Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 684 This is the first person!
Chen Ran's good partner, Wawrinka, stood up and shouted: "I agree with Chen Ran's point of view 100%. If it weren't for that damn night arrangement, he would definitely be the champion of the US Open again!"

The second Swiss brother spoke without any regard for his eldest brother's face and spoke without restraint.

From Wawrinka's perspective, he only acknowledges that Chen Ran is the world's number one, but is unwilling to acknowledge that Federer is the number one in Switzerland.

"How am I worse than him?"

Wawrinka has always maintained this view.

If someone calls him the second brother of Switzerland, he will get angry on the spot.

I am 4 years younger than the other party, and I have won the Grand Slam championship and the year-end championship.

In another four years, it is still uncertain who will be strong and who will be weak!

As for the doubles partnership between Wawrinka and Chen Ran, it was praised by the outside world as pure wool taking.

On tour, the two of them rarely play together.

But at the Grand Slams, the two continue to partner up.

However, the best result of a doubles partnership consisting of two of the top five in the world was in the second round.

So they are here to fleece the organizing committee.

"Damn it, these two guys have always been in sync." The US Open organizing committee could only respond in this way, "As for the issue of night sessions, we will seriously discuss and consider it."

With Chen Ran taking the lead, top players from ATP and WTA followed suit. Faced with the surging public opinion, the organizing committee of the US Open had to play Tai Chi.

"You can't sacrifice the health of players for commercial interests!" This is a point that Chen Ran has always emphasized, and it is also supported by many male and female players.

Apparently, people have had enough.

Of course, no one could see as far as Chen Ran and could not understand his deeper intentions.

Chen Ran deliberately put pressure on the other three Grand Slam events, asking them to take it easy.

Look at the attitude of the players and don't have any thoughts that you shouldn't have.

Especially for the French Open, according to the original historical trajectory, they will launch night sessions in a few years, following the footsteps of the US Open.

However, after what happened today, the French Open organizing committee will probably think twice before acting.

As for ATP and WTA, they also expressed support for the players' ideas.

After all, they cannot interfere with the organizing committees of the four Grand Slams in arranging the schedules and can only cheer from the sidelines.

In any case, Chen Ran set a precedent.

Treat the US Open night session in a bad way and call on all male and female players to put pressure on the organizing committee.

"If the Americans don't want Chen Ran to win or advance to a deeper round, they can still arrange for him to compete in the night session next year."

"After all, for this No. 1 player in history, sleeping is more important than playing games."

Some American media joked like this.

But the problem is, as long as Chen Ran continues to perform well in other competitions and maintains his world TOP1 level, then if he is eliminated from the US Open early, is it his loss or the US Open's loss?
Don’t forget that Chen Ran has won the US Open championship four times. What’s even more exaggerated is that he has only participated in the US Open five times, including this year.

In the following Chinese season, Chen Ran swept away the haze and won the China Open and Shanghai Masters in a row. Then he won the Paris Masters after a lapse of 5 years. Finally, he won 5 games in a row in the year-end finals held in London and won the championship.

This epic streak of consecutive championships is also unique. Chen Ran seems to want to vent all the anger accumulated during the US Open, and the champion is his best target for venting.

Especially this year's China Open, which is the first year of upgrading from ATP500 to ATP1000.

So far, his record in 2009 is 2 Grand Slams, 5 Masters and one year-end championship.

Winning five Masters titles in one year is a new record for Chen Ran.

It also proves that once this guy improves his attendance rate, winning high-level competitions will be easy for him.

Thus, the 2009 season officially ended, and Chen Ran also missed the quadrennial National Games. However, he also made a promise that he would participate in the local Asian Games held in Guangzhou next year as long as he was not injured.

In 2006, Chen Ran missed the Asian Games because of the year-end finals.

……

By the end of the year, player representatives led by Chen Ran had been negotiating with the ATP, WTA, and the organizing committees of the four Grand Slams, and they even put forward the slogan of "making tennis a better sport."

In the original historical trajectory, after achieving success, Djokovic had been calling for the organizing committee to appropriately reduce the prize money for the champion and runner-up, whether it is the four Grand Slams or the nine Masters tournaments, and use this part to subsidize players in the shallow rounds, such as the first and second rounds.

This proposal was actually boycotted by many top players, including the king Federer.

Of course, Federer was very subtle and his attitude was not too clear, but the Austrian star Thiem was different.

"Why increase the prize money for those players who are in the lower rounds? Are they working hard? Obviously, they are not."

"Low-ranked players are financially strapped? Why can't they play higher up in the rankings?"

This guy took the lead in resisting Djokovic's suggestions and vowed to prevent the other party from surpassing Federer in the number of Grand Slams.

At his peak, Thiem won one Grand Slam title, three Grand Slam runner-ups and one Masters title.

But perhaps because this guy had a foul mouth and loved to brag too much, he soon suffered a boomerang.

At the age of 28, Tim's condition declined rapidly due to injuries, and he became what he once called a "low-ranked player". At the age of 30, Tim had to announce his retirement due to injury.

It can be said that his peak period was very short.

Then, the funnier side emerged.

Thiem invited the Big Three to his retirement ceremony in a personal capacity, rather than in a business capacity.

Who does he think he is?
As a result, none of the three giants replied to him and none of them gave the Austrians face, making him a complete joke.

Back to the topic, the organizing committees of the four Grand Slams and nine Masters tournaments finally adopted Djokovic's suggestion and allocated more prize money to players in the shallow rounds.

This is why the total prize money of the four Grand Slams has been rising until 2023, or even 2024, while the prize money for the champion and runner-up is less than around 2019. This is the adjustment of the prize distribution model.

So let alone the Grand Slam, even in the Masters Tournament with 96 draws, if a player is eliminated in the first round of the main competition, he can still get a prize of more than 2 US dollars, and if he is eliminated in the first round of the qualifying round, he can also get nearly 8000 US dollars, which is enough to cover the cost of the players' travel back and forth to participate in the competition, and there will still be some savings.

At this moment, Chen Ran also made this suggestion more than ten years ahead of Djokovic.

Some people agree, some people disagree.

But in this world, top players are ultimately a minority, and low-ranked players make up the vast majority.

Even many players outside the top 20 cannot guarantee that they will not be eliminated in the first or second round in every Grand Slam tournament.

So they strongly supported Chen Ran's suggestion.

In addition, Chen Ran also proposed a basic prize money guarantee proposal, covering the top 300 players in the ATP rankings.

This proposal was not originally scheduled to be implemented in the ATP until 2024.

But because ATP's current financial situation is much better than in the past, Chen Ran also proposed it more than ten years in advance.

In addition, the issue of night games at Grand Slams was once again emphasized by him.

Whether it is the current US Open or other Grand Slam events that want to follow suit with night sessions in the future, the night session time cannot be later than 10 o'clock.

This was the unanimous request of the players after discussion.

Under pressure from a group of players led by Chen Ran, the US Open Organizing Committee finally agreed to this condition.

……

(End of this chapter)