Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 589 The foreshadowing from a year ago worked!
PS: The content of the previous chapter has been modified. It was originally centered around the protagonist's monopoly of the Chinese season championship, but later the protagonist began to covet the right to host the Paris Masters.

……

As soon as Chen Ran said this, Shenzhen immediately showed enthusiasm.

Their ambitions are huge.

In addition to hosting the WTA year-end finals, it has also expressed its willingness to host the Indoor Masters.

In Shenzhen, the temperature is relatively warm at the end of October and the beginning of November every year, neither hot nor cold, which is definitely more comfortable than Paris.

As for the neatness and cleanliness of the city, the Paris in the real world is definitely incomparable. Perhaps only the Paris in "Yilin" can compete.

Over there, the Paris Masters had just reached the semi-final stage, which was also the most exciting time; over here, Chen Ran started to make trouble in the back.

The organizing committee of the Paris Masters began to panic.

They are also worried that they might lose the right to host the event.

In order to control costs, the Paris Masters has been strictly controlling the entry draw and limiting the number of main draw places to 56.

It is neither the 64-place draw of a general Masters Tournament nor the 96-place draw of a super Masters Tournament like the "Sunshine Double" or "Shenzhen Masters".

Because the more people participate, the higher the cost, and the higher the prize money paid out.

Shenzhen also said that if they could take over the qualification from Paris, they would be willing to upgrade the competition to a 96-place Super Indoor Masters, which would allow more players to get the chance to participate.

"That Chinese guy, not only did he not come to the competition, but he even wanted to poach our players. This is simply outrageous!" The French were furious and cursed in their hearts.

Don’t you look down on the Paris Masters?

But do you dare to miss the French Open?

There is a long way to go. When you come to participate in the French Open in the future, we will arrange your draw position properly.

Eh, that doesn’t seem right.

As the number one seed, Chen Ran will enjoy the treatment of playing on the central court all the way.

If someone really did something to eliminate him early, it would be very detrimental to the box office sales.

If Chen Ran knew what the Paris Organizing Committee was thinking at this moment, he would definitely sigh: They are truly French, this ability to waver is indeed inherited from their ancestors.

However, when Chen Ran was far away in Shanghai preparing for this year's year-end finals, the battle in the Paris Masters became extremely fierce because of his absence.

This time, the second Swiss player Wawrinka continued his excellent form in the Shenzhen Masters, showing outstanding competitiveness, defeating various players along the way. In the final, he defeated the defending champion Federer after a three-hour battle and won the championship of this event for the first time.

At this point, Wawrinka has won two Masters titles.

More importantly, this time he stepped on his big brother Federer to get to the top.

So the guy in flowery pants got a little carried away. Facing the European reporter who asked the question, he shouted angrily: "You better tell me clearly who the fuck is the second brother of Switzerland. I am not the second brother of Switzerland!"

In his mind, since he was able to step on Federer to get to the top, he is no longer the other party's younger brother.

"Let me make it clear again, Roger and I are in a fair competition relationship, he is not my big brother!"

Although Wawrinka has not won a Grand Slam title yet, after winning the Paris Masters, he has become confident and does not feel inferior to his opponents.

What he hates most is those reporters who always promote Federer as his big brother, guiding him along the way.

I can reach my current level entirely through my own efforts. What does it have to do with him?
Those reporters are so bad!

Or perhaps the level of their questions was too amateurish and there were simply no good questions to ask.

In fact, Chen Ran also has a deep understanding of this. He once said that he does not think the level of those Western journalists is much higher than that of Chinese journalists.

Because many Western reporters often ask very amateurish or even outrageous questions, which make him laugh and cry.

Many people are also unwilling to do their homework and think completely according to their own habitual thinking.

"Is there any conflict between you and Roger?"

A Swiss reporter even discovered this with excitement, "You and Chen Ran are doubles partners, so is your relationship better?"

"There is no conflict, there is no conflict between us, it's just direct competition." Wawrinka repeated, "I emphasize again, Roger is not my big brother, we are just teammates, the kind of equals."

"I already have two Masters titles and I will definitely win a Grand Slam in the future."

"I'll say it again. I can't control what you say in private, but don't say the words 'Swiss Second Brother' in front of me. I don't recognize it!"

The post-match press conference of the Paris Masters final was supposed to be a place to welcome the emergence of a new master, but it turned into a place for a war of words due to the low-level and low-EQ questions asked by reporters.

Some people even started to hype up the conflict between Federer and Wawrinka like a conspiracy theory.

"Will you form an Olympic doubles team with Roger? Roger has always wanted to represent Switzerland." Another reporter continued to ask.

"No! I'm a little rusty at doubles. You know, I haven't played doubles with Chen Ran for a while, because... hey, he had to play mixed doubles with his girlfriend."

Wawrinka smiled. "I only play singles. I have to focus on that. If Roger wants to play doubles, he can find someone else to partner with. We are not the only two professional tennis players in Switzerland."

After a pause, he continued, "In fact, I am the same as Chen Ran. I am just playing doubles for fun. He even told me that real men should not play doubles."

"..."

What Chen Ran said seemed familiar.

Soon, fans remembered a line from the tennis anime "The Prince of Tennis": Men should play doubles.

Chen Ran went the other way and coined the phrase "A real man shouldn't play doubles."

"Did Chen Ran say that? So he won't be participating in the doubles event at the Olympics?"

"Yes! This guy told me that he would definitely not participate in doubles. Even if he was forced to participate, he would play badly and be eliminated in the first round. On this point, Chen Ran and I have the same idea." Wawrinka said very seriously.

What this means is that even if the Swiss side forces him to team up with Federer, he will still play badly.

This made Federer so angry that he gritted his teeth and could only complain in his heart: A good young man was led astray by that guy Chen Ran.

When these words reached China, they caused quite a stir.

After all, the final list of participants for the Yanjing Olympics has not yet been finalized, and there are still certain variables.

The majority of fans are basically divided into two camps.

Some people think that Chen Ran should focus on singles and strive to win two Grand Slams; others think that Chen Ran should also try doubles.

After all, when playing for the country, the more types of competitions you participate in, the better.

Some athletes would love to sign up for more events.

There are many different opinions on the Internet, and netizens are arguing with each other.

Some people even sarcastically asked: If three-on-three basketball is included in the Olympics, will Yao Ming have to play both five-on-five basketball and three-on-three basketball?

"Is that a thing?"

"Can this be the same?"

Some netizens immediately refuted.

At this moment, Chen Ran was in a dilemma because of Wawrinka's play. The guy didn't want to participate in the doubles, but he dragged him into it.

Although he did tell Wawrinka that he had no interest in doubles matches, he couldn't just say such things to others.

Chen Ran is still in detailed discussions with the Sports Bureau and bargaining is ongoing.

Are you here on purpose to hinder us and cause trouble?

Soon, many reporters came to interview Chen Ran, asking him if he had decided not to compete in the doubles competition at the Yanjing Olympics.

Fortunately, he had been prepared and had laid a foreshadowing for this.

Chen Ran naturally couldn't admit it to his face, so he could only reply in a more euphemistic way: "Ever since I started partnering with Wawrinka, I found that I am really a doubles noob."

"I found myself so unsuitable for doubles!"

"If you think back carefully, my best result as a partner of Stan Wawrinka was getting eliminated in the second round of a tournament or a Grand Slam. It was very difficult to move forward."

"This is my true level of doubles. I am so bad that even I can't stand watching it."

"After all, singles and doubles tennis are two completely different sports."

That seems to be the case.

Chen Ran's doubles performance was very bad, on the contrary his mixed doubles performance was very good.

The mixed doubles team formed by Chen Ran and Sharapova won the Wimbledon championship, and the mixed doubles team formed by him and Ivanovic also reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam event.

From this we can draw a conclusion that this guy is good at mixed doubles but not at doubles. He is simply the "woman over friends" in the tennis world.

Of course, the mixed doubles match is even more of a fake than the doubles match, with almost no attention or influence.

What's more, Chen Ran can rely on his own talent to crush his opponent in the mixed doubles match, but in the men's doubles match, relying solely on talent is not enough.

So, fans dug out videos of Chen Ran and Wawrinka’s past doubles matches.

To be precise, in the past, Chen Ran and Wawrinka's doubles matches often stopped in the first round. Coupled with Chen Ran's brilliant achievements in singles, this made almost everyone ignore Chen Ran's performance in doubles.

Especially when there is such a huge gap between doubles and singles.

To take a step back, if Chen Ran was eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam singles tournament, not many fans would go out of their way to watch the game video, let alone the men's doubles match.

No one cares about it.

Soon, netizens felt like they had discovered a new world.

"Damn, I just realized Chen Ran's doubles are so weak."

“This is also a mistake!”

"Look, Wawrinka was speechless even after being made speechless by Chen Ran."

From the two guys' lip movements, it can be seen that Chen Ran was obviously complaining.

He said that when he hit the ball, he habitually hit it towards the singles sideline instead of hitting it near the doubles sideline which was more remote.

But after all, there are two players opposite to Chen Ran. If they cooperate well, they can rescue Chen Ran's shot.

The two of them were obviously much more relaxed when facing Chen Ran's "singles-style" hitting together.

In competitive sports, a difference in numbers can make a world of difference.

So in these doubles videos, Chen Ran was more of a prank than a game, causing more jokes.

He even smashed his racket in anger.

As for Wawrinka, his doubles level is only slightly better than Chen Ran's.

But it's still very eye-catching.

For example, this guy's proud one-handed backhand is obviously played very exquisitely in singles matches, but once he enters doubles matches, he often ends up in outrageous disappointment.

The return ball either goes into the net or out of bounds. In short, whether you can hit the opponent's ball within the bounds depends entirely on your luck.

"Are these two guys forming a tag team here to make people laugh?"

"I thought 1+1 was greater than 2, but it turns out it's not even as good as 1."

"Fuck, what are they doing?"

Some netizens discovered the shocking scene in one of the replayed videos.

In the picture, Chen Ran and Wawrinka, two of the world's top singles players, actually collided with each other while trying to return a ball in a doubles match.

Then, they both covered their foreheads with their hands and frowned.

Isn’t this really funny?
Everyone was amused too.

"I think Chen Ran should not participate in the doubles competition at the Yanjing Olympics."

Some netizens who had previously strongly urged Chen Ran to compete in the Olympic doubles competition began to change their views after watching this video.

"I'm worried that if Chen Ran really participates in the doubles, he will be laughed at by the whole world."

"He has absolutely no idea how to play doubles, so he might as well not go!"

"Otherwise, I have a feeling something even more outrageous will happen!"

People began to understand, and the direction of public opinion changed.

After all, Olympic places are valuable, and China is not without professional doubles players.

Basically, when they couldn't perform well in singles, they turned their focus to doubles.

"Chen Ran will definitely not be able to beat them! He will even be beaten by me!" Many guys who claim to be professional football fans began to show their instincts as keyboard warriors.

As amateur tennis enthusiasts, they even thought that they could defeat Chen Ran if they formed a doubles partnership.

……

"This is why I formed a doubles team with Wawrinka that day, to let everyone see how bad my doubles level is!" Chen Ran sighed.

The reason why his "funny" doubles videos went viral on the Internet was because of the support of his agency.

This also made everyone believe that Chen Ran was indeed a "super newbie in doubles"!
He is so bad at this, the Sports Bureau must know it very well and will not allow Chen Ran to sign up for doubles competitions anymore.

It can be said that it is a natural outcome.

Soon, the Sports Bureau also gave an official response, which basically said: We have never asked Chen Ran to participate in the doubles competition, this is all your media guessing. The doubles partner is someone else, and Chen Ran can just focus on participating in the singles.

They quickly passed the ball to the media, saying that you were too good at hype and creating momentum.

They also watched the videos on the Internet.

Chen Ran’s “doubles performance” simply scared these leaders.

……

(End of this chapter)