Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 43 Extreme Control
Chen Ran lived up to expectations and reached the finals of the ITF25K Hope Tournament, winning 20 ATP points and at least US$1800 in rewards.

Even if the ranking reaches 697!
Chen Ran also got his wish and got the wild card leading to the ATP 100K Challenge in Shanghai at the end of October.

What made him slightly disappointed was that in the four consecutive games in the past few days, none of his attributes had improved at all.

Obviously, this level of competition is no longer a challenge for Chen Ran.

Chen Ran's opponent in the final is Satoru Iwabuchi from RB, currently ranked over 380 in the world.

The opponent was born in 1975 and is now 27 years old. He is already a veteran who has been playing professional tennis for many years.

It’s just that his record is really mediocre. In addition to receiving a wild card and occasionally participating in ATP Tour events during his career, he can only participate in ATP Challengers and ITF Hope Tours most of the time, and the total prize money he received is only more than 2 US dollars.

"RB player?"

"interesting!"

Chen Ran knows that in the future, RB will have figures like Kei Nishikori, reach the US Open finals, and even participate in the year-end finals many times, becoming a leader in Asian men's tennis.

He is really looking forward to fighting against such a person in the future.

"Hello, please give me some advice!" The two shook hands symbolically, and Iwabuchi was very polite.

That's how it was in my childhood. On the surface, I bowed to you at every turn, and my etiquette was to the extreme, but who knew if people would stab you behind your back?

Before this game, Chen Ran received an instruction from his coach "Zhang Depei" that he needed to exercise extreme control in this game.

Extreme control is not uncommon in tennis.

Top players need to constantly adjust their status during the game, upshifting and downshifting.

The purpose of this is to extend the players' playing time, to maintain their condition and find their touch, and to pressure themselves.

Tennis is different from football or basketball in that its game time is not fixed.

Take the best-of-three sets in a tour tournament as an example. Some games can last for three hours, and some games even end in less than an hour.

Therefore, some top players will deliberately play the game as a practice match, downshift their own state, and deliberately plunge the game between the two into a seemingly "evenly matched" stalemate.

When the game is in a critical period of desperation, it can be regarded as a valuable training to immediately improve the state and win.

The future giant player Djokovic is a mid-level master. He can upshift and downshift at will during the game, seemingly leaving a slight chance for his opponent to win, and then suddenly exerts his strength and takes away the game in one wave.

What's even more outrageous is that in Grand Slam best-of-five sets, Djokovic often performs the trick of letting two chase three. First, he lets the opponent win two sets, and then he wins three consecutive sets.

"The players in those days were ranked among the top 400 in the world anyway. I, the coach, must be too ambitious." After receiving this instruction, Chen Ran felt quite complicated.

I am only 16 years old, and my world ranking is within 700, but I have to exert extreme control over a player who is ranked more than 300 places higher than me.

Of course, Chen Ran is still too young, and the risk of letting one chase two is still too risky.What the coach "Zhang Depei" means is to control the game so that both games enter tie-breaks, and then quickly use all his strength to defeat the opponent in the tie-breaks.

Chen Ran could only act according to the coach's plan.

This was also his first time playing against a player from Xiaoli. During the match, he also secretly observed the opponent's playing style.The young players of this era play in a very formulaic way, executing tactics strictly and exerting their strength on the court, but they lack creativity.

To put it bluntly, there is no change in the game. If it is combined with doubles, there may be some achievements, but if it is singles, it is almost impossible to be a top 50 player.

Therefore, the tennis world in its early days was aware of this problem, and then sent many outstanding and potential players to Europe or the United States for training. The future Kei Nishikori was cultivated in this environment.

Borrowing chickens to lay eggs is indeed a method that Xiaozhi is very good at, not only tennis, but also football and basketball. They are always willing to send outstanding young talents to study abroad, and they also have large domestic companies sponsoring them. .

For example, Sony and Uniqlo are very enthusiastic about these big companies, and the players themselves hardly have to pay much money.

(Everyone has also paid attention to the recent Men’s Basketball World Cup. Seeing the rise of Xiaotian Basketball, we are also inspired by it. In addition, Xiaotian’s football has defeated Germany and Spain in the World Cup. As for our country’s football and basketball, it has really declined. They are a pair of brothers in distress.)
As the game progressed, Chen Ran also deliberately downshifted in the opponent's serve as planned to maintain his physical strength.

Of course, he goes all out when receiving the opponent's serve, because this is a rare opportunity to practice his ability to receive the serve.

Soon, the score between the two increased alternately, and soon it was tied at 6-6, entering the tiebreaker.

All goes well with the plan!
As for Iwabuchi Satoshi opposite, he also had a solemn look on his face, and then he immediately increased his concentration.

In his career, he has experienced countless tie-breaks and is already familiar with it.

After entering the tie-break, Chen Ran served the first ball first, and then the two sides took turns to serve two goals. Whoever reaches 7 points first and leads the opponent by more than two points will be considered the winner.

After 6-6, one side needs to win two points in a row to be considered a winner.

ACE!
Chen Ran scored the first point with a serve of about 190 kilometers and a very tricky placement.

Then came two serves from Iwabuchi.

He hit a serve that traveled about 180 kilometers, and Chen Ran immediately responded with a high-quality return serve. The ball landed very deeply and rotated very quickly.

Iwabuchi decisively returned a chip shot and adopted a defensive stance.

Chen Ran decisively released the ball, and as soon as he finished this action, he immediately took steps and rushed to the net like flying. After the opponent hurriedly saved the ball, he completed a beautiful volley in front of the net.

2-0, the opponent's first serve was broken.

After that, Iwabuchi held the second serve and the score became 2-1.

In his own serve game, Chen Ran took advantage of his serving speed and decisively adopted the strategy of serving and hitting the net, winning two points in a row, and the game instantly became 4-1.

In just an instant, Chen Ran took the absolute initiative in the tie-break, and soon he won the first set 7-2.

In the second set, Chen Ran still pushed the game into a tie-break as planned, but he still easily won the game 7-3 in the tie-break.

With a total score of 2-0, Chen Ran seemingly won the 25K Hope Championship with "difficulty".

……

(End of this chapter)