Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

After Chen Ran won the game, the popularity on the Internet reached a new height.

At this moment, he was only one plate away from the gold medal.

It seemed that Chen Ran was very close.

But only he himself knows how difficult this road is.

In tennis, a one-set lead isn't really that big of an advantage.

There are many cases where the lagging side adjusted their state and won two games in a row to reverse the situation and win.

Chen Ran has extensive experience in this area and does not dare to be careless at all.

"Sometimes there is no difference between 1-0 and 0-0."

Chen Ran thought so during the break between games.

On the other side, A-Ka gradually calmed down during the break between games.

He also realized that he was the one with the upper hand.

Before the game started, the whole world was optimistic that he could win the championship.

"I shouldn't panic!" Alcaraz told himself. "For me, I've had so many comebacks from 0-1 down. This is nothing."

He knew clearly that in the first set, he was originally in the upper hand, but his opponent suddenly changed his tactics and strategy in the middle of the game, which made it difficult for him to adapt for a while, and his condition fluctuated.

"I still have a chance to turn things around!"

A-Ka clenched his fists and encouraged himself.

In past confrontations, Aka has defeated Chen Ran before.

He even beat Chen Ran in last year's China Open and Shanghai Masters, but he has never won a Grand Slam tournament.

Soon, the game came to the second set.

After regrouping, Aka returned to the fight.

On the other side, Chen Ran was jumping lightly on the spot, his face extremely solemn, without any sign of relief.

"The most dangerous moment in a tennis match is when you are leading!" He always keeps this famous saying of Rod Laver in mind.

If he couldn't win this set, then once entering the third set, the balance of victory would completely tilt towards Alcaraz.

Chen Ran was also well aware of this.

This is not to say that he had no chance in the third set, but Chen Ran did not want to put himself in such a desperate situation.

At this moment in China, with the end of the men's singles table tennis match, almost everyone's attention is focused on this game.

The popularity of the Internet is also soaring.

Even in any Douyin live broadcast room, the number of online users has exceeded one million.

Chen Ran tried his best to improve the performance from the beginning of the second set.

Because Aka was getting more and more excited in the fight.

In a match between male players of this level, once a break occurs, the game becomes very passive.

This isn't like a match between female players, where breaking serve is like a piece of cake.

Therefore, in the first few games, both sides focused on maintaining their serve.

Especially Chen Ran, his goal is very simple.

In the first few games, I didn’t think about breaking the serve, but I would try to steal the victory at the end of the set.

Men's competitions are not like women's, where they often double fault in serve and give away points.

In the first 8 games, the two sides were tied at 4-4.

Aka, who has better physical fitness, seems to have a certain advantage.

After all, he still had the energy to launch an attack in Chen Ran's first serve and try to break the serve, while the attack launched by Chen Ran in the opponent's serve was just a feint strategy to confuse his opponent.

"Chen Ran is already very tired!"

"It was a hot, scorching sun, and it was on a clay court."

"He is 38 years old after all!"

When Chen Ran was in his peak physical condition, he could have fought Nadal in five sets and won the French Open.

But in this match, Chen Ran was clearly at a disadvantage, even though he won the first set.

In competitive sports, sometimes it is not the stronger side that wins.

Then, in Chen Ran's serve, he and Aka staged a multi-round tug-of-war that lasted up to 36 shots.

There are many new fans of the Olympics, especially many fans who came from the table tennis circle next door. They are watching tennis matches for the first time in this Olympics.

From an intuitive point of view, there is not much difference between men and women in table tennis matches.

They thought tennis was similar.

But this game did overturn their cognition.

Is this what men's tennis is all about? Or is it a battle between the world's No. 1 and No. 2?

The excitement of this game was far superior to yesterday's women's final.

Especially Aka's various extreme saves and running all over the court shocked everyone.

"After Chen Ran retires, will the current men's tennis players be able to fight against this monster? It's too scary!"

"You're overthinking... After Chen Ran, the main competitors in men's tennis are those ranked between 10th and 20th. They are not qualified to be competitors of Aka."

Aka got a break point!

Chen Ran saved a break point!

Aka gets another break point!
Chen Ran saved the second break point!
The second set was so exciting and thrilling.

When Chen Ran saved his serve with a volley.

He held his knees with his hands, he was so tired.

I saw that his knees and thighs were bandaged, and it was obvious that he was fighting with injuries.

At this age, it is impossible not to have injuries.

What's more, this was the last game of his professional career, so he put aside all his worries and tried his best.

Aka also saw that Chen Ran was tired, so he waited until his fifth serve and immediately exerted his strength.

He scored 4 points with strong serve and defense.

The two sides fought to a 5-5 tie.

Chen Ran's sixth serve.

He had to keep it, and the situation was now on Aka's side.

Aka also knew that if he couldn't break the serve in this game, he would be in a passive position when entering the tiebreak.

After all, Chen Ran is very good at winning the seventh game.

boom!
Chen Ran unexpectedly served an ace, almost hitting the line.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Ran served the ball again.

Aka made a mistake in prediction, causing the return ball to go out of bounds.

At this time, he was also a little anxious.

I was originally preparing to break the serve, but in the blink of an eye I was already 2 points behind.

Chen Ran seized this opportunity and continued to improve the quality of his serve, winning two points in a row and completing a "love game".

The more critical the moment, the more stable his serve.

In the twelfth game, Chen Ran showed his experienced side.

At the beginning, he showed an unstoppable momentum, as if he wanted to "steal the chicken at the end of the plate" again and break the serve.

Moreover, Chen Ran also got the first point in the twelfth game.

But soon after, Chen Ran's condition dropped sharply, and he lost four points in a row as if he was deflated.

6 to 6, both sides entered the tiebreak!
After the seventh game began, Chen Ran moved up the schedule again.

At this time, Aka realized that Chen Ran's performance in the twelfth round was a deliberate feint.

So cunning!

A-Ka's emotions were affected once again.

In the twelfth game, I was in full swing, but it felt like I was hitting cotton with all my strength.

In the tie-break, it was Chen Ran's turn to perform at his best.

"He was prepared to play a tiebreak from the beginning instead of looking for a break point at the end of the set," Aka realized.

With Chen Ran's "receive ACE", he perfectly broke Aka's second serve.

He won the tiebreaker 7-2.

...(End of chapter)