Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 389 Commitment and Strength (Third update completed)

Center Court at the All England Club, this is how a No. 1 seed is treated.

On the big screen, the Wimbledon organizing committee even printed a line in English: Chen Ran's road to the Grand Slam will start from here.

At this moment, the British man showed his double standard characteristics vividly.

After a year, Chen Ran once again set foot on this grass court that he missed so much, and then silently looked around.

Indeed, Wimbledon’s attendance this year is down a bit compared to previous years.

The attendance rate of the entire stadium is only about 8%.

You must know that Wimbledon has always been the most popular among the four Grand Slams. In previous years, even for the first round games, the Center Court was often full, and many people could not get tickets.

But this is Europe and any sport has to give way to football.

Of course, this is also true in most parts of the world.

During the recent training in Europe, they even lost to small countries with a population of several million.

"Chen Ran, do you dare to give yourself a military order?"

"We're not asking too much. If you don't win any championship at Wimbledon or the Athens Olympics, how about not shaving for a year?"

In this era, whether it is basketball or tennis, the attention in China is far from football.

Those sports reporters even shouted the slogan "This Asian Cup will witness the birth of a new champion."

"But is the difficulty of the quarter-finals and the championship the same?"

You should also follow suit!

"They even believe that the Chinese men's football team is more likely to win the Asian Cup than the Chinese men's basketball team is to reach the Olympic quarterfinals."

"But your strength is different from that of the China Men's Basketball Team." The reporter emphasized, "Netizens even think that you are more likely to win the championship than the China Men's Basketball Team to enter the quarterfinals of the Athens Olympics."

You see, Yao Ming has set an example for you.

After all, with its true strength, even with Yao Ming's Huaxia Men's Basketball Team, if they were placed in Europe, let alone the top eight, even the top 16 would have little chance.

Now an NBA All-Star, Yao Ming is leading the China Men's Basketball Team in Yanjing to prepare for the Olympics. However, due to the diversion of events such as Wimbledon, the European Cup, and the upcoming Asian Cup, there are very few media reporters going to cover the China Men's Basketball Team. .

Some good-hearted netizens launched an appeal on the Internet, and enthusiastic reporters also put this question in front of Chen Ran.

Even at this moment in China, although there is still a month until the opening of the local Asian Cup, the Chinese media has begun to warm up frantically.

But before the game, an interesting thing happened.

Chen Ran also knew this allusion from his previous life, but he didn't expect that it would affect him in this life.

Yao Ming just spoke.

"You only need to win one of the two events. This shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"

As soon as this statement came out, it caused quite a sensation and immediately attracted netizens who had already diverted their attention. Many sports media also included this news while reporting on sports events.

"If he doesn't make it to the quarterfinals of the Athens Olympics this time, he won't shave for a year."

They were just left in the corner, unnoticed.

In fact, European basketball, like European football, can be regarded as a situation where the heroes are divided and there are many great powers.

Netizens also joked: Watch the Chinese men’s football and basketball teams and learn world geography.

"Okay, I'll follow too!"

The reporters have said this, what else can Chen Ran do? He had no choice but to accept the appointment.

There is one sentence that Chen Ran cannot refute.

The possibility of winning Wimbledon or the Olympics is indeed higher than that of the Chinese men's basketball team entering the top 8 of the Olympics.

Since Yao Ming dares to make such a promise, he has nothing to hesitate about.

What's more, even if he really didn't win any championship, wouldn't he be unable to shave for a year? What a big deal!

Chen Ran started the first match of Wimbledon with this promise.

……

Generally speaking, if Asian players want to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive men's professional tennis world, they have to put in unimaginable efforts and hard training.

However, the physique of many Asian players is that when their training continues to increase and exceeds the critical point, the body's fatigue will continue to increase, and the risk of injury will also increase.

This is the biggest barrier for many Asian players to take their strength to a new level.

Therefore, among many sports that require extremely high physical fitness, the number of world-class Asian athletes is not as high as that of European and American athletes.

Chen Ran's physical fitness has already exceeded the limits of Asian athletes, and Lu Yanxun also has rare physical conditions among Asian players, as well as extremely outstanding physical fitness.

Compared with the match two years ago, Lu Yanxun is indeed a completely different person now.

At this moment, the big screen in the stadium showed that the score of the first set was 5 to 5!

Facing the world No. 1 and the No. 1 favorite at Wimbledon, Lu Yanxun firmly defended his first five serve games. Even in Chen Ran's fifth serving game, Lu Yanxun once got a break point, which made the Chinese fans and reporters present nervous and dared not speak.

Fortunately, Chen Ran, who has extensive experience in this matter, corrected his mentality, stabilized the situation, and finally succeeded in maintaining his hair.

But the score of 5 to 5 also meant that Chen Ran could not resolve the battle in the regular rounds, which also brought the competition into a fierce stage.

"One fact is that Chen Ran has not played as many grass-court games as Lu Yanxun." A C5 Sports reporter looked at the 5-5 score and said silently.

Of course, no one knew that Chen Ran had already accumulated enough grassland experience in another "virtual time and space".

The characteristics of the grass game are that the friction between the tennis ball and the ground is small when it hits the ground, and the ball rebounds quickly. It requires very high demands on the players' reaction, agility, running speed and skills.

Therefore, lawn tennis is often regarded as the world of "offensive tennis".

Here, various offensive tactics such as serving and hitting the ball are almost regarded as the magic weapon to win on the grass tennis court, while bottom-line players have difficulty achieving success on the grass tennis court.

This is an important reason why Zhang Depei has a mediocre record at Wimbledon, and the same is true for Li Na.

In addition, don't forget that although the grass court is fast, the rebound height of the tennis ball is far less than that of the hard court, which gives Chen Ran's best skill of releasing small balls a place to use.

Why Alcaraz, the new king of Spain in his previous life, was able to sweep Wimbledon and even defeat the grass-court master Djokovic, his method of releasing small balls played a crucial role.

"Wow~"

With a burst of exclamation from the audience, they once again witnessed the iconic and amazing "Chen-style ball".

Chen Ranxian restricted Lu Yanxun to the baseline with his superb batting rhythm and control of placement.

Then when the time was right, he decisively put a small ball in front of the net.

Lu Yanxun tried his best to run to the net, but the rebound of the tennis ball was low and slow, and there was no time to rescue him.

Chen Ran finally completed a perfect break in the opponent's sixth service game.

"Lu Yanxun is indeed a master on grass, but he is still a little immature now. Maybe he will cause more trouble for me in the future."

After Chen Ran completed the break, his face was extremely calm, and he was muttering secretly in his heart.

After a period of stalemate, the rhythm of the game was gradually controlled by Chen Ran.

Immediately after Chen Ran's service game, Chen Ran, who had just broken serve, was full of momentum, scoring 4 points in a row, and finally won the first set 7-5.

"The world's No. 1 suddenly showed strength and played artistic tennis."

The British host at the scene gave decisive praise, "Um... Frankly speaking, this European Cup is really ugly. Mourinho-style defensive football is prevalent, and there is some kind of ugly football everywhere. Might as well come and watch the wonderful Wimbledon.”

In the second set, Chen Ran seemed to be responding to the British host's words.

He played perhaps the most exciting attacking tennis since the start of the tournament.

The mercury was pouring down from the ground, causing Lu Yanxun to look up to the sky and sigh from time to time.

He is a hard-working player, but Chen Ran is a hard-working talented player.

Lu Yanxun was amazed by the dazzling offensive methods.

In the second set, Chen Ran, who was getting better, broke serve twice and took the game away with an absolute disparity of 6-1.

Lu Yanxun, who was behind in two sets, also knew that it was almost impossible to stage a "let two chase three" drama.

Except for the first set, Lu Yanxun never found his previous form in the Queen's Cup.

In the third set, he seemed to have given up resistance and was beaten 6-1 by Chen Ran.

After a game, apart from being slightly anxious in the first set, Lu Yanxun was given a fried dough stick by Chen Ran in the remaining two sets.

"Wonderful game." the British host shouted excitedly, "I believe that after this game, Chen Ran will become one of the biggest favorites to win."

"In addition, after this game, ESPN will continue to broadcast the quarter-finals of the European Cup, with England versus Portugal."

"Let's cheer for England together!"

The entire audience suddenly roared like a roaring tsunami.

However, no one noticed that Chen Ran, who had just made a good start, had a strange look on his face.

"England's quarter-finals are about to begin?"

"Well...that means there should be more spectators at the next game."

"After all, England will be eliminated soon with its strength."

Chen Ran thought so maliciously in his heart.

In short, he remembers very clearly that in this generation of England, which is known as the golden generation, whether it is the European Cup or the World Cup, they have not been able to break through the quarterfinals of the competition.

It was even nicknamed the "European Chinese Team" by Chinese netizens.

At this moment, if the British audience who were applauding Chen Ran's wonderful performance knew this guy's true thoughts, would they block him in the stadium angrily and prevent him from leaving?

……

(End of this chapter)