Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 561 Grass Court Season, Despair of the King of Clay (4K)

This should be the first time in the four Grand Slam tournaments.

The couple Chen Ran and Ivanovich served a plate together, leaving behind a beautiful story in Paris.

These French people are really good at causing trouble.

According to normal procedures, the men's and women's singles champions and runners-up will hold their trophies and go to the Eiffel Tower to take photos.

For example, Nadal and Henin went to the Eiffel Tower separately.
However, this time, Chen Ran and Ivanovich were actually arranged together.

The two stood shoulder to shoulder, holding plates, under the Eiffel Tower and were photographed by numerous reporters.

Generally speaking, at the French Open post-match ceremony, the number of reporters photographing the champion will definitely be far greater than those photographing the runner-up.

However, all this was overturned this year. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there were huge crowds of people coming to watch and take pictures of the runner-up.

The popularity of Chen Ran and Ivanovic is obviously much greater than that of Nadal and Henin.

Although they lost the final, they were both in a good mood, talking and laughing, and had obviously recovered from the defeat.

After the French Open, Chen Ran's ranking remained at first, while Ivanovic's ranking also rose to fifth.

After a crazy performance in the clay court season, Spanish wonder boy Nadal surpassed Federer in points and rose to second place, which is also his highest ranking ever.

From Monte Carlo to Madrid, then to Rome and finally to Paris.

Nadal won three championships and one runner-up, strongly announcing to the world that the era of Spaniards dominating clay is back.

Four top clay court tournaments, three championships and one runner-up result, which is exactly the same as Chen Ran's result last year.

The difference is that when Chen Ran achieved this result last year, it was basically above Nadal.

This year, Nadal only defeated Chen Ran once, in the French Open final.

So in terms of value, Chen Ran is still better than Nadal.

Who is the real king of clay is still a matter of debate.

However, when Nadal finally won his first Grand Slam title, the Big Three pattern in men's tennis seemed to have begun to take shape.

Since Chen Ran won his first French Open title in 2003, these three guys have won more than 9% of the Grand Slam titles, with the only one missing being Roddick at Wimbledon.

But now it is 2006, and Roddick's competitiveness has not increased with age, but has decreased.

Even on the grass and hard courts where he is good at, he was not only firmly suppressed by Chen Ran and Federer, but even Nadal was catching up.

At present, apart from these three people, are there any other troublemakers in professional tennis?

The media listed several potential candidates: Wawrinka, Djokovic, and France's golden generation Tsonga, Gasquet and others.

Judging from the current situation, it seems that only these few people in the new generation are capable of launching challenges.

"No! Those French guys definitely can't do that!" the British reporter said with certainty, "They can at most cause some trouble, but they can't pose any threat to the Big Three."

"Think about Chen Ran. How many consecutive wins has he had against French players? Almost 20 in a row."

"At the Shenzhen Masters last year, even though Chen Ran was caught up in the scandal with Alizée, he was still able to beat the French players."

"French players are as present in the tennis world as the French army was in World War II!"

Obviously, there was something sour in the British reporter's tone.

After all, in the football world, French football has always suppressed British football.

In short, England loses every time they meet France.

Therefore, these petty-minded British journalists will never miss the opportunity to criticize the French.

"At present, only Wawrinka and Djokovic can challenge the Big Three, but in the future there is also Murray from Britain. We believe he has the ability to do so." The British reporter emphasized.

The 19-year-old Murray reached the third round and second round of Wimbledon and the US Open respectively last year.

Although he was eliminated in the first round of this year's French Open, he is still expected to perform well at the Wimbledon Championships at home.

"Wait, isn't Murray Scottish?" someone questioned.

"Hehe..." the British reporter said very proudly, "Successful Scots automatically become British, while unsuccessful Scots remain Scottish."

"..."

As expected of an Ansa, he can speak of such shameless things so confidently.

But does Murray really have the ability to challenge the Big Three?

Many fans have doubts.

Maybe at this moment, Murray himself doesn't think so, only the shameless British reporters are forcing him to do so.

……

When the clay court season ends, the grass court season officially begins.

Chen Ran also announced that he would participate in this year's Wimbledon, and he felt that he was in good physical condition.

“Who is the real king of the grass?”

Among the current active players, Chen Ran, Federer and Roddick each have a Wimbledon championship.

"But don't forget..."

Chinese media emphasized this point, "Chen Ran is currently participating in Wimbledon as a direct drop-in. He has not yet played any grass tour tournaments."

But this year, this scene will change.

The world number one will be competing on the grass-court tour for the first time.

Because he signed three-year contracts with Mallorca of Spain and Halle of Germany respectively last year.

One stop on the 250 tour and one stop on the 500 tour.

But this time, the couple Chen Ran and Ivanovich can no longer be inseparable.

The two will first participate in the Halle 500 race in Germany together, then Ivanovic will go to the UK to participate in the Queen's Cup, while Chen Ran will go to Mallorca, Spain to participate.

Finally, the two will meet in London, England.

A short separation is ok, because it is for the next passionate meeting.

In addition, Chen Ran will accomplish an unprecedented achievement.

His goal is to unlock champions at all levels in all types of tours.

He has already won titles in the hard court tour, from 250, 500 to 1000 tournaments.

The same is true for the clay court tour, now only the grass court tour remains.

What's more, there is no 1000 Masters Tournament on the grass tour.

Besides, he had another goal.

Double lap grand slam!
Chen Ran only needs to win one more Wimbledon title to complete the double Grand Slam feat.

"If I want to continue to improve, I want to upgrade the double-lap Grand Slam to a triple-lap Grand Slam in the future. The real difficulty is..."

He is very clear about this, "The difficulty on clay is Nadal, while the difficulty on grass is Federer and Djokovic."

Forget it, I don’t want to think about things that far ahead, let’s achieve the double-circle Grand Slam first.

For the Halle 500 tournament, Federer, another king of grass court, did not sign up, nor did Roddick, the "background king" of grass court.

Nadal, the king of clay, is still a little immature on grass, and was beaten by Chen Ran throughout the final.

The speed of the ball on the grass is much faster than the constantly tiring clay court!
In clay court matches, Chen Ran often needs a lot of shots to get a point from Nadal.

However, all this no longer exists in grass court competitions. One shot, two shots, three shots...

Normally speaking, Chen Ran could defeat Nadal in just three shots.

It’s useless even if you run fast!
Anyway, I can't catch up with the speed of tennis.

On the grass court, Chen Ran was completely like a fish in water.

He easily defeated Nadal 6-3, -, and won the first grass tour championship in his career.

At this moment, Nadal, who was holding the plate, looked depressed.

Chen Ran had fought him so fiercely at the French Open that it was hard to tell who was the better player. He had to use almost all his strength, as well as all kinds of tactics and strategies, to barely defeat Chen Ran.

But in the Harley 500 race, he was beaten by Chen Ran without any chance of resistance.

Besides, you have to know that Chen Ran hasn't played a grass court match for almost two years.

Chen Ran has not stepped onto a grass court since he won the Wimbledon Championship in 2004.

Can you beat yourself up like this?

It was really discouraging. This game dealt a heavy blow to Nadal's self-confidence.

How could there be such a grass-roots genius?

"Chen, how did you train on the grass? You're so strong!"

After the award ceremony, Nadal said enviously.

To be precise, among the grass court masters today, Chen Ran is one, Federer is one, and Roddick can barely be considered one.

But the latter two have been immersed in training and competitions on grass courts for a long time, but Chen Ran is not like that.

Of course, Chen Ran wouldn’t talk about it either.

Since the end of this year's Australian Open, he has been practicing on the "simulated training ground" and with the future grass court king Djokovic.

In Chen Ran's mind, the person who can really pose a threat to him on the grass court is Djokovic.

Although Federer is very strong, he is five years older than Chen Ran.

More importantly, this guy has a psychological shadow on Chen Ran.

Federer has never beaten Chen Ran in a Grand Slam tournament.

As for the Masters, although he has won it several times, he still has never won a single final.

The same is true at the end of the year. Federer can only beat Chen Ran in the group stage, but loses when they meet in the knockout stage.

"It's just that there are too few grass court matches, which results in my grass court strength improving very slowly."

Chen Ran was quite helpless about this.

Even though he had just won the Halle 500, his grass court strength only rose from 92 points to 93 points in the system's attribute panel.

This is when he is in the best physical condition.

Of course, those who score above 90 points can generally be the world's best grass court players.

"Rafael, let's meet in Mallorca!"

“……”Nadal was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood.

……

Although the Queen's Cup is well-known and has always been the most influential grass tour.

Nadal’s thoughts were the same as Chen Ran’s. He was also unwilling to participate in the Queen’s Cup.

The reason is the same. I just don’t want to pay taxes to the British.

After all, during the Queen's Cup, players' global endorsements must also pay taxes according to the length of their stay in the UK.

Nadal has many global endorsements, and Chen Ran will have even more.

Apart from Wimbledon, the two will not participate in any other competitions held in the UK.

What's more, Nadal is a local sports superstar in Spain, so this guy must honor himself and attend his tour in Mallorca.

A few days later, Chen Ran met Nadal on the grass training ground in Mallorca.

"Raphael, I have always had a question in my mind."

Chen Ran rolled his eyes and suddenly spoke.

Nadal was slightly stunned and replied: "Chen, what's the problem?"

"Roger participates in the Queen's Cup every year. Does he really have too much money to burn?" Chen Ran asked.

"I'm surprised too! He has more global endorsements than me, especially Rolex watches. How much money does this have to give to the British?" Nadal shook his head and sighed, looking puzzled.

Having just won the French Open championship, Nadal has gained a lot of global endorsements and his money is rolling in.

At this moment, he can understand the anger and dissatisfaction of Agassi and Sampras back then.

"You know, the organizing committee of the Queen's Cup thinks highly of themselves. Although this is only a 500-meter tour event, they obviously treat this event as if it were a 1000-meter event." Chen Ran said slowly.

The implication of this is that if you want to participate in the Queen's Cup, just sign up yourself and don't negotiate with me about the appearance fee.

After all, this is the most important and oldest grass-court tournament before Wimbledon.

Nadal heard this and nodded in agreement.

Chen Ran continued, "I suspect that there is some kind of collusion between the Queen's Cup and Roger. It is possible that they have exempted the other party from paying taxes."

Nadal's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he also felt that it was very likely.

There is nothing that the British can't do. They are arrogant and self-righteous, and always think that the whole world should revolve around them.

"Very likely! That's why Roger attends every year!" Nadal nodded, and then thought of something else, "After all, this guy is very elegant and gentlemanly when playing, so he is especially popular with the British."

He can't compare to this.

After all, Nadal is called the Earth God. In the words of those "Nadal black fans" on the Internet, this so-called Earth God exudes an earthy air from head to toe.

What’s more interesting is that most of these “Nadal anti-fans” are actually fans of Chen Ran.

This group of people likes to mock Nadal by calling him unfashionable.

Chen Ran’s matches were certainly entertaining to watch, but he was very elegant and had nothing to do with being a gentleman.

What kind of elegance is needed in competitive sports?
This is tennis, not golf or snooker.

What is elegance? I want to be aggressive when I play basketball.

Indeed, Chen Ran's characteristic of playing basketball is that he is full of murderous intent and uses a variety of offensive means to prevent the opponent from raising any resistance.

If I weren't constrained by the real world, I would like to play killer tennis!

Therefore, in the Mallorca Tour that followed, Chen Ran still showed his murderous tennis.

Although he and Nadal have complained about Federer together, it does not mean that he will show mercy when playing against Nadal.

It was still the final, and it was still a one-sided massacre.

Still two 6-3 scores, Chen Ran once again defeated Nadal in front of tens of thousands of Spanish fans.

In the finals of the two grass court tournaments, 4 wins, 6-3, the King of Clay felt extremely desperate!
……

(End of this chapter)