Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 492 The secret battle between the old and new kings (4K)

First of all, there was the CCTV live broadcast room, where laughter and laughter kept coming.

It was expected that Chen Ran would reach the finals, but Zheng Jie was completely unexpected.

When two Chinese players appeared in the French Open final at the same time, the domestic sensation reached a new height.

The whole country has also begun to seriously discuss a question: Is China now considered a powerful tennis country?
Table tennis and badminton have always had a special status in China because they have won too many world championships, including the Olympic Games and World Championships.

According to the recognition standards of the China Sports Bureau, only the champions of the four Grand Slams in tennis, the Davis Cup (men's team competition), the Billie Jean Gold Cup (women's team competition), and the Olympic Games, are considered world champions.

Others, such as the Masters or year-end championship, will not be counted.

So currently the only ones who meet this condition are Chen Ran, as well as Athens Olympic women's doubles champions Li Ting and Sun Tiantian.

As a result, there are still very few tennis world champions belonging to China, which are far behind badminton and table tennis.

However, tennis, as one of the three traditional small balls in China, has been soaring in popularity in China since the birth of Chen Ran, and its status has begun to approach that of badminton and table tennis.

Fans in China also started a heated discussion. Can tennis really be comparable to the other two small ball sports in China?

If we talk about influence and commercial value, tennis definitely far exceeds it, but here it simply refers to political status and heritage.

After intense debate, the official media, mainly CCTV, finally came to the conclusion that in China, tennis currently does not have the political status and background of table tennis and badminton, but now this trend is approaching infinitely.

Chen Ran is the leader, and now Zheng Jie's rise is also accelerating this process.

I believe that one day, China's three small teams will keep pace with each other!
At this time, even the coaches of the badminton and table tennis teams publicly stated that they were very happy to see the rapid progress of Chinese tennis. We, the three small teams, should encourage each other and compete with each other to jointly promote the progress of Chinese sports.

Then, enthusiastic Chinese netizens can expand the problem.

Since the rise of tennis, China's three small goals have no shortcomings. So what about the three major goals? Except for the women's volleyball team, everything seems to be unsatisfactory.

The men's football team was once again inexplicably put on the spot and became the target of everyone's ridicule.

Next is the men's basketball team, and the poor men's volleyball team is almost ignored.

……

"Chen Ran!"

"Have you given Zheng Jie any advice on how to deal with Haining in the finals?"

On game breaks, when Chen Ran appeared at the training ground, fans and reporters would always ask him jokingly.

"Well... I can only remind her to pay attention to Haining's powerful SLR. Then do her best and let God decide." After hearing this, Chen Ran could only reply.

In fact, he didn't even understand that Haining, a girl, could hit the opponent's one-handed backhand harder than him.

If you can suppress Haining's SLR, you have a chance to win.

However, this is easier said than done.

"So far, Zheng Jie and Haining have not won a single match. What do you think of this?" the CCTV reporter continued to ask.

"Past results are not everything. I hope she won't feel pressured." Chen Ran also continued to accept the interview patiently.

In terms of schedule, the women's singles final will precede the men's singles final.

So everyone's attention first focused on the duel between Zheng Jie and Haining.

After the women's singles final comes to an end, it will be the peak clay-court showdown between Chen Ran and Nadal.

"What about you, are you confident that you can beat Nadal?"

"The fans are worried about a repeat of what happened in Rome."

Hearing this, Chen Ran understood everyone's concerns.

However, he acted very calmly: "Of course I am confident, but it will not surprise anyone to win in this final. I will just do my best."

A reporter from "Sports Weekly" asked Chen Ran another interesting question: "The King Agassi has announced that he will officially retire in 2006. We are discussing privately whether you can strive to play in the big leagues before Agassi retires." Surpass the other party in terms of number of slams?”

Agassi currently has 7 Grand Slams, while Chen Ran has 5. The gap between the two sides is 2.

If Chen Ran can win more Grand Slams than Agassi before Agassi retires, this will definitely become a legend.

Especially today's "goat" dispute is getting more and more intense.

Hearing the reporter's question, Chen Ran's eyes flashed with excitement.

This is indeed his most urgent goal.

In his previous life, Federer did exceed the opponent's eight Grand Slam titles before Agassi officially retired.

Perhaps Agassi wanted to hang around for a few more years and make more money, but seeing how ferocious the youngster Federer was, he had no choice but to retire.

But it was already too late. By the time Agassi chose to retire at the 2006 US Open, Federer had exactly nine Grand Slam titles.

The title of Tennis King is officially handed over.

Then a few years later, Federer's number of Grand Slams exceeded that of Sampras, who had retired for many years, and he maintained his "goat" position for ten years.

Nowadays, because of the butterfly effect caused by Chen Ran, Agassi has only 7 Grand Slam championships in this time and space. It stands to reason that the difficulty has dropped.

Chen Ran had no reason not to overtake him.

Of course, there is another reason for this.

Both Nike and IMG have communicated with Chen Ran privately.

It is hoped that Chen Ran can surpass Agassi in the number of Grand Slam wins before he officially retires.

Once completed, the big "tennis-themed" movie will immediately enter the project process.

By then, others will have no objections.

You must know that if Chen Ran can overtake Agassi, he will be more convincing than Federer in his previous life.

Because Agassi has an Olympic gold medal, and so does Chen Ran, but Federer does not.

But Chen Ran also agreed with the brokerage company at that time that the matter should not be publicized and should be carried out in a low-key manner.

But when he now has five Grand Slams and is already heading towards his sixth Grand Slam championship, it is impossible to keep a low profile.

Although the Chinese reporters were belatedly aware of the situation, they finally realized after coming back to their senses that Chen Ran's number of Grand Slam championships had unknowingly approached Agassi's.

At this time, Chen Ran pondered for a moment and then replied: "Andre is planning to retire next year? But a year is a very long time. At what point in time will he choose?"

"It may be the Australian Open, it may be the US Open, he hasn't decided yet." The reporter said briefly, "He has three Australian Open championships and two US Open championships. These two events should be his personal favorite. of."

However, there was one sentence that he did not point out, but everyone knew it.

Agassi's retirement choice will most likely be decided based on Chen Ran's Grand Slam winning speed.

If Chen Ran soars too fast, Agassi may choose to retire at the Australian Open.

But once he loses a few times in Grand Slam events, Agassi may postpone the time.

After all, that's what he did in his previous life.

The title of the number one active tennis player is still very tempting. Who wouldn’t want to stick with it for a few more years?

Why did Sampras retire so early?
Even though he has won 14 Grand Slams, in terms of popularity alone, he is even inferior to Agassi. So what if you are 14? Serious partiality, no French Open!

Without the French Open, no matter how many Grand Slams you win, it is still not a Grand Slam, let alone Agassi still has an Olympic gold medal.

14 Grand Slams is a huge honor, but you have won 14 Grand Slams and have not yet completed the Grand Slam achievement. Isn’t this a joke?

So Sampras could only retire with endless disappointment, and during his retirement, he did not think about coming back.

The reason for comeback is also very simple, once again to attack the French Open.

But in the end, I still felt that the chance was slim and had to give up.

"I understand……"

Chen Ran smiled lightly, "At present, I can't guarantee anything. But I think it would be a good thing to complete the handover of the 'scepter' before Andre officially retires, and it will also be beneficial to the development of tennis." ”

"So I hope he can hang on a little longer."

This guy really knows how to talk.

Although Chen Ran did not directly state that he would surpass the opponent's Grand Slam statistics before Agassi officially retires, he deliberately mentioned the "handover of the scepter", and the meaning is self-evident.

Especially this kid actually used the development of "tennis" as an excuse to hope that the other party would persist a little longer.

This is tantamount to telling the other party: Wait for me, don't retire yet, wait until I have more Grand Slam championships than you.

Do you think Agassi, with his temper, will listen to you?

Maybe he will be angered and retire this year!

Not right either! If Agassi retires this year, wouldn't it be playing into Chen Ran's hands?
This is tantamount to directly telling the world that he is really scared and has to change his plan and advance his retirement time.

So Agassi shouldn't be that stupid.

More than an hour later, Chen Ran's interview content quickly reached Agassi, who had returned to the United States.

In fact, his overall condition this year is pretty good. At the age of 35, he has reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the US Open consecutively.

This bald man firmly believes that any player, whether it is his predecessors, Sampras of his generation, or Federer, Chen Ran and others today, will never be able to perform so well after they reach the age of 35.

Agassi also wants to stick around for a few more years.

Today, he is still the tennis player with the highest advertising revenue besides Chen Ran.

After all, Federer, who has been suppressed by Chen Ran, has far less commercial value than in his previous life.

However, the many commercial contracts Agassi carries basically have a clause. Once you retire, the contract clause will become invalid.

As long as he continues to play, he can continue to make money every day.

The same was true for the later British Murray and Kei Nishikori in their childhood. Although their bodies were constantly injured and their condition was far worse than before, they refused to retire, even if they would rather play in low-level ATP challenges.

There is no other reason: just for the huge amount of advertising endorsements.

In particular, Agassi still holds the title of the number one active player today, because this identification criterion is simple and crude: the number of times he has won Grand Slam championships.

But with Chen Ran's current soaring speed, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to keep his name.

Agassi hopes that before he officially retires, he will still be the player with the most "Grand Slam Championships" among active players.

However, that cunning Chinese kid set a trap for him. I hope he can continue to persevere and complete the "handover of the scepter" with a good reputation, which will be beneficial to tennis.

Can I say bad words?
But as a senior, it's not easy to scold directly.

"no!"

"We must not let this brat from China surpass the number of Grand Slams before he retires!"

This is a shame for him.

"I still enjoy tennis very much."

"But I am very old after all, I am 35 years old."

"How many players can persist to this age like me?"

"I admit that Chen Ran is very good, but I don't think Chen Ran can still be as competitive as me after he turns 30."

"I can't be sure what the future will be like, so everything will be decided based on my physical condition."

Agassi spoke very calmly and naturally during the interview.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that he is avoiding this issue.

"I said I would retire next year. This is a high probability event."

"But there are always surprises in life. It's possible that I feel good and can continue for a few more years."

Agassi is prepared to let the news out first and then wait and see what happens.

Nowadays, the competition between Chen Ran, Federer and Nadal is very fierce, and Safin seems to have returned to his peak level. The harder they play, the better.

In this way, he can persist for a few more years.

In terms of physical endurance and durability, Agassi is indeed epic.

He feels that if he is lucky, it is very possible to reach the semi-finals or even the final of a Grand Slam again.

Achieving such results at such an advanced age is not only a good story in professional tennis, but also in the history of world sports.

The American reporter also guessed what Agassi was thinking, so he said: "Well Andre... you will not retire before the Australian Open next year anyway."

"Yes, although my body is not as good as before, it shouldn't be a big problem if I persist for half a year." Agassi replied with certainty, "I also enjoy playing with those juniors."

Then he emphasized again: "I am 35 years old! In today's professional tennis world, there are not many players born after 75. Many players born around 80 have already begun to decline."

"The competition in professional tennis is really fierce, and the updates are also very fast."

"I feel like it's so difficult for me."

"Also...I personally support Nadal in the French Open final! Why? As Chen Ran said, this result will benefit tennis!"

He was so cunning and cunning that he turned against General Chen Ran.

……

Agassi's words were impeccable.

But no one can deny that he is an evergreen tree and a living legend today.

In particular, his sentence "I believe that neither Chen Ran nor Federer will be able to be so competitive at my age" does have a bit of provocation, and after being deliberately exaggerated by the media, it seems to be full of gunpowder.

But the key is that neither Chen Ran nor Federer can refute this.

There is no guarantee that they will still be so competitive at the age of 35.

Even if they boast now, the outside world may not believe them.

……

(End of this chapter)