All-round Athlete

Chapter 832 Sweeping China Open

Federer felt that he was unlucky. At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, he lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals. In the subsequent French Open, Federer entered the final for the fifth time but lost to Nadal. In Wimbledon, which he is best at Game, lost to French player Tsonga in the quarter-finals.

Since 2002, Federer has won at least one Grand Slam trophy every year. This year, Federer's state is worrying. If the next US Open also fails, it will be tantamount to creating the worst record since 2002.

Not far away, Federer's twin daughters were playing there, and Federer looked at the newspaper, but sighed helplessly.

"Roger, what's the matter? Why are you sighing?" His wife Mirka asked.

"Look at this. The IAAF has just issued the latest regulations. An athlete can only participate in three Olympic track and field competitions. This is obviously aimed at Zhang Guan." Federer said.

Mirka nodded: "I don't think the IAAF will allow Zhang Guan to dominate the track and field events. I remember that in the last Olympic Games, Zhang Guan won 10 gold medals alone! But this What does it have to do with us?"

"Of course it is related." Federer continued: "Zhang Guan can only choose three track and field events to participate in, so he can put more experience in other events, such as tennis. If Zhang Guan participates in the Olympic tennis competition, Looks like I'm never going to get a gold slam in my life!"

Federer was quite disappointed when he said this, and Mirka came over to comfort her husband. She said: "Zhang Guan has not participated in tennis matches for two or three years. Maybe he is out of shape? And he is now The ATP points should be zero, right? He still needs to pass the Olympic wild card qualifying round before he can enter the Olympic stage?"

"You reminded me." Federer took the laptop and searched for Zhang Guan's information on it.

"As expected, Zhang Guan announced that he will participate in this year's China Open." Federer pointed to a piece of news.

"China Open? That seems like an irrelevant event?" Mirka asked.

"It doesn't matter, but the champion of the China Open has 500 ATP points, which is enough for Zhang Guan to directly enter the top 100 in the world. Moreover, there should be no big-name players participating in the China Open. It may be easy for Zhang Guan to win the championship." Federer went on to say: "Maybe Zhang Guan can recover some form in the China Open, and then face the next Shanghai Rolex Masters, which is an ATP1000 event. Zhang Guan only needs to get a top four ranking. His points If you can securely rank among the top 50 in the world, you will definitely get an Olympic tennis ticket. It seems that Zhang Guan will definitely be seen in the Olympic tennis racing car."

...

The China Open women's singles competition is a WTA first-level event, with a total prize money of 1.34 million U.S. dollars, and the total prize money of the entire China Open is only 2.34 million U.S. dollars. After deducting the women's singles 1.34 million prize money, the remaining men's singles, The women's doubles and men's doubles have to share the US$1 million bonus, so the men's singles can not get much bonus.

Less prize money is certainly not enough to attract big-name men's singles players to participate. The ATP1000 Masters has a total prize money of two to three million US dollars, so big-name players don't bother to participate in the China Open. Those slightly famous players participated in the China Open, all for the 500 points. After all, the world's top players do not participate, so it is relatively easy to get the 500 points.

A total of 36 players participated in this year's China Open men's singles. The top seed is French player Tsonga. With his excellent performance at Wimbledon, Tsonga has just entered the top ten in the world. The current world ranking is No. 9. He is also the only top ten player in the world in the China Open.

China, as the host, will have three places for hosts to participate in the competition. Zhang Guan naturally took up one, and he also took care of it when grouping. The first opponent is Russian Gabashvili, who is ranked around 100 in the world. , Most of the records of participating in the four Grand Slams stopped in the first round.

Such an opponent is obviously very helpful for Zhang Guan to find the state of the game. After a few rounds of familiarization, Zhang Guan defeated Gabashvili 6-4 and 6-1 and entered the second round.

Zhang Guan's opponent in the second round is veteran Ljubicic. Ljubicic is actually only 32 years old this year, but he debuted relatively early, and he became bald early, and he looks older, so he feels like a veteran. However, Ljubicic's state is not as good as it was then, and Ljubicic in history will also announce his retirement in April next year.

Ljubicic, who will be retiring next year, is obviously more famous than his strength, and Zhang Guan gradually found the feeling of a tennis game after a game, and finally defeated Ljubicic 6-3 in two sets strange.

Zhang Guan's third opponent is the Russian player Youzhny. This is an old opponent who has fought against him. However, with the growth of his youth, Youzhny has also come to the peak. The top 15 players in the world are still seed players even in the four Grand Slams, and Youzhny is currently ranked more than 40 in the world, and he is not considered a seed player in the China Open.

The difference in strength also predestined the outcome of this game. After Zhang Guan defeated Youzhny, he finally ushered in a relatively difficult opponent Cilic.

Prior to this, all Zhang Guan met were "old, weak, sick and disabled" players, such as Ljubicic. Although he is famous, he has already passed his peak period. Naturally, this kind of people who are about to retire are not what strength. Cilic from Croatia is a rising player.

Cilic's world ranking once reached the ninth position in the world last year, and he successfully reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open. In the future, Cilic also won the championship in the 2014 US Open. Such a young and rising player is Zhang Guan's first whetstone.

Cilic participated in the Grand Slam for the first time in 2008. At that time, Zhang Guan had faded out of tennis, so there was no record of fighting between Cilic and Zhang Guan. Zhang Guan launched a strong attack.

With a height of 1.98 meters, Cilic is tall and burly. He is a typical Croatian man. There is no doubt that he is that kind of powerful player. His serve is powerful and his forehand is also full of strength. This kind of player may not be suitable for the French Open The clay court, but on the hard court, it is obviously like a fish in water.

However, Cilic picked the wrong opponent. Roddick, an American cannon at his peak, was no match for Zhang Guan. How could Cilic, who was a little weaker, be Zhang Guan's opponent.

After a round of duels, Cilic was defeated very simply. Even the audience who didn't know much about tennis could already see that Cilic's failure was due to his inferior skills.

After defeating Cilic, Zhang Guan advanced to the final of the China Open. His opponent was Berdych.

Berdych is also a player who has risen rapidly in recent years. He entered the semi-finals at the French Open last year and won the runner-up at Wimbledon. Berdych is currently ranked 11th in the world. Among the players in the China Open Only this is with Tsonga, and he also advanced to the China Open final after defeating Tsonga.

Berdych is a famous "nervous knife". At Wimbledon last year, he killed Federer and Djokovic one after another. At that time, Federer and Djokovic were in good condition, but they encountered outstanding Berdych, still suffered a failure. This kind of "nervous knife" is invincible when it is in good condition, but when it is not in good condition, it often loses to some unknown people.

Today, Berdych's state is neither good nor bad, it can only be regarded as average, but after the start of the game, his state quickly dropped from "average" to "bad". Because in the entire tennis court, almost no one cheered for him.

After all, China Open is Zhang Guan's home game, especially when it comes to the final, the home audience must support Zhang Guan overwhelmingly.

For the "nerve knife" type of players, this kind of strong away atmosphere is most likely to affect the mood and state performance.

Nervous knives are often the more courageous they fight, the more brave they fight, the more they fight, the harder they fight. Once they are deflated, they are like a balloon with a hole in it. No matter how hard you try to blow it up, it is impossible to inflate the balloon. . No one cheered for Berdych today. He couldn't be brave, and he couldn't fight, so he surrendered soon.

The final was a best-of-five series. Zhang Guan went straight sets and defeated Berdych smoothly, winning the China Open championship.

...

Sweeping China Open, Zhang Guan is back! ——"Sports Times" gave a big headline.

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