Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 51 Competition draw, famous players from past lives

Chen Ran is also paying attention to the developments of the Busan Asian Games. It is not only the Chinese tennis world that has collapsed, but also the Chinese men's basketball team, which has always claimed to be the dominant player in Asia.

In the Asian Games final, the Chinese men's basketball team led by 20 points, but was reversed by the Koreans with a crazy three-point rain at the last moment. Yao Ming also went to the United States with infinite regrets.

As for the men's football team, they were eliminated early and went home. Of course, this was also expected.

Nike is extremely worried about this. The results of several ball games they have invested in are not very satisfactory.

Since Yanjing's successful bid for the Olympics last year, they believe that China's sports market will experience explosive growth in the next ten years. However, there is no hope of rising for those influential mainstream ball sports.

Dong Bing is the vice president of Nike China, a career-oriented strong woman.

At this moment, she was listening to the work report from Yang Shichao, the person in charge of Eastern Zhejiang District.

"A mere 16-year-old athlete, who has only won a few championships in low-level competitions, dares to ask for such special conditions. This is a wishful thinking."

After hearing this, Dong Bing was so angry that he shook his head.

Nike has invested in so many young athletes in China, but this guy Chen Ran would offer such outrageous conditions.

"But except for Chen Ran, none of the other men's tennis players in China seem worthy of our investment from Nike."

After thinking about it for a while, Yang Shichao said truthfully. This was what he was worried about.

"Then I won't vote! In the Chinese sports world, aren't there enough stories about hurting Zhongyong?"

Indeed, there are too many Chinese athletes who showed extraordinary strength when they were young, but after a few years, there are many examples of not only standing still, but even regressing.

"But Mr. Dong... Chen Ran's age is true. He has not changed his age." Yang Shichao reminded his boss specifically.

There are some things that everyone understands tacitly.

For example, in many major sports, such as football, basketball, etc., the operation of changing the age has long become a common practice and has become a subtle rule.

Everyone is changing, but if you don’t change, you are using the small to fight the big, and you will definitely suffer in the future.

"You haven't changed your age, and you are more stable than your peers!"

Yang Shichao had face-to-face contact with Chen Ran.

Based on his social experience, he still has some ability in judging people.

At this time, Dong Bing's cell phone suddenly rang. The caller was the marketing manager.

"Xiao Jiang, what's the matter?"

"what!"

"What is she doing? She retired at such a young age!"

"Okay, I got it!"

She hangs up.

"Mr. Dong, who has retired?" Yang Shichao asked cautiously.

He had a vague feeling in his heart that was not good.

"Li Na from women's tennis said she wanted to retire and go to college." Dong Bing rubbed his eyebrows as he spoke.

"Her? She's only 20 years old. Retiring at this age? What kind of international joke are you kidding!" Yang Shichao also looked shocked.

"Li Na won the gold medal at the Universiade last year, but she didn't get a medal at the Asian Games this year. Then she had a fight with her boss and retired in a fit of anger."

"This woman's temper has never been very good."

Dong Bing became more and more angry as he talked.

"What do you think is going on with these athletes born in the [-]s? They haven't achieved any decent results yet, and each one has a bigger temper than the other!"

Yang Shichao listened to the leader complaining and could only remain silent. …

During these days, Chen Ran not only practiced in the "simulation training ground", but also paid great attention to physical exercise, including physical fitness exercises, after returning to the real world.

He runs 5 kilometers every morning and 3 kilometers in the evening to train his physical fitness, even during the National Day holiday.

In 2002, there was no gym in Dongzhou City, so Chen Ran could only buy some training equipment and put it at home to exercise his body.

The physical attribute of 82 is basically enough as long as you don't have to play five games every day.

Currently, in addition to the four Grand Slams, only the finals of the Masters and the year-end finals adopt a best-of-five-set system.

After Chen Ran finished his day's training, he took a hot bath and came out of the house to an Internet cafe downstairs.

Computers in this era are too expensive and will be obsolete soon. If he needs to use a computer, he might as well go to the Internet cafe downstairs.

His good friend Hu Jie is still fighting hard in the Internet cafe.

But this guy also listened to Chen Ran's advice and picked up "Warcraft" again while playing "Legend".

Hu Jie was just about to take off. After noticing Chen Ran sitting next to him, he asked without raising his head: "When are you going to the Magic City?"

"I'll be leaving in a few days." Chen Ran replied lightly.

He opened the web page and looked up some information.

Because not long ago, Chen Ran had received a call from the event organizing committee, and the draw for the Shanghai ATP 100K Challenge had been released.

In this era, since smartphones did not appear, the only way to obtain information was to go to an Internet cafe.

Of course, if he is not in a hurry, he can see it after arriving in the magic city.

After not playing a game for more than a month, my ATP ranking actually improved by two places, from 599th to 597th, because there were players in front of me who had to deduct points from the same period last year.

"Brother, you want to come back as a champion. I heard that the prize money is more than 1 US dollars."

Hu Jie said while typing on the keyboard.

He also went online to check some prize money for the competition.

"Well, it's 1 US dollars, but it would be great if I could reach the semi-finals of a competition of this level. I don't dare think about winning the championship." Chen Ran behaved very low-key.

What he values ​​more is not the prize money, but the wild card for the Australian Open qualifying tournament.

Chen Ran clicked on the official website of the "Magic City Master Cup" to check some information about the competition.

The ATP 100K Challenge is a warm-up for the year-end Masters Cup. It can also be regarded as an outpost competition. Therefore, information about the challenge will also appear on the official website of the "Magic Masters Cup".

In this competition, a total of three players from China were shortlisted for the main draw, all with wild cards.

But Chen Ran's wild card was obtained by winning the ITF25K championship, while the other two Chinese players were directly given wild cards by the organizing committee because they were in the national team, so there is still a difference between the two.

"The participating players are..." Chen Ran's pupils narrowed, and a bright color flashed across his eyes.

The famous serving machine and cannon player American Isner also signed up!
This man was born in 1985, one year older than Chen Ran. In the future, he will become the player with the most aces in the history of men's professional tennis.

What is even more surprising is that Isner has an astonishing height of 208 cm, which is enough even to play as a center for a professional basketball team.

If Isner is still unknown today, then another person surprised Chen Ran.

South Korean player Lee Hyang-taek is also the silver medalist in the men's singles at the Busan Asian Games. He is ranked 119th in the world among the players participating in the competition and is listed as the No. [-] seed.

Is this guy here specifically to gain points?

……

(End of this chapter)