Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 595: The Collapse of the "Anti-Chen Ran Alliance" (revised)

PS: I finally finished it! I kept revising it until almost 2 o'clock, and I couldn't even open my eyes.

……

Did Federer lose on purpose?
He is now afraid of meeting Chen Ran before the finals.

After all, if you make it to the finals, even if you lose the game, you will at least be a runner-up and can serve a dish.

So when Chen Ran unexpectedly lost to Wawrinka, Federer also unexpectedly lost to Roddick.

This resulted in a completely different semi-final matchup than before.

Nadal inexplicably became the first in the group.

In fact, he himself was also a little surprised that he became the first in the group.

Nadal's indoor hard court level has always been his weakness.

In his previous life, Nadal, although he was the only one among the Big Three to achieve the Golden Grand Slam, was the only giant player who did not win the year-end finals championship.

Both Federer and Djokovic have six year-end championship trophies, but Nadal has none.

Such a huge contrast also hit him hard.

Even Nadal's uncle was so angry that he asked why the year-end finals should be held on hard courts instead of clay? This is naked discrimination!
As the saying goes, it is easy to change the country but difficult to change one’s nature!
Although the professional tennis world of this time and space has become completely different, what remains unchanged is Toni Nadal's character.

On the eve of the semi-finals, Uncle Nadal spoke.

"There are four Grand Slams, plus the year-end finals, and among these five most important tournaments, there are three hard courts! Why not three clay courts?"

"If there were three clay court tournaments, my nephew would definitely be number one in the world! Needless to say, the ATP is deliberately making things difficult for my nephew and even framing him!"

Finally, Nadal's good uncle couldn't hold back and started firing.

Here it comes, he came with a familiar tone.

As expected of Nadal’s uncle, he is a great wonder in tennis and is loved by countless media outlets.

The other party can always create some eye-catching topics.

"Clay is the real tennis. It is a game that cannot be won quickly and requires a test of the players' physical fitness and willpower."

Uncle Nadal continued to express his opinion: "I don't mean to belittle hard courts or grass courts. What I mean is that the weight of clay courts should be the highest among all courts."

"I hope the ATP can consider my suggestion. In addition, I know you journalists will have different opinions, but I still stick to my own opinion."

"If you agree with me, you can speak. If you disagree, shut up."

Uncle Nadal, who was chattering loudly, attracted countless attention with his eye-catching speeches.

This guy is obviously good at psychological warfare.

Soon, the reporters brought the words to Chen Ran's ears and asked him what he thought about Uncle Nadal's words?
"The one competing with me is not Mr. Tony, so his opinion is not important." Chen Ran shrugged, not giving this guy any face at all, "I know why he said that, and what I want to say is..."

"I will neither compete with Mr. Tony nor argue with Mr. Tony. There is no difference between the two!"

There is no difference between the two?
What Chen Ran meant was that arguing with you was just like playing a game with you. There was too big a gap in the levels between the two sides and it was very low class.

If I pay attention to you, I will lose!

Uncle Nadal's remarks were obviously ignored by Chen Ran.

The other party even seemed to mock him: What level are you at, and are you worthy enough to engage in a war of words with me?

"I'm so angry!" Nadal's uncle gnashed his teeth in anger

He originally wanted to use this war of words to distract the other party's attention and give his nephew a chance to enter the final year-end finals.

If luck comes, winning the championship is not impossible.

But Chen Ran simply ignored the other party, not even paying any attention to him, and let him say whatever he wanted.

Anyway, as long as the ATP has their heads filled, they will not support what Uncle Nadal said.

After all, most professional players are more suitable for hard court competitions.

Uncle Nadal saw that his goal had not been achieved and could only curse, but there was nothing he could do.

"Uncle..." Nadal wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, he didn't say anything.

His uncle did cause a lot of disputes in the game, but Nadal was indeed the beneficiary.

"Uncle, this is for my own good."

"Besides, Djokovic's father often does this, so why can't I do it?"

Nadal firmly believes that Djokovic's father can talk big, which means his uncle can do the same.

In short, don't be so hypocritical and just find fault with his uncle.

In fact, to be honest, his uncle's remarks were actually approved by Nadal himself.

……

On the day of the semi-finals, when Chen Ran appeared in the central stadium of the huge Qi Zhong Center with high spirits and trembling spirit, there was a thunderous cheer.

When Nadal saw this scene, he knew that his chances of winning today were slim.

Chen Ran is not only playing at home, but also because his playing style is very suitable for indoor hard courts.

The ball is fast and the angle is tricky.

"Roger Federer, you are so shameless!" Nadal cursed in his heart, "Where is the sportsmanship? Where is your fair play?"

He originally thought that his opponent in the semi-finals was Wawrinka, which gave him more confidence in entering this year's year-end finals.

As a result, as Chen Ran was unexpectedly upset, Federer decisively chose to lose.

"The Swiss people really want to meet Chen Ran. They are racking their brains to figure it out." Some netizens lamented.

Obviously, Nadal also thinks that Wawrinka is much easier to deal with than Chen Ran.

Although the former was an upset, it is impossible for the opponent to perform superbly in every game.

Although Nadal formed an alliance with Federer, when it came to his own interests, Nadal was furious and very dissatisfied with Federer's choice.

Especially his uncle was so angry that he wanted to fire directly at Federer.

It was he who finally persuaded his uncle.

After all, the relationship between the two has been pretty good so far.

Until you become competitive enough against Chen Ran, it is not the time to fall out.

"Rafael, I thought I would meet you in the finals! I didn't expect that we would meet in the semifinals ahead of time."

Chen Ran greeted him, obviously bringing up something irrelevant.

Playing psychological warfare?

I can do it, and I will do it myself. I won’t be so cowardly as to ask others for help.

"Yeah, the results of the group stage are dazzling to me." Nadal also replied, "Until a few hours ago, I couldn't believe that Federer could lose to Roddick."

"Didn't Roddick often lose to Federer in the past? He even had to take on an extra position as a butler."

"I was able to defeat my opponent this time. It's amazing."

As for the reason, both Chen Ran and Nadal could basically guess the general meaning.

Picking opponents is not uncommon in professional sports.
Chen Ran joked: "Maybe Andy was being too tough. After all, his strength is not bad. It is not impossible for him to beat Federer once."

is it possible?

Nadal was clearly unwilling to accept this narrative.

However, he was also a little troubled, fearing that Chen Ran would bring up the issue of alliance, which would be difficult for him to answer.

Fortunately, Chen Ran never mentioned it, as if he had forgotten about it, which made Nadal feel relieved. However, soon after, Chen Ran said, "I found that my opponents always come up with some new tricks for me, which is very interesting."

"Will there be more interesting new tricks in the future? Roger has a lot of ideas."

Interesting new twist?

Nadal smiled bitterly and was speechless.

He also mocked that Federer has many tricks up his sleeve, and if he finds out that the "Players' Alliance" is unreliable, he will come up with new tricks.

"Is this a hint that I should quit the Players' Union?" Nadal thought to himself.

Chen Ran didn't mention Nadal in any of his sentences, but it seemed that every sentence was pointing to him.

"I hope today will be a wonderful game." Nadal had no choice but to reply.

At this moment, he was a little shaken.

Because he vaguely felt that someone had profited from this alliance of players formed to fight against Chen Ran, and even publicly lost money to avoid Chen Ran, without caring about their own interests at all.

"I even suspect that the guy's purpose of losing the game was to make us fight each other so that he could benefit from it."

From Federer's perspective, he naturally hopes that Chen Ran and Nadal will fight more fiercely so that he can sit back and watch the fight.

As for the "Players' Alliance", he may only trigger it when it is beneficial to him.

After the game officially started, the two sides fought very fiercely, and it can be said that they were evenly matched and neither side gave in.
Nadal also found himself in good competitive form.

But the more he thought about it, the more distressed he felt.

Despite being in such a good competitive state, he actually met Chen Ran in the semi-finals in advance, otherwise he would definitely have been able to enter the final at the end of the year.

There is a huge difference between the semi-finals and the finals.

Theoretically, if Nadal makes it to the final and Federer stops in the semifinals, his world ranking will officially surpass Federer and become the world's second.

Obviously, this nominal ally had always been on guard against him, calculating against him, and had not considered him as one of his own at all.

Otherwise, if he were to be overtaken once in the world rankings and become the world's second for a while, what would that feel like? It would be no big deal.

In the first set of the game, Chen Ran was once forced into a desperate situation by Nadal.

Whether it was a break point or a set point, Nadal reached it first.

But Chen Ran is like this. The more desperate the situation is, the calmer he becomes.

He made tactical arrangements, patiently looked for opportunities, and pushed his concentration to the limit.

Amid the audience's exclamations, Chen Ran saved break points and match points time and again.

"Damn it! I felt so close to the break point, but I couldn't grasp it."

Nadal found that every time this happened, Chen Ran's performance seemed to improve a little.

Just this little bit of strength made him feel desperate and insurmountable.

11 is better than 9!

This was the score of the first set tie-break.

What made Nadal frustrated was that among the nine points he scored, there was not a single mini break.

Chen Ran's excellent serving ability not only affected his serve receiving condition, but also increased the pressure of maintaining his serve.

It seemed that Nadal lost the set by a very narrow margin, but he knew that his chances were slim.

Chen Ran was too steady and didn't leave himself too many opportunities.

Even if there are occasional fleeting opportunities, Nadal finds it difficult to seize them.

The second set was still tense.

Chen Ran was also well aware of the Spaniards' strong willpower.

Even in the grass court matches where he was good at, he destroyed Nadal's psychological defenses through his serve time and time again, making it difficult for him to even score a point.

But Nadal can still rely on his strong spirit and willpower to keep all his serve games.

Chen Ran had no choice but to take such an opponent seriously.

The clay court has honed Nadal's never-give-up fighting spirit and his tireless running.

But fortunately, this is not a clay court, and the ball speed is much faster.

Nadal can salvage the same shot on clay courts, but it’s useless on hard courts.

Chen Ran just pushed the racket lightly and the ball quickly flew to the far corner.

Nadal's reaction was actually very fast. His mind completely followed the ball, but his body couldn't keep up and he was powerless.

This also forced Chen Ran to complete his first break of the match today.

In the subsequent game, Nadal made a desperate attempt to break back.

In the end, he still failed to break through Chen Ran's impregnable defense.

6 is better than 4!

Within the regular number of games, Chen Ran continued to win.

"Congratulations!"

“I knew I wouldn’t have any chance.”

"You are so strong and invincible on the hard court."

Nadal took off his iconic Nike headband and shook hands with Chen Ran.

He seemed to be in a good mood and not as depressed as before the game.

Chen Ran discovered this, but he didn't bother to find out the news.

He didn't know that through today's game, Nadal had figured out a lot.

There is no point in forming alliances against players.

Some people took it seriously and really wanted to stop Chen Ran and break his monopoly.

But in some places, people still have their own little calculations.

He purposely lost the game and let himself face Chen Ran, becoming a cannon fodder.

So what is the meaning of the existence of this "Players' Union"?
Nadal decisively withdrew from the alliance.

He didn't want to experience this disgusting scene again.

Anyway, Nadal firmly believes that he is different from Federer and has an advantage that the other party does not have, that is, his own clay court.

Here, Chen Ran cannot completely crush himself.

As long as you stick to your basics and don't mess around with your opponents, it will be difficult to rise to first place in the ATP ranking, but it is very possible to rise to second place.

Unfortunately, this year, Nadal feels that it is unlikely that he can move up to second place in the year-end ranking.

After all, he was defeated by Federer and had to advance to the semifinals.

However, two hours later, a surprise happened.

Federer, who deliberately lost the game to avoid Chen Ran, unexpectedly lost to his compatriot Wawrinka.

Steady!

Nadal was pleasantly surprised to find that his year-end second ranking was secure!

……

(End of this chapter)