Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 723 starts at the French Open and ends at the French Open!
This year's Australian Open is not only Chen Ran's eleventh title.

Previously, another Chinese player, Zheng Qinwen, who was only 21 years old, also unexpectedly made it to the final, but eventually lost to Sabalenka and won the runner-up.

Chen Ran was actually a little surprised by Zheng Qinwen's performance.

She is only 21 years old and she has reached the final of a Grand Slam.

He originally thought that it was a big breakthrough for this girl to make it to the semi-finals.

As a result, she made it to the finals.

"If it was in another time and space, could she also make it to the finals?" Chen Ran was also a little curious. After all, he didn't know what happened in 2024.

As a result, this year at the Australian Open, there were once again Chinese players in the men's and women's singles finals.

"Chen Ran has really experienced generations of golden flowers."

"He is an evergreen in the history of men's tennis!"

In the long period of time in the past, from Zheng Jie to Li Na, from Wang Qiang to today's Zheng Qinwen.

These four golden flowers have successively reached the Grand Slam singles finals with Chen Ran.

Among the golden flowers of generation after generation, only Chen Ran has always remained at the top.

On New Year's Eve, Chen Ran returned to China with Zheng Qinwen.

Two tennis players, who are sixteen years apart in age, each held a trophy and a plate.

They also attended a press conference together facing Chinese reporters.

"Chen Ran, first of all, congratulations on finally winning your 40th Grand Slam title."

“A remarkable achievement.”

"Did you know that the ATP chairman almost fainted during the final?"

Chen Ran said slowly: "I don't know much about this matter. But he seems to be Italian. Italy hasn't had an outstanding tennis player like Sinner for a long time, so this is normal."

"What I'm saying is... he shouldn't have to wait too long because my career is almost over."

The implication is that Sinner will not have a chance in the limited time he has left in his career.

Everyone laughed.

Another reporter asked: "Thanks to her runner-up title at the Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen's world ranking has risen to seventh in the world. She is also the fourth Chinese female player to break into the top ten in the world. What do you want to say?"

Chen Ran's agency signed Zheng Qinwen.

Of course, the company's shareholder structure is somewhat complicated.

There is himself, IMG, Penguin, Nike and other capitals.

More shareholders also means more business channels for the company.

"Fourth place, that's great." Chen Ran paused and said slowly, "I hope that among our male players, someone other than me can make it into the top ten."

After all, before his rebirth, only Li Na had made it into the top ten.

As for male players, as far as he can remember, only two have made it into the top 100, and no one has made it into the top 50.

But currently, excluding himself, there are two male players in the top 50 and four players in the top 100.

Due to frequent injuries, Wu Yibing has been hovering around 50, while Zhang Zhizhen is in good health and has played in many competitions. He basically relied on scoring to get into the top 30, although he only has one 250 championship.

What can Chen Ran say?

If you are in good health, you can play more games and score more points, which is also a kind of talent.

But for the top ten players to appear, while you are doing a good job in youth training, you can only wait for the emergence of geniuses, and Chen Ran has no other choice.

Look at the United States now, its training system and talent pool are much stronger than China's.

But at the end of 2023, there was not a single American player in the TOP10, and this situation continues to this day.

However, between 10th and 30th place, the number of American players is unrivaled in the world.

This is enough to prove that their talent pool is still the best.

Chen Ran also hopes that China's talent pool can keep up with the United States. As for whether top players can emerge, it really depends on luck.

"This is my last season. To be exact, my career only lasts until the Paris Olympics, but I am very pleased to see the younger generation of players growing up."

"Even if I retire, our country as a whole will still be a strong tennis country."

"So I can also say goodbye to the court with peace of mind."

He still shows a positive and optimistic attitude towards the future.

After all, tennis now creates a sports industry worth tens of billions of dollars every year in China.

"Also... I hope Zheng will have a successful season. Her world ranking has risen too fast from before the Australian Open to after the Australian Open. I hope she can stabilize her performance." Chen Ran made his own analysis. "She started better than any of the previous golden flower predecessors. She entered the top ten in the world at the age of 21."

However, Zheng Qinwen said with great confidence: "I believe seventh place is just the beginning. My goal is to enter the top five in the world this year." Chen Ran couldn't help but cover his forehead when he heard this.

Little girl, what if your big words don’t come true?

The media and the fans are really good at kicking someone when they're down.

Perhaps the ideas of these post-00s are very different from those of him, a post-80s generation, and there is a huge gap between them.

"After the Australian Open, we will not start as a group, but will act individually until the Paris Olympics, when we tennis players will gather again. I wish everyone a happy season!"

Chen Ran clapped his hands and ended the interview.

……

For Chen Ran, he cannot just play in Grand Slam tournaments. Although he personally does not care about the results in those Masters tournaments, he still regards these tournaments as warm-up training to prepare for the Grand Slam tournaments.

From his personal perspective, Grand Slam tournaments are always unique and irreplaceable.

So whether it is the French Open or Wimbledon, Chen Ran still hopes to take his last Grand Slam journey seriously.

As for his final number of Grand Slams, whether it is 41, 42, or still 40, he can accept it.

For the “Sunshine Double Tournament”, he chose the Miami Masters and eventually stopped in the quarterfinals.

Of the three major clay court Masters tournaments, Chen Ran only participated in the Madrid Masters, where he was eliminated in the round of 16.

However, Zhang Zhizhen, the Chinese player who is hailed as the best at playing on clay after Chen Ran, made a huge breakthrough in this year's Madrid Masters, making it to the semi-finals in one go, and also retained his score for the top 16 of last year's French Open in advance.

He is also the second Chinese player to reach the semi-finals of the Masters after Chen Ran.

At this point, various business appointments followed one after another.

After all, Chen Ran is about to retire, and it is now obvious to the naked eye that Zhang Zhizhen will become the number one player in China for a period of time.

Other players such as Wu Yibing and Shang Juncheng are capable and have won 250 championships, but their endurance is indeed much worse than Zhang Zhizhen.

From this we can see how rare it is for a tennis player to have the skills, body, physical fitness, height, will and psychology at the same time.

Then, Chen Ran's last French Open began.

The outside world believes that this year's French Open will be a competition between Chen Ran, Djokovic and Aka.

After all, these are the three greatest clay-court masters of our time.

As for Sinner, his clay court skills are much inferior.

Fortunately, in the semi-finals, Aka and Djokovic played very fiercely. They played five sets and fought fiercely.

In the end, Aka won hard-fought 3-2.

This game even caused the 37-year-old Djokovic's knee injury to relapse, and he limped off the court.

He even laughed at himself: It seems that I don’t have much time left.

Because Djokovic has already won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, he is not very enthusiastic about the Paris Olympics.

Chen Ran can no longer catch up with the honors he has achieved. Nadal and Federer, who are second only to him, have already retired. Should he also consider his future?

Anyway, he can neither beat Sinner nor Aka now.

"I seem to have assisted Chen Ran again!" Djokovic joked with a wry smile.

Because of this game, he beat Aka badly.

Sure enough, in the final, Aka's physical fitness was obviously greatly restricted.

Although he, like his predecessor Nadal, is very good at clay court, facing Chen Ran, the No. 1 player in history with impeccable experience and skills, Aka, who is not in his peak form, is still at a disadvantage.

Chen Ran only lost one set and eventually won the game 3-1.

Didn't give Aka any chance.

He deals with Aka the same way he dealt with Nadal back then, but Aka's current clay court strength is still much inferior to that of peak Nadal.

After winning his ninth French Open title, Chen Ran decisively announced his withdrawal from Wimbledon.

The reason is simple. It would be very difficult to adapt from red clay to grass and then back from grass to red clay.

He is older and doesn't want to increase his injury risk.

At this point, Chen Ran’s Grand Slam journey finally ended.

41!
The first Grand Slam title was the French Open, and the last Grand Slam title was also the French Open.

……

PS: Please write this chapter quickly, as the next chapter will start the Paris Olympics chapter.

(End of this chapter)