Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 730 If Lao is not reborn, can she still win the championship?

Since the 2008 Yanjing Olympics, Chinese tennis has once again ushered in a golden age.

The male and female singles players once again entered the final together, and Chen Ran was a participant in it all.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Chen Ran won the gold medal, while Zheng Jie won the bronze medal; at the 2008 Yanjing Olympics, Chen Ran won the gold medal, while Li Na also won the gold medal.

Sixteen years later, Chen Ran has experienced the ups and downs of generation after generation of Chinese gold medalists, including Wang Qiang's quarterfinals and Zhang Shuai's top 16. This time, he is waiting for Zheng Qinwen, another Chinese player to reach the Olympic finals.

Even though Chen Ran missed the 2016 Rio Olympics, he still made it to the finals four times out of five Olympic Games.

But this time, he was the one who was not favored. This was also the first time that Chen Ran entered the Olympic finals four times.

The talented Alcaraz from Spain has become the one that is more favored by the outside world.

Major Spanish media also expressed excitedly: Alcaraz's chance to take revenge in the French Open final has come!
A few months ago at the French Open, Chen Ran did beat Aka in the final.

However, Aka and Djokovic fought so fiercely in the semi-finals that he was not only physically exhausted but also injured.

Even so, Aka still got a set from Chen Ran in the final.

Alcaraz is now in his prime.

As the second seed, he swept all the top players along the way and encountered almost no resistance.

Compared with his predecessor Nadal, Aka, as a Spanish player, is not only born to play on clay, but also has incredible talent on grass.

More than a month ago at Wimbledon, he defeated Djokovic personally and won his first Grand Slam.

This is the first time that a player born in the 90s and 00s has won a Grand Slam.

A new era has begun.

After winning Wimbledon, the Spaniard hoped to take his career to the next level with a brilliant Olympic gold medal.

"In Los Angeles four years from now, it will be a hard court. What this world lacks the least is hard court masters. So I must seize the opportunity of this clay court Olympics!" Alcaraz knows this very well.

He has no way of retreating, and he will definitely fight hard. He will not show mercy just because this is the last battle of Chen Ran's professional career.

……

"Fortunately, I still have two days to rest." Chen Ran was also very grateful for this.

Although the Olympic tennis schedule is very tight and intense, the organizing committee still had a conscience and arranged two days of rest between the finals and semi-finals.

These days, Chen Ran has been staying in the hotel most of the time, watching game videos.

The French Open competition is actually not of much reference value. The key is still the competition in the Olympics.

"The young man is in really good shape. I didn't expect his farewell match would be so difficult." Chen Ran said with emotion.

Two years ago, Chen Ran had announced that the Paris Olympics would be his farewell battle.

He thought that his opponent might be Nadal, Djokovic, and of course there was a certain possibility that it might be Alcaraz.

But he really didn't expect that the Spaniard would grow so fast, not only reaching the finals, but also being the more favored one.

"In four Olympic finals, this one was the most stressful."

With Chen Ran's current status, he naturally hopes that he can bid farewell to his career with dignity with a victory and a gold medal.

But in front of him, there is a very powerful challenger.

This game may be more intense than the semi-finals.

……

A day later, the women's singles final began.

Chen Ran also appeared in the box with the staff of the Tennis Sports Management Center.

Experience told him that there was not much suspense in this women's singles final.

It was pure luck that Vekic made it to the final. "I wonder if my former partner Wawrinka is watching this match," Chen Ran suddenly thought.

After all, because of the big mouth of the Australian bad boy Kyrgios, the whole world knows that Wawrinka was cheated on and that bitch Vekic cheated during their relationship.

But now times have changed. Due to medication, Vikic's appearance has declined seriously, and he is like a completely different person compared to when he first debuted.

In this final, Vikic had all kinds of plans as usual, either some exaggerated emoticons or slamming the racket to mess up the rhythm.

Chen Ran opened his phone, glanced at it, and then smiled bitterly: "Can this TM explode?"

Because it was the Olympic final, the popularity was unprecedentedly high, and social media is now unprecedentedly developed.

Therefore, the scene of "Vikić throwing the racket" immediately ignited major platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Kuaishou.

In fact, it is normal to smash the racket in a tennis game, but some marketing accounts with ulterior motives are trying to lead the pace.

Especially during the Olympics, a bunch of entertainment bloggers flocked to report on the Olympics and no longer cared about the entertainment industry.

Even some fan clubs in the entertainment industry feel that the entertainment industry has too little traffic, so they rush to take advantage of the popularity of the Olympics.

This is also the reason why the online popularity of the 2024 Paris Olympics is much higher than that of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Not only is the whole nation paying attention, but those fan clubs are also adding fuel to the fire.

Therefore, the hottest topic among the discussion turned out to be "Vikić was beaten by Zheng Qinwen and broke his racket"!

"If foreign tennis fans knew this, they would be shocked. Chen Ran has dominated the professional tennis world for nearly 20 years. Don't you know that racket smashing is part of tennis culture?"

However, Chen Ran also knew that China had such a large population that no matter how strong his dominance was, he could not expect everyone to pay attention to tennis matches.

What's more, many people who set the tone are usually in the entertainment industry, and they are best at setting the tone.

"Chen Ran, you don't seem nervous. Are you thinking about tomorrow's final?" Director Bai beside him patted Chen Ran on the shoulder and said with a smile.

He only took office at the Tennis Sports Administration Center at the beginning of this year.

According to gossip, he was squeezed here by people from the neighboring basketball association.

He could no longer stay in the Basketball Association, so the leaders had to arrange for him to come to the Tennis Sports Management Center.

Compared to other associations, this position is really very leisurely, and of course the real power is also low.

Players at the national team level either work solo or have their management rights handled by provincial or municipal teams. He has no power to give orders to the players on the national team.

After all, even tennis players within the system receive subsidies from their provincial and municipal teams on the condition that they participate in the National Games, and they usually train separately.

Their funding does not come from the national team, so they are rarely subject to the constraints of the national team.

Director Bai’s only job is to organize some competitions for young people.

But he is now proud of himself. Look at Chairman Yao of the basketball team next door, he is in a state of panic.

"There is no suspense in this game. It has been one-sided from the beginning." Chen Ran said lightly.

Director Bai didn't say anything when he heard this, but just watched the game quietly.

Sure enough, Chen Ran’s judgment was correct.

This match was the easiest one for Zheng Qinwen since the round of 16.

In just over an hour, she won the match with a huge advantage of 6-2, 6-3.

Sixteen years later, Chinese women's tennis once again won the Olympic gold medal.

Everyone around Chen Ran was excited, except him, who was clapping quietly.

It was a completely unexpected gold medal!
But a thought flashed through his mind: Na Jie won the championship because of Laozi's rebirth. So does Zheng Qinwen's victory have anything to do with Laozi's rebirth?

He doesn’t understand either!
……

(End of this chapter)