Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 524 I am surrounded by beauties! (4K)
"Chen...do you need to be so cruel?"

"He is still a child!"

"Can't you deliberately let go of an opponent's serve?"

Zhang Depei covered his forehead, looking quite speechless.

Do you, the world's No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam winner, need to be so serious with a young man?
This is the first time in the career of 16-year-old Kei Nishikori that he has participated in an ATP Tour level competition.

For this wild card, Sony, a wealthy company, spent a lot of money to sponsor it.

Kei Nishikori stepped into the court with high expectations, but was given a cold blow in the face.

"Real-life Echizen Malone? Welcome to the Tour!"

Chen Ran looked at Kei Nishikori, who was squatting on the ground wiping tears, and couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

He stepped forward slowly, stood in front of the net with his hands on his hips for a while, and looked at Kei Nishikori calmly.

He was determined to continue training hard when he went back. Even if he couldn't win the next time he played against Chen Ran, he would never lose so miserably again.

Therefore, this time Chen Ran came to Shenzhen not only to participate in the Masters, but also to work with Zheng Jie to help Shenzhen apply for the WTA year-end finals.

Chen Ran sighed softly and remembered some past events.

"Is this the world's number one strength? It's so disappointing!"

And when China reopens to the outside world in 2023, although the Chinese season has returned, the WTA year-end finals will be won by the Middle East tycoon Saudi Arabia, with higher prizes and higher specifications.

However, due to the outbreak of the epidemic, the WTA year-end finals were only held in Shenzhen for one session and ended without any problems.

In 2019, five years have passed since Li Na retired. China's new generation of golden flowers has not grown up. As for men's tennis, it is still in a slumber.

Under the overwhelming praise, Chen Ran waved goodbye to his fellow villagers and set off for Shenzhen.

The local tycoons in Shenzhen are average.

During the Ningzhou Tour, Chen Ran participated in a total of five games. Every game was packed with seats and the atmosphere was extremely enthusiastic.

The tricky thing about this question is that no matter how he answers, it seems that someone will leave a clue.

Barty, who finally won the championship, took away a bonus of up to 442 million US dollars, which is twice the bonus of a Grand Slam champion.

Kei Nishikori asked very humbly: "Senior, if the opponents on the tour are so powerful, I think I should play more challenge matches. The opportunity for wild cards is too precious."

The championship prize of the Ningzhou ATP250 tournament is only 8 US dollars, and the funds for appearance fees are limited. The majority has been given to Chen Ran, making it difficult to invite other top players.

Nishikori Kei nodded seriously when he heard this.

……

So the popularity of tennis had actually dropped a lot at that time.

Chen Ran glanced around the stadium.

But it is the foreigners who play the leading role, and the Chinese do not even play a supporting role.

This is not Ningzhou, and Chen Ran didn't say hello in advance, which made these paparazzi a little unscrupulous.

Kei Nishikori wiped away his tears, got up with difficulty, and then walked towards Chen Ran.

Chen Ran shook hands with Kei Nishikori and said: "Young man, you can adapt to the rhythm here by playing more tours. There are many masters on the tour."

Such a high-standard, high-prize sports event is unique in the entire history of China.

Since Chen Ran's appearance fee was as high as one million US dollars, after winning the championship, Chen Ran directly donated the US$8 championship bonus to the tennis career of Ningzhou youths.

Chen Ran is naturally the biggest box office guarantee. As long as he plays, the tickets will be sold out.

A week later, Chen Ran won the championship of the first Ningzhou Tour in the presence of Jiangxiang elders, and the leaders of the municipal government personally presented the award.

"Okay." Chen Ran shrugged, then smiled slightly, "I hope our next meeting won't be too far away. After all, there are currently too few Asian players who can stably participate in the tour."

In a previous life, Shenzhen hosted the WTA Year-End Finals in 2019, and the prize money was even higher than the ATP Year-end Finals at the same time.

The original contract between Shenzhen and the WTA was from 2019 to 2028.

In the view of the local organizing committee, no matter what level of competition, the newly built arena must be of high standard.

Since Shanghai will host the ATP Year-End Finals in the next four years, Shenzhen will temporarily host the ATP 1000 tournament.
This is also the first time that the ATP Masters has been held in China.

As long as he performs normally, no one can stop him.

However, due to the current popularity of tennis in China, Shenzhen actually made this idea in advance, hoping to host the WTA year-end finals in the next few years, and signed Chen Ran and Zheng Jie as image ambassadors.

"Chen Ranjun hasn't even used his full strength."

Ever since I participated in an international competition, I have never lost so miserably.

Although this newly built tennis court in Ningzhou only holds 250-level competitions, it is not small at all and can accommodate 1 spectators.

But when Chen Ran arrived at this "special economic zone", a paparazzi reporter rushed over and asked a question: "Chen Ran, if Ivanovic and Zheng Jie fight, who do you support?"

Along the way, Chen Ran swept his opponents 2-0 in all five games without losing a single serve, winning the championship with an overwhelming advantage.

"Shenzhen..."

Therefore, only two of the top 20 players came, including Chen Ran, and the rest of the players were ranked outside the 20th place in the world.

The two sets were 6-0, which filled Kei Nishikori's whole body with a strong sense of humiliation.

So no comment!
Chen Ran remained silent and ignored the paparazzi.

But after taking a step, he turned back, stared at the paparazzi and said, "Your newspaper has entered my blacklist from now on."

"How do you feel about Ningzhou winning the championship?"

This time the question was from a sports reporter.

"For me, the 250 championship is almost useless. But I am also half-Ningzhou native, so I am very happy to win the championship in front of the elders in my hometown." Chen Ran answered accurately.

"Then this Shenzhen Masters, are you confident?"

"The opponents are all very strong. The lineup at the Masters is the closest to a Grand Slam, and I will go all out."

"By the way, as long as you win this year's Shenzhen Masters, you will be the only Gold Master in history!"

I almost forgot about this!

Chen Ran has 12 Masters championships, and he almost forgot that he has not yet unlocked the "Golden Master" achievement.

In theory, the achievement of "Golden Master" is more difficult than that of Grand Slam, or even Golden Slam.

After all, you need to defeat all the world's best players in nine different venues and different types of Masters to win the championship. Just think about it and you will know how difficult it is.

Whether it is Agassi in the past or Federer in the future, although they both won the French Open, they would not be able to sweep all major clay court events in their entire careers.

As for Nadal, what he lacks is the Paris Masters.

There is no way, the clay court royal family has a bad season. Whether it is the Paris Masters or the year-end finals, they have never won a championship. In the end, only Djokovic completed the unprecedented two-lap gold master.

However, in the face of this unprecedented achievement, Chen Ran seemed very open-minded: "I don't force Master Jin, I just let everything happen."

He only lacks the Shenzhen Masters or the future Magic City Masters. Anyway, it will always be held in China, so he has plenty of opportunities.

As for the Golden Master of the Year?
It does sound too tempting, but it is really tiring. If you win this honor and exhaust your body, it will affect your record in the Grand Slam.

If your number of Grand Slams is exceeded by others, don’t say you are the Golden Master of the Year, even if you are the Golden Slam of the Year, it will be useless.

For example, Graf has completed the annual Golden Slam achievement, but people only remember that Serena Williams' 23 Grand Slams surpassed Graf's 22.

Frankly speaking, Chen Ran was a little tired from the continuous battles.

After the Ningzhou Tour, he also felt that his competitive status had declined through the system panel.

The Chinese season is really too compact. For example, the Ningzhou Tour and the Shenzhen Masters are only one week apart.

Almost in the middle of the National Day, the Shenzhen Masters will officially open.

China’s National Day Golden Week, you can imagine how lively it will be.

The end of the year in the Magic City is in November, which is still more than a month away.

In fact, what Chen Ran pays more attention to is the year-end finals in Shanghai, and he temporarily regards the Shenzhen Masters as a place to warm up.

This year's Magic City year-end finals, if you win the championship with a complete victory, the prize money will be as high as 260 million US dollars.

That's almost twice as much as a Grand Slam winner's prize money.

With such a high bonus, you can't make it easier for foreigners, right?
It is our duty as Chinese athletes!
Therefore, all of Chen Ran's preparations will focus on the year-end finals in Shanghai.

After he got rid of the reporters and media who were following him and left the Shenzhen Airport, he got into a special car and headed to the hotel designated by the organizing committee.

Shenzhen is indeed across the sea from the Xiangjiang River, and the paparazzi here also have the style of the paparazzi in Xiangjiang.

After he got on the special car, the paparazzi also followed him, which was so shameless.

However, he was eventually turned away by hotel security.

……

Shenzhen is indeed very wealthy. In order to bid for the WTA year-end finals, it not only invited Chen Ran and Zheng Jie, but also invited two of the most popular female stars in China to serve as image ambassadors.

After all, this is women's tennis, so it's not appropriate to invite male stars, so we invite female stars.

The Shenzhen organizing committee even opened voting online, allowing netizens to choose two out of three.

The three female celebrity candidates are Liu Yifei, Fan Binbin, and Zhang Ziyi. (Actually, the most popular person in this era is Zhao Yanzi, but everyone knows this person, and I don’t like her either, so I won’t mention her.)
Netizens were very enthusiastic and voted.

When choosing among the three major actresses, Liu Yifei and Fan Binbin won in the end, but the female star with the highest celebrity status and known as the international chapter actually came last in the netizens' vote.

So in the entertainment industry, your popularity and celebrity status are often not directly proportional.

Chen Ran didn't know that the Shenzhen organizing committee had done something like this. When he entered the venue, he was surprised to see these two charming women.

"What's going on? Why are they here?"

It wasn't until the agent explained that Chen Ran suddenly understood.

Shenzhen is indeed very generous.

It is said that since shooting a Coca-Cola commercial with SHE two years ago, Chen Ran has not been so close to female celebrities for a long time.

Regardless of body shape, only appearance is concerned, the two actresses Liu Yifei and Fan Binbin are indeed outstanding in the Chinese entertainment industry, and their delicate and fair skin outshines all the beautiful WTA players.

After all, no matter what the latter is, he is exposed to wind and rain every day and plays games outside. He will definitely not be able to compare with the well-maintained female celebrities.

"Here, let's take a photo together!"

Someone shouted, and the two actresses immediately walked happily to both sides of Chen Ran.

One person held Chen Ran's arm and rested his head gently on Chen Ran's shoulder.

Fortunately, Liu Yifei and Fan Binbin are both very tall, over 1 meters, so they can reach Chen Ran's shoulders when they tilt their heads. If they were Zhou Xun's height, they would not be able to reach them.

As a result, Chen Ran was surrounded by two beautiful celebrities.

At this time, a guy wearing glasses next to him interrupted inappropriately: "I always feel like I'm missing something?"

"What's missing?"

"Two people missing."

"Sharapova and Ivanovic! Why don't you call them together?"

"..."

A group of people glared at the glasses guy, seeming to say: Can you kid speak?
This guy also said confidently: "What's the point? What man wouldn't want to?"

"Who is this guy?"

What happened to the Shenzhen Organizing Committee? They actually invited a guy who didn't pay attention to his words.

"He works for you!" Chen Ran's agent said immediately.

"What do you mean?" Chen Ran frowned.

The agent explained: "He is the author of Qidian, and his tennis novel is said to be ranked first in the sports category of Qidian. You invested in Qidian, and he is a great tennis author and lives in Shenzhen, so the organizing committee will Invited him as a guest."

"..."

Chen Ran was also surprised that there was such a thing.

Seeing everyone's lack of reaction, the author of Qidian Tennis God continued: "Hey, listen to me, the protagonists in my tennis novels are four heroines, namely Liu Yifei, Fan Binbin, Sharapova, and Yi Vanovic!”

"Hey, two inside and two outside, a bowl of water is even, one king and four queens!"

The guy got more and more excited as he talked, and even asked Chen Ran to imitate the hero in his book.

Then, the organizing committee couldn't stand it anymore and had no choice but to ask the security guards to invite the author of Qidian Tennis Master out.

"You kid is just messing around!"

Chen Ran asked his agent in a low voice: "Is this novel very popular?"

"Very good, very popular with readers! Not only is it number one in the sports category, it is also in the top ten in the entire list."

"..." Chen Ran was also a senior reader of Qidian in his previous life, and he also remembered some past events.

It seems that this kind of stallion harem novel is really popular among readers as the starting point of this era. Everyone loves to read this kind of novel.

"How about I take the time to read this novel? Although I don't have the courage, it's okay to read it, right?" Chen Ran muttered in his heart.

(Uh... let's make a spoof. If you don't dare to think about it in reality, let me borrow it from the author of Qidian.)
……

(End of this chapter)