Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 375: In the Madrid final, Chen Ran fights Nadal again!

PS: I will speed up the pace and will progress to Wimbledon and the Athens Olympics quickly.

……

The first wave of drama of the clay court season slowly came to an end.

Before the game, who would have thought that an 18-year-old Spanish boy could finally win Monte Carlo?

However, when people think of the miracles Chen Ran has created, it seems understandable that his peers from the tennis powerhouse Spain can do this.

Has the golden age of tennis arrived?

Not just ATP, the same scene also happened in WTA.

Since the Monte Carlo Masters only has men's competitions, the world's top female players are currently participating in the WTA500 Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany.

In addition to the high bonus, the singles champion will also receive a Porsche sports car on the spot. The conditions are very attractive.

Therefore, even though the Porsche Grand Prix is ​​a 500 race, it is no less attractive than the WTA 1000 race.

The young Sharapova defeated the famous Belgian player and the world's number one star Henin, and also won the first top-level championship in her career.

Since there are only 32 lottery spots for the Porsche Grand Prix, among the Chinese players, Li Na was only ranked in the qualifying round, so she gave up the competition, while Zheng Jie was ranked so that she could directly enter the main draw, so she chose to sign up.

Many football-savvy players concluded that Chen Ran would definitely regret this decision.

"Zheng Jie's grades have steadily improved, while Chen Ran's grades have begun to decline!"

Among the new generation of players, she is second only to Sharapova.

Look at Chen Ran and Zheng Jie, one has just said that he does not need a head coach, and the other has just hired a head coach.

But the one who defeated her was still the tennis queen Haining.

As a result, some eye-catching media began to make a fuss about it.

"You see, the head coach's influence has already begun!"

Top four!

Especially Zhang Depei had just switched from Chen Ran to Zheng Jie.

Either this year or next year, he will definitely hire a new head coach quietly.

Under the guidance of Zhang Depei, Zheng Jie, who has met a good teacher, has been steadily improving her level.

There were even bets placed online about it.

There was a heated discussion on the Internet about this.

The clay court season every year is busy and compact, and everyone who wants to know the answer does not need to wait long.

"Chen Ran shouldn't give up the head coach just to save money. Even if you are not satisfied with Zhang Depei's coaching, you can always change him!"

The following Madrid Masters and Rome Masters are Chen Ran's two most important tournaments before the start of the French Open.

As the defending champion in Madrid, he naturally attracted much attention.

It seems that if Zheng Jie wants to continue to advance, she must consider how to avoid becoming Haining's maid.

In this Porsche Grand Prix, her performance was still outstanding.

Especially among the seeded players, only Chen Ran has not been assigned a head coach. What everyone is curious about is how Chen Ran will perform in this back-to-back clay court masters.

But in any case, Zheng Jie's performance in the 2004 season was gratifying.

Many people are just watching the excitement, hoping to take advantage of Chen Ran's ups and downs to add insult to injury.

However, the reality disappointed them.

Chen Ran made great progress all the way, eliminating various clay court masters along the way and reaching the semi-finals.

From the top 64 to the final, Chen Ran did not lose a set in five games, showing strong dominance.

This made countless sports media exclaim: What if there is no head coach? Chen Ran did not seem to be affected in any way!

This year’s Madrid Masters can be described as a hotbed of unpopularity.

Chen Ran did not encounter any top eight seeded players along the way.

The only challenge was Safin who met in the semi-finals. However, although he has the world's top strength, he signed up to participate in the competition to protect his ranking.

In the semi-finals, Chen Ran successfully completed his revenge!

6 to 3, 7 to 5!

The match lasted just over an hour and a half, during which time Safin failed to break serve even once, and even without a break point, Chen Ran easily took away the victory.

Safin's clay court strength is acceptable, and his best results are the French Open semi-finals and the Barcelona 500 championship.

But in the semifinals, facing a clay court player like Chen Ran, he was still passive.

The clay court game is about grinding, constant baseline stalemate, or unexpected short balls in front of the net.

Hitting the ball hard and even hitting incredible wonder shots has never been difficult for the talented Safin.

Even his excellent movement makes Safin's speed outstanding among tennis players of similar height.

However, even so, the tall and tall Safin obviously consumes more physical energy than Chen Ran for the same running distance.

Chen Ran obviously knew this well.

Throughout the game, he was like a rhythm master, mobilizing Safin's tall body to fly all over the field.

One topspin after another made the opponent's return very uncomfortable.

Obviously, he brought the essence of clay courts to the extreme.

In the end, Chen Ran scored the winning point with a small ball in front of the net amidst the exclamations of the audience, successfully locking in a place in the finals.

"Marat seems to have reservations?" "Is he afraid of recurrence of the injury?"

After the game, when Chen Ran walked towards the midfield net, he couldn't help but have this thought in his mind.

In fact, Chen Ran’s placement of the small ball just now was not perfect, and it was some distance away from the net.

Safin could actually have been saved if he had run with all his strength, but he still gave up.

Although he is tall and strong, his moving speed is not slow. Of course, in today's game, he was walked very hard by Chen Ran.

On the clay court, the batting speed and power that I was proud of were severely weakened.

Chen Ran has too strong control over the rhythm of the game. Perhaps Safin is worried that if he continues to play, his injury will recur.

A year of recuperation made Safin worry about his memory, and he might not want to make the same mistake again.

If he wants to defeat Chen Ran on the clay court, even if he wins two out of three sets, he may have to fight for half his life.

After all, tennis is a sport that requires constant running, and players with lean bodies are the most suitable. The taller and stronger the body is, the more likely it is that the risk of injury will increase over time.

When Chen Ran shook hands with Safin, he also said straight to the point: "Marat, after every clay court match, I don't know how many kilometers I ran. I can only pray that I don't get cramps."

Safin also heard the implication and said with a smile: "I think even if I perform well, I still have to tie with you. It consumes too much physical energy here. I am wondering whether in order to continue my career, I should reduce clay court participation in the future. frequency."

"I don't want to experience the same injury again."

For Safin today, if he can maintain his strength in the grass and hard court seasons, it would be wiser to give up some clay court games.

"Your opponent in the final may be better at running than you, so I wish you good luck!"

Chen Ran's opponent in the final was Spain's new favorite Nadal, who played at home.

……

In 2004, the entire professional tennis world was surprised by the speed of Nadal's rise.

Although his performance during the Australian Open and the "Sunshine Double" was considered outstanding, he was far from reaching the level of winning the championship.

In the clay court season, Nadal can simply be described as coming out of nowhere.

He first won the Monte Carlo Masters, then played at home and reached the final of the Madrid Masters.

Chen Ran and Nadal met again.

The world finally began to take a closer look at this Spanish young man who just turned 18 years old.

"This is all so normal!"

Chen Ran didn't seem surprised at all.

"The last time I saw Nadal on a clay court was last year. One year is enough to change everything."

"You can't judge Nadal on clay courts by the standards of the Australian Open and the Sunshine Double Match. These are two completely different types of tennis."

"Raphael is a clay court genius and I applaud his outstanding performance!"

“Hopefully it will be an exciting final!”

On the eve of the final, he faced the media's barbs and talked freely.

In fact, the stronger the opponent, the more popular the sport will be and attract more people's attention.

In the original time and space, in the days when Federer dominated the professional tennis world, if Nadal and Djokovic did not compete with him successively and staged scenes of peak duels, how boring would this day be?

Just like table tennis, it turned into a Chinese civil war.

In the same way, in fact, the attention of the World Basketball Championship in this era was pitifully low, and its commercial value was also very poor. The championship team even only received a mere tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses.

Because of the outstanding performance of American basketball, the NBA has wiped out almost all basketball dividends, and big-name stars even disdain the World Championships.

It’s just that table tennis does not have such great commercial value and cannot form an internal circulation, so it can only continue to fight the Chinese Civil War in the world arena.

Tennis, whether it is the media, the organizing committee or the ATP, they all need new hot spots.

This final once again attracted the attention of sports fans around the world.

Chen Ran VS Federer, Chen Ran VS Roddick, Chen Ran VS Safin, Chen Ran VS Agassi.

Now, in the match between Chen Ran and Nadal, the showdown between two people born after 85 is coming from behind, and the topic is exploding.

Will Nadal win back-to-back Clay Court Masters titles, or will Chen Ran get his revenge in this final?

This is Madrid!

Nadal's home court!

If Chen Ran can complete his revenge, the taste will be very wonderful.

On the eve of the final, ticket prices continued to soar, attracting celebrities from Madrid's cultural and sports circles.

Even the organizing committee of the Madrid Masters proudly announced that the number of reporters applying to cover this final was no less than that of the Spanish Derby held not long ago.

A few days ago, the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona attracted global attention.

Not only because of Real Madrid's Galacticos, but also because this is the first time Brazilian superstar Ronaldo has played against Real Madrid since joining Barcelona.

The showdown between Ronaldinho and Ronaldinho naturally attracted the attention of sports fans around the world.

A few days later, the focus of world sports was once again on Madrid, Spain.

This was the second confrontation between Chen Ran and Nadal in the 2004 season, and it was also the first time they met in the final.

……

(End of this chapter)