Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 705 Federer Retires

In 2021, the 40-year-old Swiss tennis star Federer announced his retirement.

His number of Grand Slam titles remains at 15. After all, it is too difficult to win another Grand Slam title at the age of or .

Federer's retirement ceremony was held in Basel, Switzerland with great ceremony.

At such an important moment, the other three of the Big Four, including Chen Ran, also attended the Swiss' retirement ceremony.

After all, he is a national treasure of Switzerland, and the retirement ceremony held was very grand.

Federer's eyes were filled with tears at his retirement ceremony.

Of course, he doesn't want to retire in his heart. Even at the age of 40, Federer still has the strength of TOP50-100.

Once you retire, many sponsors will fly away.

But many times he has no choice. Federer, who has such brilliant honors and achievements, does not want to keep losing at the end of his career.

He lost to his old rival, lost to his own manservant, and lost to those unknown new players who had just debuted.

What's the point?

It’s better to retire!
Federer can't stand such humiliation.

Especially Djokovic and Nadal, these two cunning guys, must be secretly hoping to meet me more often and set more records in the match between the two sides.

As for Chen Ran?

Anyway, the battle record between him and Chen Ran could almost be described as horrible, so he didn't take it seriously.

In short, we cannot give the two younger players, Djokovic and Nadal, too many opportunities to improve their winning rate.

"I am already 40 years old."

"When I became a professional tennis player, I never thought I could last until I was 40. It's not easy."

Federer joked, "You three old guys, I hope you can make it to 40 too."

Chen Ran and the other two laughed at the same time and applauded.

He suddenly thought of one thing. Although Nadal next to him has not retired yet, he looks much older than Federer.

Seeing how sparse his hair was, Chen Ran really wanted to ask him why he didn't shave his head or just keep a buzz cut.

Indeed, when you first debuted, you had long flowing hair and were very handsome.

But in this situation, if you still have long hair, it is really a bit horrible and it damages your image.

Of course, Chen Ran only muttered these words in his heart and did not say them out loud.

Finally, one of these old guys is going to retire.

"I know that when we were young, we always disliked each other and refused to accept each other. I even admit that I formed a small group at that time. Looking back now, it seems too naive."

Federer was also self-deprecating and recalling every detail of his youth.

As they get older, they can slowly let go of many things from the past.

We are no longer young, so we have begun to understand how to appreciate each other.

At this time, the microphone was handed to Chen Ran, and it was his turn to speak.

"Roger, do you remember? In 2002, I had just won a Challenger Championship and attended the Masters Cup as a special guest. I chose to play against you instead of Agassi, who was already famous at that time."

"Of course I remember that your choice at that time caused a lot of criticism."

Chen Ran smiled: "Yes, but in the end it turned out that my choice was not wrong. The confrontation between us lasted almost throughout my entire career." From another perspective, the "five-match battle" between the 16-year-old Chen Ran and the 21-year-old Federer in the Magic City has been given all kinds of incredible legendary colors after the passage of time.

Their matchup opened up an unprecedented golden age of tennis.

As soon as Chen Ran finished speaking, the Swiss audience burst into applause and some shouted his name.

"Chen...you know, you are the most popular foreign athlete among us Swiss, maybe even more popular than me." Federer joked.

Chen Ran smiled and waved to the audience. Then he asked the host to pass the microphone to Djokovic and said, "Now let our new Grand Slam champion say a few words."

But the fact is that Djokovic is obviously not as popular as Chen Ran in Switzerland.

So the cheers he enjoyed were a little less, and were mixed with some boos.

After all, Federer has not yet achieved the Golden Slam, but Djokovic has.

At the just-concluded Tokyo Olympics, Djokovic defeated German superstar Zverev and won the gold medal, becoming the second male tennis player after Chen Ran to complete the Golden Grand Slam achievement. (Agassi's previous Golden Grand Slam achievement has been abolished)

In the original time and space, the 34-year-old Djokovic was in the prime of his competitive form, so he was very confident in the Tokyo Olympics and signed up for singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same time.

One person had to compete in three events, and on top of that his daily schedule required him to compete in the middle of the day.

Djokovic's body couldn't take it anymore and he was eliminated in the semi-finals.

This time, because Chen Ran also signed up, Djokovic only signed up for a singles event for the sake of caution, and the trajectory of his fate changed as a result.

Djokovic won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics as he wished, and Chen Ran, who is also 35 years old, performed very well and won a bronze medal in men's singles.

So far, Chen Ran has three gold medals and one bronze medal.

After the game, he joked: "Some athletes said before that it feels better to win a bronze medal than a silver medal. Now I believe it, because you get a bronze medal because you won a game, and you get a silver medal because you lost a game."

Chen Ran also generously wished his old rival Djokovic well.

At this point, there are now two Grand Slam players in professional tennis.

"Old man..." Djokovic began, "I will miss the days when I played against you. In fact, I admire your fighting spirit very much, and you also inspire me. The results of your match against Chen Ran in the early stage of your career... well, you know what I mean."

"But I know you are a true fighter. You never backed down. Even though you were troubled by injuries, you trained hard, constantly perfected your skills, and broke through your limits."

"You deserve all the praise and honor."

"Besides, in the history of tennis, there has never been a person who has used SLR technology to such an extreme as you have."

"Good luck in your future life."

However, Nadal also spoke with red eyes: "Great opponent, I will never forget the days when I played against you."

He was the only one among the three people including Chen Ran who was crying. Although no one knew whether it was true emotion or he was possessed by the movie emperor, he did cry very sadly with red eyes.

When Federer saw this scene, he had to walk up and hug the Spaniard.

As for the other players, whether they were veterans born in the 80s such as Murray and Wawrinka, or those born in the 90s, they could only stand aside, applaud and laugh.

After all, in this kind of occasion, what level are they of? Are they worthy of giving a speech with the giants?
Finally, the four of them stood together for a photo, and countless fireworks floated in the sky.

At this moment, Chen Ran was feeling a little melancholy.

After all, the opponents who had played against each other for almost 20 years have left, and in the near future, their four giants may retire one after another.

Enjoy the rest of your time.

……

(End of this chapter)