Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 659: Fighting for the Country, Public Opinion Propaganda (4K)

The tight schedule of tennis matches left Chen Ran with almost no energy to watch other events live. The most he could do was to go online in his dormitory and follow the games.

This time, as they were fighting at home, the Chinese Army was in high spirits.

It’s only the second day of the competition and the number of gold medals is almost breaking double digits.

Of course, most of them are unpopular sports. If it weren’t for the Olympics, you would never pay attention to these sports.

For these athletes, the Olympics is their only chance to succeed. If they miss it, they will regret it for the rest of their lives.

A lifetime of wealth and success depends on this one move.

How can I not try my best?

However, some projects are not like this, and are even a little different.

Even if you lose face in the Olympics held in your home country, it will not affect your ability to make big money, such as the world's number one sport - football.

Since the 2002 World Cup, the Chinese men's football team finally has another chance to appear in a world competition.

However, they did not seem to cherish this rare opportunity.

Not only did they perform poorly in the group stage, losing repeatedly, they even used some Shaolin Kung Fu moves such as the "Kick That Cuts Off Your Offspring," and received several red cards.

Suddenly, the men's football team became the target of ridicule and mockery from the national public opinion.

Soon after, another media outlet broke the news that the national football players sneaked out to check into a hotel with their girlfriends during the Olympic Games and were having a great time. This further ignited the anger of the fans.

The Olympics, which other athletes cherish so much, are looked down upon in your eyes?

Of course, it would be great if you could qualify for the World Cup, but you have already missed out on the South Africa World Cup and have to prepare for the Brazil World Cup six years in advance.

"These guys are really shameless. Anyway, they can make a lot of money when they return to the club."

"Everyone is a millionaire and doesn't care about national honor at all."

"It's a far cry from being able to compete with Chen Ran. He's a billionaire, earning money in US dollars, and he values ​​national honor."

“The gap between people is greater than the gap between people and dogs!”

Chen Ran was speechless. It’s fine if you just scold the national football team, but why do you drag me into this?
He didn't want to get involved in this mess and attract hatred for no reason.

It is now 2008, and even though the men's football team is being condemned by everyone.

Although these people enjoy cursing, they will seem to enjoy doing so in the future. After all, the charm of football lies there.

In another two years, Boss Xu will be waving a bunch of checks and launching a money-driven football that will shock the whole world.

The salaries of these stinking guys will continue to skyrocket, and the real low point for the Chinese national football team has not yet arrived!
The more money there is, the more useless the national football team becomes.

Who are the most pitiful people? They are the house slaves who have been cheated by the bosses.

It can be said that they use their hard-earned money to support these stinky feet, allowing them to eat delicious food, drink spicy drinks, live in villas, drive luxury cars, and date young... models.

Then, the Chinese men's basketball team was also beaten by the American men's basketball team in the first game.

We lost by more than 30 points because the other team showed mercy.

The United States is so cunning that it even invited the leader of the host country to watch the battle between China and the United States?

Why not ping pong? Even tennis will do!

For a long time, the United States has regarded tennis as their traditional advantage.

But now, there are no American players among the top five in the world.

Roddick also withdrew from the Yanjing Olympics, citing the need to prepare for the North American season.

But the fans all understand that this guy knows that he has no competitiveness at all in the Yanjing Olympics. Rather than being embarrassed at that time, it is better to run away first.

Therefore, Chen Ran’s opponent in the second round was Blake, the second player from the United States.

This person has black ancestry and his strength should not be underestimated. He has made it to the year-end finals.

It’s just that in the last few Grand Slam tournaments, his performance was mediocre and he failed to maintain his big points, so his world ranking dropped out of the top 16.

So Blake met Chen Ran in the second round, and then the two will compete for a place in the top 16.

It’s a tough back-to-back schedule, and the game is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Generally speaking, the actual time of a tennis match will be delayed than the estimated time.

However, because the previous game ended too quickly, this game went on as scheduled.

In the afternoon of the dog days of summer, Beijing is still as hot as a furnace even at 3 o'clock.

For outdoor competitions, you don’t have to count on air conditioning.

Chen Ran has to compete back-to-back matches, so you can imagine how difficult it is.

On the other hand, China also reciprocated by inviting the United States to watch the tennis match.

Basketball is your traditional advantage, and so is tennis. We didn't invite you to watch the table tennis match.

However, the people of the United States were indeed cunning. Knowing that their country's players had no chance of winning, they declined the offer dejectedly, saying that they had other competitions to watch.

Your little thoughts!
Only the parties involved know the embarrassment involved.

I don’t even dare to come to watch the tennis match!
Chen Ran unintentionally brought honor to the country.

In this game, Chen Ran still adopted the previous game strategy.

Today's Blake, in terms of comprehensive technical strength, is indeed better than Cilic in the first round.

However, this so-called stronger comprehensive strength is not enough in front of Chen Ran.

On the contrary, having an excellent serve like Cilic would put some pressure on Chen Ran.

In terms of comprehensive strength, Chen Ran is the strongest hexagonal warrior.

So, in this set, he started to play at a lower gear in the opponent's serve.

Chen Ran did not exert much effort, but every serving game made Blake feel the pressure of being broken.

But Chen Ran just didn't move up the game. Even when he saw the chance to break serve, he still played at his own pace.

However, in the serving game in the middle and later stages of the set, Chen Ran suddenly exerted his strength.

Exactly no more, no less, in Blake's fifth serving game, Chen Ran suddenly stepped up and broke the opponent's serving game with unstoppable force. Blake didn't even have the slightest resistance.

This is what makes Federer and Nadal envious of Chen Ran.

This guy can break the serve of most professional players in the ATP at will as long as he suddenly improves his game.

Blake's serving ability is far inferior to Cilic's, which makes it much easier for Chen Ran to break his opponent's serve.

In both sets, he suddenly exerted his strength in Blake's fifth service game.

The score is exactly the same, 6 to 4!

Chen Ran secured a spot in the top 16, but the process seemed a bit difficult.

"After a narrow escape, Chen Ran successfully made it into the top 16!"

"The form is average! We were expecting a crushing score of 6-1 or 6-2, but it didn't happen."

"It's understandable, after all, these are back-to-back matches. The arrangement of tennis matches in the Olympics is damn inhumane! Fortunately, Chen Ran has swept all his matches in two sets so far and has not entered a three-set battle." Many fans expressed their opinions.

In fact, not only sports fans, but also the media and public opinion of the entire country hope that Chen Ran can win this extremely valuable gold medal.

Because both Liu Xiang and the women's volleyball team are in far worse shape than they were four years ago.

Although the Chinese delegation's gold medals are increasing, most of them are in unpopular events.

During this period, China's swimming team had not yet risen, especially the men's performance, it was difficult for them to even enter the finals.

Chen Ran has almost become the only hope in the popular project.

You can imagine the pressure he is under.

With so much income, you also have to bear corresponding responsibilities.

Sometimes I really envy Yao Ming because his income is not much different from his, but fans can just explain it away with a simple sentence “my teammates are not strong enough”.

After the second round of competition, the top eight seeds in the men's singles were all shortlisted.

On the women's side, Li Na advanced to the round of 16, while Zheng Jie was eliminated. The latter will now focus on doubles with Yan Zi.

For Chen Ran, his pressure was relieved a little. He only needed to guide Li Na in the game, and that was after the quarterfinals.

If Li Na can't stand the pressure and can't make it to the quarterfinals, Chen Ran won't have to act as a temporary guest coach.

"Sharapova and Ivanovic both participated in this Olympics, and the competition among women is unprecedentedly fierce."

"Roddick, that coward!"

After Chen Ran muttered to himself for a while, he cursed the American inwardly.

Overall, the lineup of tennis players at the Yanjing Olympics, both men and women, is the strongest in the history of the Olympics.

The national honor plus 800 points are indeed taken very seriously by most athletes.

No prize money so far? Athletes who can participate in the Olympic level competition will not care about this.

After Chen Ran entered the top 16 of the men's singles tennis in the Olympics, he immediately announced his withdrawal from the Toronto Masters through his team.

Now that I have reached the deep rounds, it will be impossible for me to participate in the Toronto Masters.

Of course, even if he is eliminated in the first round of the Olympics, he will not participate in the Toronto Masters.

It's just a matter of going through the process, and the team should also do some publicity to let everyone know that Chen Ran made great sacrifices in his personal interests for the Olympics and for national honor.

The champion points are 1000 points and the champion prize is 60 US dollars!
The Olympics attracted huge attention and traffic, so the media controlled by Chen Ran focused on promoting it.

This kind of public opinion has made many people subconsciously believe that Chen Ran is sure to win the Toronto Masters, and they can even drag down the Chinese national football team by the way.

It is our duty to fight for our country!
For tennis players, there is no prize money and few points in the Olympics, but Chen Ran puts national interests first and personal interests second.

Chinese national football team, why don’t you learn from others’ qualities?
After all, many ordinary people who watch the Olympics don't usually pay attention to tennis matches or even sports events.

In this day and age, money is still very valuable.

What does $60 mean?
Even if you win a gold medal in the Olympics, the reward you can get is far less than $60.

"So other athletes make money by participating in the Olympics, but Chen Ran loses money?"

"You can say that! Tennis players are different from other athletes. Chen Ran is purely passionate about serving his country."

"I'm going to criticize the Chinese national football team again. Although you've been eliminated, I still have to say that the salary in your club is only a million, while Chen Ran's prize money for a single game is over 400 million. But look at him, then look at you, aren't you ashamed?"

So, the Chinese national football team was inexplicably caught in the crossfire again.

In fact, from Chen Ran's perspective, he really doesn't want to drag down the Chinese national football team, but the effect of public opinion and media is sometimes beyond his control, and he always drags the Chinese national football team in to criticize it.

Forget it, I don’t care about this.

Who made you fail to live up to expectations?

In the third round, Chen Ran’s opponent was none other than his old acquaintance, the new generation British star—Murray.

Nowadays, the British media rarely emphasizes that Murray is Scottish. A successful Scotsman must be us British.

China also invited British leaders to watch the game.

After all, the British leaders were not as scheming as the American people, so they agreed and went there happily.

However, after the first set, the Englishman left on the pretext of having a stomachache and going to the toilet, which was really embarrassing.

The score is so brutal!

6 is better than 1!

Chen Ran directly gave the British star, the bad one, a fried dough stick.

Today's game time was finally scheduled for the prime time of 8 o'clock in the evening, and Chen Ran was already in full shape after the previous two rounds of warm-up.

Murray can be called the "master of grinding" and is very good at grinding.

But because of this, his technical characteristics were firmly controlled by Chen Ran.

Chen Ran took advantage of the characteristics of the hard court, with sharp offensive and tricky landing points, completely suppressing Murray.

The game was just over and the opponent was chased away.

In the second set, although Murray tried to fight back, he was still defeated by Chen Ran one by one.

6 to 3, Chen Ran easily won the second set.

After all, Murray is still a little immature today and is far from reaching the level of the later fourth giant.

At this moment, Djokovic's strength is even far beyond that of his previous life, together with Federer and Nadal who are equally strong.

Chen Ran felt that it would be very difficult for Murray to win a Grand Slam title in this life.

"It seems that this guy is the men's tennis singles champion of the 2012 London Olympics, and he even beat Federer?" Chen Ran suddenly remembered this past event.

So what about this time?

Four years later, does Murray still have a chance to win the Olympics in his home country?

From Chen Ran's perspective, he would be very happy to personally shatter Murray's dream of winning an Olympic gold medal four years later.

Perhaps Murray's knighthood will be in jeopardy because of this.

I'm sorry, I'm so cruel!
……

After Chen Ran entered the quarterfinals of the men's singles at the Olympics, his team continued to announce: Chen Ran will withdraw from the Cincinnati Masters!

My goodness, in this Masters Tournament, he is retiring at one round after another. Is this intentional attempt to set the pace?

But the media once again emphasized that Chen Ran is the defending champion of the Cincinnati Masters.

By withdrawing from two consecutive Masters tournaments, he gave up 2000 points and $120 million in prize money.

In his words, he still regarded Chen Ran's winning of the Cincinnati Masters as a foregone conclusion.

This wave of announcements brought Chen Ran a huge boost in reputation.

……

(End of this chapter)