Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 428: On and off the court, advancing to the quarterfinals (4K)

Federer was eliminated early, just like in his previous life.

Chen Ran also watched the match carefully, and Federer didn't show any signs of letting off steam.

He tried his best throughout the game and worked very hard in almost every round, but he was really out of shape and his whole body was very tight.

Perhaps Fei Tianwang will not adapt for a while from the stage of tours and Grand Slam events to the stage of the Olympics.

Chen Ran could only lament that the inertia of history is really powerful, even though he has disrupted the world of tennis beyond recognition.

So who will be the opponent in the final?

Not Federer, and definitely not the former gold medalist Ma Su.

But Chen Ran always had a feeling that the road to "Golden Slam" would not be that easy.

However, as Federer was eliminated early, Chinese fans were in a state of carnival.

Even the leaders of the Sports Bureau are very satisfied with Chen Ran and feel that this young man has a great sense of national honor.

In the past few days, due to the successive disastrous defeats of the Chinese men's basketball team, Yao Hei on the Internet has already ushered in a carnival.

Everyone has seen that Chen Ran attaches great importance to the Olympic Games, and his enthusiasm for fighting for his country is unprecedentedly high.

After all, because of the special nature of ball sports, they are naturally more likely to attract audiences than other sports.

More importantly, as Chen Ran made great progress on the court, his reputation from the media and fans began to soar rapidly.

Although the young Li Na could not change her impatience and eventually failed in the second round, Zheng Jie and the women's doubles players Li Ting and Sun Tiantian successfully advanced.

Chen Ran is already familiar with the experience of dealing with the media.

Of course, this sounds pretty good.

There's no rush, you can take your time with this.

The concept of three big balls and three small balls has also begun to be mentioned frequently by the media.

The so-called greater ability, greater responsibility.

Although on a global scale, the influence and commercial value of table tennis, badminton and tennis are completely incomparable, but according to the classification of the China Sports Bureau, football and basketball are the three major goals, and table tennis and badminton are the three minor goals.

Whether you are an athlete in highly professional sports such as football, basketball, or tennis, if your performance is very sudden when playing for yourself, but your performance is mediocre when playing for the national team, then it will inevitably attract hundreds of millions of Chinese fans. of verbal and written criticism.

They all agreed that Chen Ran's road to the "Golden Slam" would be smooth.

The leaders of the Sports Bureau also issued a slogan: We must vigorously develop sports that the people love, and these six ball sports bear the brunt.

Compared with basketball, which is in chaos today, tennis has a unique scenery.

Three big balls and three small balls, these are the six most popular ball sports in China today, and they are also the ones that are most valued by the leaders of the Sports Bureau.

People thought that Chen Ran was happy because Federer was eliminated early, but in fact, he personally enjoyed this Olympic experience.

Even the first words those Chinese reporters said when they saw Chen Ran were, "Federer was eliminated. What do you think?"

Could it be that tennis, like table tennis and badminton, will become China's dominant small ball sport.

In fact, volleyball is far inferior to basketball, let alone football, but this is a unique division method of China.

This is enough to make the mentality of the person involved explode.

And Chen Ran has gained huge fame and fortune through tennis, especially in terms of wealth, which is almost far ahead of other athletes, even in popular ball sports.

It also made the CCTV commentator cheer excitedly.

The top eight in women's singles and the top four in women's doubles.

After all, in the traditional understanding of the Chinese people, the national team competition is supreme and the highest honor for any athlete.

Of course, some people insist that you are the leader and the core, and you are also to blame for losing the game like this.

If he performs poorly, it will not affect his continued earning money, but the pressure from hundreds of millions of fans across the country is no joke.

Faced with all kinds of long guns and short guns, he talked eloquently.

Chen Ran's every Olympic tennis match has received unparalleled attention from the fans, and he has faced it with a positive attitude, which has naturally earned him a lot of praise.

Originally, the presence of tennis was lower than that of the other five ball games, but in this time and space, because of Chen Ran, the popularity of tennis has become very high.

The only regret is that he declined all the female athletes that the leaders approached Chen Ran for. Could it be that he also has a soft spot for those vixens in the entertainment industry?

Fortunately, social media is not yet developed, otherwise Yao Ming would have suffered.

Labels such as "You have fallen into the eyes of money", "You are so selfish", "You are not patriotic" and so on were put down.

In the later generations when social media is developed, after every world or Asian competition, if you look at the Weibo posts of the main players of the national football team or men's basketball team, the comments below are all disgusting and can be called an "encyclopedia of curses". ".

The leaders felt that although Chen Ran was young, he was more mature than most male athletes, and sooner or later he would realize their hard work.

This feeling of representing the country in a competition is completely different from previous tours and Grand Slams.

So now it's time for him to repay his country.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this guy is obviously in a very good mood.

"Every tennis player competing in the Olympics will be my competitor, and I won't focus too much on one person."

However, most fans are still sensible. They feel that Yao Ming performed well personally and tried his best. His teammates are really bad and there is nothing they can do to help him.

This is also for China's future athlete talent reserve.

These male athletes are either flight attendants or models. How can their children inherit outstanding athletic talents in the future?
But the game is still important now, and other things must take a back seat.

……

The Olympic Games continue.

In the middle and early stages, the Chinese team has been occupying the top position in the gold medal list, but the United States, which is ranked second, is chasing closely. Seeing this trend, it is only a matter of time before it overtakes China.

In the third round of men's tennis singles, Chen Ran and Chilean player Massu met again after Wimbledon.

The latter had a bitter expression on his face: "Chen, you were right at that time. We really met in the Olympics."

"Haha, it seems that my intuition is very accurate." Chen Ran also smiled lightly.

As the saying goes, caution makes the difference, but he carefully watched the video of the Chilean's game before the game started.

This guy was in pretty good shape at the Olympics and was very excited on the court. His overall level was indeed higher than his previous performance at Wimbledon.

It seems that this kind of competition has a national BUFF bonus for players who are unknown but have solid basic skills.

"Chen, I'm curious, do you prefer to win the Olympic gold medal or the US Open championship soon?"

As the two shook hands and exchanged greetings, Chilean Masu suddenly asked.

"This guy is actually having a mental battle with me?"

This is almost a clear hint that if you are too involved in the Olympic Games, it will seriously affect the US Open. "Ha... I've already won the US Open championship, and of course the Olympic gold medal."

Chen Ran smiled: "What about you, how should you weigh these two competitions? After all, you haven't even won the championship, or even made it to the finals."

Not to be outdone, he decisively took over an army.

Ma Su's face turned ugly indeed.

This is naked ridicule from the opponent.

I made some mistake and played psychological warfare with Chen Ran.

In the professional tennis world, who doesn't know that this guy is very talkative, and his honor is so good that he is simply asking for trouble.

In the opening confrontation, Chen Ran had the advantage.

"Olympic singles and doubles champions in previous lives?"

"I'm not sure about the doubles championship, but even if I'm not the singles champion, it won't be yours!"

For Chen Ran, the top 16 results in the Olympic Games are definitely not enough.

Even if he couldn't win the gold medal, he couldn't stop here.

As soon as the game started, Chen Ran was on full fire, and the audience even felt that this guy had barely warmed up.

The start was a break!

In front of the net and at the bottom line, Chen Ran ran all over the court and appeared in every corner of the court, making it difficult for his opponents to cope.

In this game, Chen Ran had no reservations in order to avoid accidents.

From the first round, he maintained complete suppression of Massu.

In this game, he played more actively than in the previous two rounds.

Once again, he repeated his old tricks and attracted the opponent to the net. Then Chen Ran relied on his excellent volley ability to score easily again.

Then, when the two sides were in a multi-shot stalemate, Chen Ran was often able to inadvertently take the initiative through excellent placement control and strong rhythm control, and then score key points.

The game lasted less than fifty minutes, and Chen Ran took the game away with a disparity of 6-1 and 6-2, easily advancing to the quarterfinals.

Many lazy Greek spectators dragged their feet to the stadium and then found that the game was over.

They were holding the tickets they had paid for and could only utter some curse words.

This scene was also recorded by keen Chinese reporters, and then sent back to China as soon as possible.

"It's unbelievable! The Greek fans just arrived and the game was already over."

"Sorry to the organizing committee! Greek fans are asking for a refund!"

"Chen Ran's journey to the top eight was so easy!"

According to the description of the Chinese reporter, the sport of tennis is still very popular in Greece.

As the game progressed, more and more Greek fans came to watch the game.

But the Greeks are so laid-back. Not only do they like to be late for work, they are also late for watching games.

Now, Chen Ran, who is ranked No. 1 in the world and is the most popular and most watched at this Olympics, also unexpectedly set a record.

This is the first time that many spectators have come to the scene and the game has ended.

After all, tennis games are not like football or basketball games, the time is fixed.

Some are long, some are short.

Greek audiences are used to watching games in the second half of football or basketball games, but when they followed this rhythm to watch Chen Ran's tennis games, they found that it didn't work.

The efficiency of this talented Chinese tennis player is really amazing, and the score is too brutal.

God, we're already in the top 16, why is the score still so disparate?

Isn't it said that in the Olympic tennis competition, the players are very close in strength? Even the Swiss star Federer stopped in the second round. Why is this Chinese's advantage so obvious?

Damn, it was mainly because we paid for the tickets and didn’t even get to see the game.

RNM organizing committee, refund your tickets!
When the scenes that happened in Athens were transmitted back to China, netizens were also happy.

“Wait, please tell me, is Greece a developed country?”

"It should be, their benefits are very good and their working hours are very few."

"It can only reach the threshold of developed countries. The benefits are good, but the income is a little low."

"They are all so lazy and always late for work. Why do they want a high income?"

"No matter how low the income is, it is still higher than ours."

“How on earth did they become a developed country?”

"Um...what are the requirements for applying for a green card in Greece? I'm really not unpatriotic, I just think Greek girls are very beautiful and want to have in-depth exchanges with them."

……

In the quarterfinals, Chen Ran is the first male tennis player to lock in the quarterfinals in this Olympics, while Zheng Jie is the first female tennis player to lock in the quarterfinals.

Chinese tennis has shined like never before in this Olympic Games, and its popularity is no less than that of the other two small-ball table tennis and badminton.

At least with Lin Dan being eliminated, it shouldn't be a big problem for tennis to outperform badminton.

It's just that table tennis, as a national sport, now seems to have little problem winning four gold medals.

Table tennis still has three major balls and three small balls. It has the most outstanding performance among the six ball sports and is worthy of being the national sport.

However, there was a small upset that the defending men's singles champion Kong Linghui was eliminated early. However, this was actually expected by many people.

After all, Kong Linghui's condition has been very average in the past year, and he is no longer as brave as he used to be.

When your usual playing status is very average, don't expect to suddenly shine when the big game comes.

This also caused the leaders of the Sports Bureau to complain in private: You see, I have already told him that his girlfriend is not good, and her condition has been getting worse every year since we talked about it.

Wang Liqin... is a well-known female artist at the national level, but how do you find an 18th-tier actress?
At the same time, the Huaxia Men’s Basketball Team lost another key game.

Before the start of the game, the media unanimously believed that Italy was the strongest competitor for the top eight spots of the Chinese men's basketball team. They believed that both sides had a chance to compete.

But once they met, they discovered that the two teams were not on the same level at all, and there was no chance of victory at all.

33 points! The Chinese men's basketball team lost by a full 33 points, even more than they lost to Argentina and Spain.

At this moment, when Chen Ran has locked a place in the top eight, the chance of the Chinese men's basketball team's top eight has become very slim.

……

(End of this chapter)