Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 653: A Basin of Cold Water

"Chen Ran shouldn't be like this. Since there's nothing wrong with his body, he should come and participate in the tour."

"Of course, this year is special, and we can fully understand that. I just hope that he can play well on tour starting next year."

The ATP management was getting a little restless and started to shout and hint at the other party.

Chen Ran's behavior made everyone feel a little embarrassed.

In the first three Grand Slam tournaments in 2008, Chen Ran won two championships and one runner-up, retaining 5000 points.

Coupled with the points Chen Ran earned from sweeping major tournaments in the second half of last year, his world No. 1 ranking remains as stable as a rock.

Generally speaking, the top players in the history of professional tennis, no matter how strong they are, need those tours to find their game form and then participate in the Grand Slam tournaments in the best condition.

Chen Ran directly landed in the Grand Slam arena and adjusted his condition to the best through the first few rounds of competition.

Theoretically, if Chen Ran only participates in the four Grand Slams, the China season and the year-end finals, he can still easily maintain his ranking in the top three, and even first place is not impossible.

But you can't play like this? You only care about your own comfort. Have you ever considered this sport?

When Chen Ran won the Wimbledon championship again and was preparing to return to China, the ATP officials also announced a new policy.

Starting next year, unless a player is confirmed to be injured, he or she must participate in at least 8 of the 7 mandatory Masters tournaments to have a chance to participate in the year-end finals.

Not only the year-end dividends, but also participation in the year-end finals and the Masters Tournament.

Of course, they also know that a buffer period is needed, so this rule will not be implemented until next year. Otherwise, Chen Ran will have missed five Masters tournaments this year and will not be able to participate in the year-end finals in Shanghai at the end of the year.

"That's awesome! Chen Ran is indeed the man who forced the ATP to change the rules."

"Otherwise, he would easily make it to the year-end finals with just the four Grand Slams plus the points from the China season."

"I suggest Chen Ran just participate in the four Grand Slams and the China season every year, and don't have to participate in the year-end finals. We don't need those millions of dollars!"

"The guy upstairs, you're such a talent."

"It's too hard to carry bricks at the construction site every day, but I also want to play professional tennis. I can play for 2 months a year and rest for 10 months. It's great."

"The guy above, I'm not looking down on you, but with your talent, at most you can only play in small domestic competitions every day. And because your results are so bad, you have to travel all over the country all year round. Your rest time may not even be as much as when you're carrying bricks on a construction site."

"Not only does it kill people, it also destroys their hearts!"

……

When Chen Ran returned to China, he learned about the policy that ATP had just issued and he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In order to get him to work more diligently, the ATP has really racked its brains.

8 mandatory Masters tournaments?
Starting next year, the ATP Masters will officially expand to 10 stops, but so far Monte Carlo and the newly upgraded China Open 1000 will not be mandatory events.

This means that Chen Ran must participate in at least 8 of the remaining 7 Masters tournaments.

Among the non-mandatory Masters tournaments, only the Monte Carlo Masters can Chen Ran withdraw from, and he definitely cannot withdraw from the domestic China Open.

This means that if he is in good health, he needs to participate in 4 Grand Slams + 8 Masters tournaments a year, plus a Hangzhou 500 tournament in the China season, a random 250 tournament, and then the year-end finals.

As for the Middle Eastern tycoons' Dubai tournament in the United Arab Emirates and the exhibition tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it all depends on the situation.

In this way, the burden of a year's competition is not light at all.

"This ATP is really the modern Zhou Baopi, just trying to exploit me." After getting off the plane, Chen Ran had a gloomy face and was in a very bad mood.

No, he must talk to the ATP on behalf of the players' union.

And he is sure that other top players will definitely have objections to the clause proposed by the ATP. I am not a cow or a horse.

How can you exploit people like this!

In fact, in the past, both ATP and WTA only set the annual championship points as the conditions for participating in the year-end finals, and did not set other conditions.

As for why the ATP had the brain-screw to add so many conditions to the participation in the ATP year-end finals this time, it is mainly because they were irritated by Chen Ran's "two days of fishing and three days of drying the net" behavior.

No one has ever done this in history.

So when Chen Ran did this, it broke their cognition.

When the reporter asked Chen Ran about this hot topic, he did not give a direct answer. "This is next year's matter, not the most important thing right now. Now there is only one month left before the Olympics, I know which is more important," he replied.

Today, the entire Chinese land is filled with the enthusiastic atmosphere of the upcoming Olympic Games.

Whether it's around you or on the online media, it's all news about the Olympics.

Faced with this huge torrent, the entertainment industry, which usually likes to stir up trouble and attract attention with all kinds of hype news, has unexpectedly become much more low-key, fearing that they will be scolded by netizens for their extraordinary behavior.

"Then guess how many gold medals we can win in tennis in this Olympics?" A reporter immediately brought up the event that everyone was concerned about.

"How many? How many do you want?" Chen Ran muttered, and then said, "In the last Olympics, we won 2 gold medals and 1 bronze medal, but this is an Olympic tennis competition after all, and there is too much randomness. We should strive for more than two medals."

He still behaved very low-key.

After all, Chen Ran is now a leading figure in Chinese tennis.

Even what he said was more representative to the outside world than those of the leaders of the Tennis Sports Management Center.

"Will you be on site to coach the players participating in the women's singles?"

"Yes, but we have agreed that the prerequisite is that they enter the quarterfinals." Chen Ran replied immediately.

He will only show up in the crucial games later on.

If Li Na or Zheng Jie can't make it to the deeper rounds, there will be no point.

As for men's singles, except for him, all others are ranked outside the top 300, so there's no need to count on him.

As for doubles, I'm sorry, I'm also a doubles rookie.

"Do you think we have a chance to win all the gold medals in men's and women's singles?" someone asked excitedly.

Chen Ran glanced at the other person and smiled, "No... it's very difficult... very difficult!"

"At least your gold medal is secure, and you also have hope in women's singles. Why do you think it's so difficult?" The reporter was a little puzzled.

At this time, the media who were watching also rushed over with microphones in hand.

Sometimes Chen Ran is speechless about reporters in China.

Not only do they like to grab news, they also like to make a fuss.

For example, a little-known foreign athlete came to Yanjing to prepare for the Olympics, and then a group of people rushed over as if they saw an alien.

In this regard, you should learn from the United States.

Unless you are a world-class superstar, ordinary champions will not be paid any attention to you if they go to the United States.

"My gold medal is not stable either, because..." Chen Ran was ready to keep a low profile and show weakness first, "Do you usually pay attention to tennis?"

“Not much to see!”

"In tennis, the hard courts are the most popular venues for experts. My advantage on hard courts is not that obvious. Look at this year's Australian Open, where I lost the final, and the previous rounds often went four or five sets. There are too many variables in hard court matches."

“The so-called gold medal is hard to come by.”

"What about the woman? At least we have double insurance!" the reporter emphasized again.

Double insurance? Is this double insurance for the gold medal or the bronze medal? You think it's a ping-pong ball!
He paused, then continued, "As for the women's side... the variables are even greater. Women's tennis is full of enthusiastic women. Even if a player ranked outside the top 20 in the world wins the gold medal, don't be surprised."

"Also, you should learn some tennis etiquette. Don't speak when you shouldn't, otherwise it will affect the players. Although I personally don't care, the emotions of female players are easily affected. Foreign players can't understand Chinese, but our Chinese players can understand it, which makes them more passive."

The group of reporters were greatly disappointed because what Chen Ran said was obviously not what they wanted to hear.

It’s fine for women’s tennis to strive for medals, but your goal is not the gold medal?

Do you know what the leaders of the Track and Field Association said? Liu Xiang has recovered well and is in excellent condition, so he has a great chance!

They are much more confident than you.

……

(End of this chapter)