the second time in the second set!

This time, Safin finally couldn't hold back his temper.

In the first game of his comeback, he smashed his racket again.

……

(End of this chapter)