Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 392 There are so many upsets in the European Cup, but not Wimbledon (4K)

Perhaps the Chinese people's talent in grass sports is indeed not that outstanding.

It’s not just the Chinese men’s football team that is hard to describe. In lawn tennis, China’s second brother Zeng Shaoxuan was eliminated in the first round of qualifying. On the women’s side, Li Na only lasted until the second round, and Zheng Jie was stopped in the second round.

As these golden flowers said, even though they have adapted to lawn tennis on the tour before, it is still very difficult to play on the Wimbledon court.

Chen Ran remembered that in his previous life, the best result of Chinese players at Wimbledon was Zheng Jie's semi-finals, while Li Na's best result was only the top eight.

Now, Chen Ran is the only one left in the Chinese tennis team participating in Wimbledon to fight alone.

Chen Ran seems to be an exception.

He has shown excellent adaptability to grass courts without seemingly having much experience on grass courts.

After breaking into the top 32, Chen Ran got a day's rest.

Instead of hanging out, he was surfing the Internet in the hotel.

Chen Ran decisively closed the web page, and then silently told himself: At this juncture, he must keep a low profile.

The grand prize of one million euros is only one step away.

In this time and space, will the result change?

Obviously, Chen Ran's butterfly effect has not yet spread to the football world.

When I was surfing the Internet in my previous life, I did see news reports that a 1 euro bet was placed on Greece to win the championship, and the final return was 50 euros.

At this moment, the European Cup has reached the semi-finals.

No one thought Greece could continue to create myths.

Now, a change has occurred.

Seeing this news, Chen Ran suddenly remembered the dusty past.

what does this mean?

Is it possible that the spinach company feels uneasy and painful and wants to take action?

But "The Sun" went crazy and searched for people all over the world.

It was even more shocking than when Greece eliminated France.

No one should be allowed to find out that he was the bettor of that huge sum of 2 euros.

The enthusiasm shown by this group of Chinese reporters for the European Cup even exceeds that of the upcoming local Asian Cup.

Or maybe the dealer who opened the market continues to make a lot of money.

He still clearly remembers how shocked he felt when he woke up and turned on the news the next day and saw Greece eliminated the Czech Republic.

The Czech team led by Pavel Nedvěd is known as the biggest favorite after France. Even in the eyes of many experts, the Czech team is more likely to win now than the golden generation Czech team in 1996.

They don't know what means they used to obtain a mobile phone of confidential information from the gambling company.

"very good!"

At the turn of the century, football was indeed the hottest era for China.

1 euros is no longer a small amount. Some people actually spent 2 euros to buy the Greek champion. What kind of mentality is this?

Even someone as rich as Bill Gates would not be so bored as to waste 2 euros on buying a Greek champion.

Because I also invested 2 euros.

What kind of garbage team is Greece? If they can beat France, their luck has obviously run out.

Whether it is the Premier League, Serie A or La Liga, it is more popular in China than the NBA, even if the NBA has Yao Ming.

However, a piece of news that followed made Chen Ran extremely vigilant.

The editor of "The Sun" vowed that he must find out this mysterious figure and want to see if he has any inside information.

At this moment, with England being eliminated and the French team that the British hated being eliminated, the somewhat bizarre Wimbledon Organizing Committee began to allow participating players to discuss the European Cup.

The upsets continued to happen, as Greece's ugly football eliminated the Czech Republic, which had a gorgeous attack, and went home.

These two amounts were 1 euros and 2 euros respectively, and they were both anonymous.

Not long after Greece reached the European Cup finals, the famous "The Sun" took action.

Who?

Who on earth has such a great sense of leisure?

"I think badly!"

The British mind is always different.

Chen Ran remembered that when he was reborn, he had to give up the opportunity to buy football lottery tickets. Is this considered compensation for himself?

Nedved, who was crying bitterly, couldn't even believe what was happening in front of him.

So far, before the start of the European Cup, there have been only two large bets on Greece winning the championship at major betting companies.

Therefore, before the match between Chen Ran and Safin, a Chinese reporter asked him to talk about the final between Greece and Portugal.

It shouldn't happen, this European Cup has already made them crazy money.

Although Chen Ran was a football fan in his previous life, he rarely got up in the middle of the night for a football match, except for some focus matches of the World Cup.

Perhaps in their view, without England and France, the European Cup is far less attractive to Londoners than Wimbledon.

Chen Ran, who stayed in the hotel, clenched his fists tightly.

"Who do you think will be the champion?"

Chen Ran repeated the question from the Chinese reporter, glanced at the reporter from "The Sun" intentionally, and then spoke slowly.

"Of course it's Portugal, they have so many stars. I paid 1000 pounds to buy the Portuguese champion. How much can you give me in return?"

"Maybe only 300 pounds in return!" The reporter from "The Sun" reacted the fastest and answered first.

"That's it..." Chen Ran shook his head in disappointment, "Forget it, I give up."

"If you buy Greece, the return will be very high, 3000 pounds!" The reporter from "The Sun" gestured excitedly, "Chen Ran, you can definitely give it a try."

This guy seemed to really hope that Chen Ran would listen to his advice, which would allow him to write a big news story.

However, Chen Ran obviously did not give the other party a chance, and shook his head decisively: "Buying Greece, what does that have to do with giving money? I will never be so boring."

Theoretically, this is the case. Not only is Portugal stronger than Greece on paper, but it is also playing at home.

More importantly, can Greece beat Portugal twice in one European Cup?

"With this £1000, I might as well buy myself the chance to win Wimbledon!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It was just a joke."

Chen Ran's "reaction" was very quick, because players cannot say in public that they believe they will win or lose, which is strictly prohibited by the tournament organizing committee.

However, the reporter below also got a message from it. Chen Ran has obviously made winning Wimbledon his primary goal in this competition.

……

Safin's results at Wimbledon were only slightly better than on clay, but far worse than on hard courts.

However, after returning from injury, Safin has become much more stable, and his performance on grass has also improved.

He faced few challenges in the first two rounds, and also eliminated a tournament No. 17 seed.

Of course, this is also the reason why Safin has never met a real grass-court master.

After the game started, the two experienced a brief trial and then began a hand-to-hand exchange.

Chen Ran found that Safin was on the grass court and resolutely implemented the tactics of serving and netting by virtue of his size.

At the beginning, as Chen Ran was still in the adapting stage, Safin achieved some miraculous results with this tactic and kept serving easily.

But as time went by, due to the lack of changes in Safin's tactics, Chen Ran gradually adapted. To be precise, Chen Ran's ability to receive serve has become more and more superb, which makes it difficult for Safin to implement his tactics resolutely.

Soon, break points began to appear one after another.

Safin tried his best to save break points one after another.

But you can't always score key points on break points, especially against a sharp hunter like Chen Ran.

Soon, with Chen Ran's decisive volley at the net, he finally broke serve.

1:0.

In the first set, Chen Ran didn't give Safin any chance.

In his own service games, he won them all with the efficiency of a spring breeze sweeping fallen leaves.

Safin found with some despair that even though he tried his best, he hit a wall and didn't even get a break point, which greatly affected his confidence.

Fighting spirit and momentum suffered a heavy blow.

If he can't gain the upper hand even if he tries his best, does this mean that Chen Ran is really terrible in all aspects?

At such a young age, he already has strong competitiveness on various types of courts, including hard courts, clay courts, and grass courts.

When Safin begins to doubt himself, it means that there is a crack in confidence and belief, and this is the beginning of the collapse of the game.

What's more, his grass level is far inferior to hard ground.

After the start of the second set, Safin was still trying and fighting hard, but his fighting spirit and belief were obviously short of breath, and his energy was not as good as in the previous set.

At the same time, mental instability also slowly reveals physical sluggishness, and clues can be seen in running and batting movements after attention is distracted.

6 is better than 3!

Chen Ran quickly won another set.

In this set, Chen Ran got break points three times, and actually succeeded twice. The success rate was so high that it was jaw-dropping.

Especially in the service game where Safin had to protect his serve, Chen Ran unexpectedly scored 4 points in a row, giving the opponent a reverse "love game".

2 is better than 0!

The game has become unsuspicious, and the strong showdown that the audience was expecting seems to have not come.

It seems that only those real grassland masters can pose a threat to Chen Ran.

In the third set, Chen Ran still firmly controlled the initiative.

With a two-set lead, he could go into battle lightly without any pressure.

In this game, Safin completely lost his temper and had no ability to resist.

Accompanied by bursts of boos from the audience, Chen Ran actually gave the opponent a 6-0 donut, bringing the game to an end.

Safin was defeated by Chen Ran in three consecutive sets, especially in the third set when he was beaten 6-0. It was rare for him not to break the racket.

He has always had a hot temper, but he lost this game to the point where he was not even in the mood to smash his racket.

Chen Ran won three games in a row and lost only one set, easily making it to the second week of Wimbledon.

In terms of the order of winning, the organizing committee also raised Chen Ran's ranking by one place, surpassing the defending champion Roddick and second only to Federer.

Roddick was very puzzled by this.

He is the defending champion, and Chen Ran is a three-time Grand Slam winner and Federer's bitter enemy. Why is Federer ranked first among the favorites to win?

Chen Ran may know some reasons.

Perhaps Federer, with his elegant playing style, is more in line with the taste of these British gentlemen.

These guys are obviously a group of drunkards and hooligans, but perhaps they got themselves involved when they saw Federer's elegant playing style.

What's more, Chen Ran has never been a popular player with British audiences, and Roddick has long been blacklisted by British fans and media because of his disdain for British tennis star Henman last year.

So this year's Wimbledon is almost Federer's home court.

But Chen Ran doesn't care as much about the ranking of favorites as Roddick does.

This thing is entirely based on personal preference and has no reference value at all.

On the other hand, Chen Ran's opponent in the next round immediately cheered him up.

Chinese media even joked that Chen Ran was competing against "Kong Linghui's girlfriend."

Nicolás Massu, Chilean tennis player.

What impressed Chen Ran most about this guy was that he single-handedly won the men's singles and doubles gold medals at the Athens Olympics.

Massu did not have many shining points throughout his career. Perhaps those two Olympic gold medals exhausted his lifelong luck.

This person is Chen Ran's opponent from 16 to 8.

But he won't take anything lightly.

After all, the Olympic Games are approaching now, and the butterfly effect caused by him has already disrupted the professional tennis world beyond recognition.

Maybe this guy will bring his good luck in the Olympics to Wimbledon in advance.

"The European Cup has been a series of upsets, but this year's Wimbledon was uneventful. No high-seeded player was eliminated."

This was the headline in the British media.

"Then we look forward to giving you some surprises when the second week of Wimbledon begins."

The surprise in the British media's mouth was obviously that they hoped that this Chilean player named Massu could cause some trouble for Chen Ran.

Compared with other Latin American players, Massu is obviously better at playing on grass.

In particular, his penetrating forehand shots are unfavorable on grass courts.

It is definitely not easy for Chen Ran to win this game easily.

This is the view of many people.

Remembering that last year, Chen Ran almost always played five sets in every match and was lucky enough to advance. This year, Chen Ran's strong crushing performance really shocked many people.

Chilean Masu will be the second guy after Nadal to test Chen Ran's true strength on the grass.

"Will it be an upset?" Many London viewers are looking forward to it.

But what no one knew was that Chen Ran muttered something in his heart.

"There have been so many upsets in the European Cup, but Wimbledon refuses to be upset, at least that's how I feel."

"Whether it's Wimbledon now or the upcoming Olympics, I will beat you!"

……

All England Club, Center Court.

In the second week of the Wimbledon Championships, the match between Chen Ran and Masu was the first match of the fourth round.

The 1-seat stadium was packed.

Even Chen Ran's potential opponents, Federer, Roddick, Hewitt and others, were sitting in the audience with serious faces.

As the Grand Slam tournament enters its second week, these high-seeded players are finally starting to think about playing against each other.

……

(End of this chapter)