Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 721: Chen Ran stands firm, Djokovic falls behind

Half a month later, Chen Ran officially started his last trip to the Australian Open.

Media around the world are watching to see if he can achieve his 40th Grand Slam.

There are only two left of the "Big Four", and it remains to be seen whether they can defend the final honor.

So far, among all the players born in the 90s and 00s, only Messi and Zverev, two players born in the 90s, have won the year-end finals championship once and entered the Grand Slam finals.

Judging from the battle records, the two of them seem to be stronger than Aka and Sinner who were born in 00.

Of course, because of Chen Ran, Zverev lost a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and May lost a US Open championship.

Who of these two post-90s is stronger? There are many different opinions at present.

But overall, Mei's emotions are too unstable and he explodes at any time. On the contrary, Zverev's emotions are much more stable.

The most important thing is that Zverev in this time and space did not suffer a ruptured Achilles tendon and had to rest for a year.

In the 2022 French Open semi-finals in his previous life, he and Nadal had a tough battle, which caused a ruptured Achilles tendon, but after returning from injury, he still maintained his world-class strength.

The Zverev in this time and space is even more powerful, with a height of 1 meters, excellent mobility, and comprehensive skills.

In terms of strength, he can compete with Sinner.

On the hard court, Zverev saw Aka beat him again and again, but on clay and grass, he was slightly at a disadvantage.

This time, Alcaraz, the new generation superstar who was given high hopes, was once again abused by Zverev.

3 is better than 0!

They were beaten all over the place and then stopped in the quarter-finals.

Chen Ran will once again meet Zverev in the semifinals, while the other semifinal will be between Djokovic and Sinner.

In the quarter-finals, Sinner achieved a new achievement.

He is the first player after the "Big Four" to come back from a 2-3 deficit against Messi in a Grand Slam match.

In the blink of an eye, Mr. Mei, who is hailed as a super star, is already 28 years old and is almost 30 years old.

"The giants are still going strong, but is President Mei going to become the old wave that will be beaten to death on the beach by the post-00s generation?"

In the past year, May's performance has been getting worse and worse, and the Grand Slam championship seems to be getting further and further away from him.

However, his temper is getting worse and worse, and I don’t know how many rackets he has broken. This is a tribute to his predecessor Safin.

"Everything in the world is unpredictable!"

After seeing the top four lineup, Chen Ran also sighed.

Because for him, starting from 2024, his memory is completely blank and unpredictable.

As a reborn being, he also lost any advantage of foresight.

In his subconscious, as the giant players get older, it should be a natural thing for Mei, once known as the "No. 90 player born in the s", to reap the honors.

But the actual situation was somewhat beyond Chen Ran's expectations.

The dignified "Mr. Mei" is about to become Sinner's butler.

In the semi-finals, Chen Ran and Zverev played very fiercely.

But he played steadily and kept his unforced errors to a very low number, preventing Zverev from finding many opportunities.

How stable is Chen Ran?

Unless Zverev can hit a beautiful winning point, it will be difficult for him to get points from Chen Ran.

Time and time again, Chen Ran used his impenetrable defense to make Zverev return empty-handed.

Zverev also has his own advantages, such as his fast movement ability and 1 meters tall. With his arm length, once he reaches the net, it is very easy to intercept the ball at the net. After Zverev chose to go to the net, Chen Ran's several through balls were intercepted by the opponent.

Fortunately, he quickly changed his response tactics and decisively adopted the method of lobbing the ball.

Every lob chooses a wide diagonal route, and they are all high and far, almost pressing the baseline.

Unparalleled delicate feel!
This kind of high diagonal lob is the most troublesome for net players.

When they move backwards, they are very passive.

Because running diagonally is much more difficult than running in a straight line, handling high balls is much more difficult.

What's more, at such a critical moment, many players' lobs are either too short and are directly killed by a high-pressure ball, or they fail to control the strength and the ball goes directly out of bounds.

It's so rare to find someone like Chen Ran who handles the ball with ease and just the right amount.

Soon, Zverev was forced by Chen Ran to the point that he no longer dared to go to the net easily.

Throughout the game, Chen Ran always took the initiative.

After trying every possible means, Zverev could only accept defeat reluctantly.

3 is better than 1!

The Germans' performance was actually quite good as they were able to get a plate from Chen Ran.

"My opponent in the final should be Novak, right?" Chen Ran thought after the semi-final.

Djokovic lost to Sinner consecutively at the end of the year and in the Fed Cup.

This is a Grand Slam tournament, Djokovic shouldn't make the same mistake again, right?
Even though this guy is almost 37 years old, he is rarely at a disadvantage in five-set battles at Grand Slams. He was only defeated once by Aka at last year's Wimbledon.

However, the progress of the game was beyond Chen Ran's expectations.

At the beginning, Sinner was in high spirits, breaking and holding the opponent's serve, winning two sets in a strong manner.

But Djokovic is worthy of being the player second only to Chen Ran in history. After all, his number of Grand Slams has reached second in history.

In desperation, Djokovic won two sets in a row to tie the score, and the game entered a five-set battle.

Normally, Djokovic has a high winning rate in five-set matches, second only to Chen Ran.

But this time, things changed.

The outside world thought that Sinner would suffer a crushing defeat in the deciding set.

As a result, this guy was in high spirits and in excellent condition, still able to run all over the field tirelessly.

You know, the intensity of the first four sets of this semi-final is much higher than that of ordinary Grand Slam tournaments.

Chen Ran was also confused. Sinner had made such great progress in just half a year.

This guy just made it into the TOP10 at the beginning of last year, and suddenly entered the TOP5 at the end of last year. The key is that this guy solved his physical problems.

With comprehensive skills, Sinner only needs to solve the physical problem to naturally advance to the ranks of top players.

But isn’t this speed of physical fitness improvement too terrifying?
Before, this guy would be out of breath after playing three sets of games, but now he can play five sets of Grand Slam games with great speed and stability.

The most important thing is that this guy is not as reckless as Aka. Although the latter is full of talent and his playing is very entertaining, once he starts to recklessly play, he is often upset by players ranked outside the top 50.

In the fifth set, Sinner played very strong attacking tennis, sharply tearing through Djokovic's defense.

3 is better than 2!

He reached the Grand Slam final for the first time in his career.

……

PS: Originally, it was planned that in 2024, the protagonist would have a harder time in the Grand Slam, but now thinking about the likes of Yao Jiaxin, it is still necessary to suppress it. If Yao Jiaxin wants to rise, he still has to wait until the protagonist retires!
(End of this chapter)