Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 664: The First Step of Legend, Champion Coach (4K)

After the game, Chen Ran immediately left the stadium.

Because it was so noisy here, there was no atmosphere of winning the championship at all, making Wang Liqin feel like he was playing in an away game.

"But history has changed after all!" He couldn't help but sigh.

For Lao Wang, the coveted men's singles championship was finally won, and he can retire with peace of mind.

In addition, Lin Dan is in very good shape, which is completely different from the time four years ago.

It is also highly likely that he will win the championship.

It’s just that the badminton match ends later, much later than the tennis match.

Among all the major events in the Olympics, only the tennis schedule is so urgent that it seems like he is about to be reincarnated.

The women's singles tennis final is about to begin, at 9pm prime time.

The venue of the competition, Diamond Stadium.

This is also the first time that the Diamond Stadium has hosted the final of a heavyweight tennis singles match since its completion.

All 1 seats are already full.

The five-star red flags were flying everywhere on the surrounding stands, which was a spectacular sight.

A tennis court creates an atmosphere like a football field.

The Diamond Stadium has a function to close the roof, and it takes 12 minutes to open and close it once.

So even if it rains, it will not affect the game.

Fortunately, during the Olympic Games, the weather in Yanjing was very good, with clear skies the entire time.

Chen Ran sat alone in the private room, observing everything with an expressionless face.

If Li Na can win the championship this time, not only will she be deified, but also him, her temporary coach.

Chen Ran could feel that the national tennis team coach looked at him with complicated eyes.

This tremendous honor made the other party extremely envious.

He is the coach of the national team, but this honor has nothing to do with him.

Similarly, because Zheng Jie in this time and space paid more attention to singles, she did not put too much energy on doubles.

So she has a French Open title, but lost the Grand Slam doubles title, and also lost the doubles bronze medal at the Yanjing Olympics. Maybe God is fair.

In this Olympics, China's women's doubles and men's doubles tennis teams gained nothing.

But the extremely valuable men's and women's singles events have already guaranteed at least two silver medals.

All the honors and legends belong to Chen Ran.

He personally created an unprecedented glorious era for Chinese tennis.

The cameraman in charge of the broadcast also understood this and locked the camera on Chen Ran for several seconds.

At this time, Li Na walked over somewhat unnaturally.

In the team private room, her fiancé Jiang Shan was about to speak, but was immediately glared back by Sister Na: What I mean is, don't talk, just be quiet.

Sure enough, Hubei women love to show their displeasure to their husbands.

Jiang Shan immediately shut up.

He also knew that this was the most important game in his wife's life.

There is a world of difference between the champion and the runner-up.

This is true whether in China or in any other country in the world.

"Sister Na, are you nervous?" Chen Ran asked.

"Of course, I felt my legs were shaking," Li said candidly, "and my palms were sweating."

She looked complicated and continued, "If I had reached the finals of a Grand Slam before, I might have some experience in dealing with this situation."

"But my best result in a Grand Slam is the semi-finals. In this respect, I am not as good as Zheng Jie."

Jiang Shan couldn't help but speak again: "Coach Chen has won so many Grand Slam titles and also won the gold medal in the Athens Olympics. He must have experience in dealing with the tension of the finals."

"I didn't ask you to speak!" Li Na glared at Jiang Shan again.

"Hehe..." Jiang Shan smiled awkwardly. His eyes, which were already very small, were now almost narrowed into a line.

Chen Ran rubbed his forehead.

This is a live broadcast of the Olympic Games. If you scold your husband publicly like this, people all over the country will know about it.

This also allowed people across the country to experience how tough Hubei women are.

Anyway, from Chen Ran's point of view, he would just pass up a woman with a tough personality, no matter how pretty she was.

However, as a coach, he was the only one who could scold this tough Hubei woman without any scruples.

"Why should you be nervous?"

"This is just a game. We're not really sending you to the battlefield, where you're at risk of being sacrificed at any time."

"A game, a game that is highly anticipated by everyone, with hundreds of millions of people watching across the country, this shouldn't make people nervous, but excited, shouldn't it?"

“Whether it was my first Grand Slam final or the Olympic final, I didn’t feel any nervousness.”

Chen Ran spoke freely, and then added: "Being nervous... will only make you look petty, which means that you don't have a broad vision and are not yet a champion-level player."

"I..." He paused, his tone becoming stern, "It's okay to be nervous now, but if you're still nervous during the game later, then I'll be wrong about you."

"Uh..." Li Na was speechless for a moment, but did not dare to refute.

After all, their current relationship is that of coach and player.

Even though Chen Ran is four years younger than me.

Whether in terms of career or technical ability, Chen Ran is worthy of her admiration.

"At least in my impression, you shouldn't be nervous about a regional final, even if it's your first time." Chen Ran began to provoke, "If you think you are a champion-level player who can compete with anyone in the WTA, then why should you be nervous?"

"If you can't even control this emotion, you might as well retire. You are really useless."

Li Na lowered her head with some grievance.

Although she felt that she was a championship-level player, she did not think she could be compared with a goat-level player like Chen Ran.

There is simply no comparison.

Of course, Chen Ran's authority made it impossible for her to refute.

"Your opponent is not Sharapova, but Dementieva. Why are you so nervous?" Chen Ran added, "At present, you are Sharapova and Serena's maid, not Dementieva's maid."

Maid...

So far, Sharapova and Serena Williams are the only two players Li Na has not defeated in the WTA top 20. Li Na lowered her head, feeling even more aggrieved.

The word "maid" is only mentioned by reporters and fans when they are joking in private.

Who would be so blind as to bring this up in front of the players?

If someone dared to call Li Na the maid of Sharapova and Serena Williams in front of her, she would definitely explode on the spot because of her temper.

But after hearing what Chen Ran said, Li Na didn't dare to refute and could only remain silent.

Jiang Shan, who was standing by, didn't even dare to breathe.

Because he knew that once he opened his mouth, he would become a vent for his wife's emotions.

I don’t dare to get angry with Chen Ran, but how could I not get angry with you?

"I know you have a lot of male servants..." Li Na said angrily.

Chen Ran heard this and smiled: "If you don't want to be a maid, just go and break it yourself."

Then, he used himself as an example: "Like Djokovic from Serbia, he used to be my manservant. But he beat me once in the group stage of the year-end finals last year and beat me again in the Australian Open final this year, so now few people would call Djokovic my manservant."

“It still depends on your own efforts.”

"But think about it, in such an important match today. The Olympic final held in our home country is basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us athletes. Your opponent is not Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams. Isn't this a good thing?"

"Dementieva is quite strong, but her world ranking is not as good as yours, so why are you so nervous?"

"I say the same thing again. If you are nervous, I will look down on you, and don't expect me to help you calm down."

Li Na took a deep breath and nodded: "You are right, I understand."

In fact, although Chen Ran said, "Don't expect me to help you calm down," Li Na's emotions did stabilize after his sharp words just now.

You see, conventional guidance is useless for a sports team like this with hot tempers and strong personalities.

Jiang Shan on the side could only sigh, he is a famous coach, indeed he is a famous coach, but there is a huge gap in level between him and the coach of the national team.

After Li Na left, Jiang Shan flattered Chen Ran and said with a smile: "Coach Chen, if I had met your guidance when I was young, I would definitely have been able to get a place in the main draw of the four Grand Slams."

Chen Ran rolled his eyes: "You are only 28 years old now, still young, you can definitely give it a try."

Jiang Shan was speechless.

What are you trying? Are you looking for trouble?
What's more, he is Li Na's sparring partner and an important part of the team.

With his current ability on the court, he can only barely abuse his wife during training.

In fact, from another perspective, for a female tennis player, having an outstanding sparring partner is a very important thing.

The advantage of having a male sparring partner is that even a player outside the ATP 1000 ranking can still easily imitate the ball paths of the top WTA players.

Generally speaking, female players do not have fixed sparring partners, and often they change sparring partners when they play in different places.

Because the price that the top 1000 ATP players ask for to serve as sparring partners for female players will be very high, and they will not agree easily.

Female players usually can only find amateur male players or players from college tennis teams to practice with, but because the level of the partners is limited, the results are often unsatisfactory.

For example, Zheng Qinwen, who won the Olympic gold medal, often complained that the level of his sparring partner was too poor, even though the training fee was not cheap at all.

However, there will also be new fans who have just joined the Olympics and naively clamor for Zhang Zhizhen to be Zheng Qinwen's sparring partner. Zhang Zhizhen's technical characteristics just imitate Sabalenka's ball path, so that they don't get abused every time they meet Sabalenka.

I can only say that these new Olympic fans really dare to say such ridiculous things as "letting a male player ranked in the top 50 of the ATP serve as a sparring partner for a female player". What are they trying to achieve?

Of course, those new Olympic fans will be complacent and proud of their own suggestions.

It is impossible for high-level male players to serve as sparring partners for female players, not just because of face issues or because the price is too high.

More importantly, serving as a sparring partner for female players is likely to greatly reduce one's own technical level and competitive state.

After all, for male players, the ATP competition is already so fierce, and there are so many top players. How can they have the time and energy to practice with female players whose level is far inferior to theirs? Wouldn't that just make things more frustrating for them?

So generally speaking, top ATP players including Chen Ran will not look for sparring partners, but will instead look for players from the same tour to practice with.

Of course, occasionally, Chen Ran would also find two sparring partners to practice with, and these people were all in the top 1000 in the ATP rankings.

ATP is a gender-neutral group, and Chen Ran is the top player, so those players ranked in the top 1000 of ATP are willing to practice with Chen Ran even if the price is very low, because they can learn something.

What can you learn from practicing with female players?
Even if the female players are prettier, it is impossible for them to be attracted by these low-ranked players.

So Li Na is much luckier than other WTA female players because she has a relatively good sparring partner like Jiang Shan.

……

At this time, with the referee's voice, the women's singles final officially began.

After being scolded by Chen Ran, Li Na finally put away her nervousness.

She and Dementieva had a back-and-forth fight.

In her previous life, Dementieva's opponent was Safina. Both of them were Russians and knew each other well.

More importantly, the atmosphere at the finals was definitely far inferior to this time.

This time, it was the host players who made it to the finals, making the atmosphere of the game intense and suffocating to the extreme.

Obviously, Dementieva's team or coach does not have such a unique way of speaking as Chen Ran.

Her coach clearly failed to let Dementieva let go of the heavy burden.

Especially facing the cheers of 1 spectators at home, Dementieva felt even more upset.

Then, she remembered her good sister Safina complaining in her ear about her opponent in the final, how shameless and hypocritical, and how his coach was shameless and would do anything to win the game.

All these factors combined made Dementieva very nervous and became impatient.

Like Li Na, this is her first time participating in the final of such an important event.

"This Russian woman's steps are a bit heavy and disorderly. If she can't adjust in time, Sister Na will be in trouble!" Chen Ran thought to himself.

The progress of the game was just as Chen Ran expected. Li Na, who already had the upper hand in strength, became even more unstoppable after calming down.

In the first set, Li Na broke twice and won the game 6-2.

In the second set, Li Na served first and broke her opponent's serve again in the fourth service game, then successfully held her serve, 6-3, securing the victory.

This final was much easier than the semi-final.

champion!

The Chinese tennis team won the first women's singles gold medal in history.

As for Chen Ran, he also became a champion coach because of his outstanding on-the-spot command.

By becoming both an Olympic champion coach and champion player, Chen Ran has taken the first step towards becoming a legend.

……

(End of this chapter)