Chapter 552: 552
Wiggins was the best tennis coach in the U . S . He used to coach many players that went on to play in the grand slam . Of course, his fee was the highest . $20,000 for one week . For tennis coaching, this was ridiculously high .
The reason Wiggins dared to charge so much for his services was that his training was worth that price, especially for young players who needed to work on their technique . With guidance from Wiggins, these players improved by leaps and bounds .
Zhen Chen was exactly the kind of young player whose technique needed work . It was fair to say that his weaknesses were abundant; that is how Wiggins saw him . The current Zhen Chen was too weak . He was filled with mistakes and shortcomings .
Zhen Chen was, after all, a player who grew up in China . The training standard and the overall tennis environment in China was far from those in the Western countries . So, compared to Western athletes, he had lots of room for improvement .
The more weaknesses an athlete had, the more areas he could improve on . This meant that his area for improvement was large . For athletes like that, every weakness remedied was a big step towards getting better .
Zhen Chen was just like that . Based on his B+ talent potential grading, although it was impossible for him to win the grand slam, it was still possible for him to make it into the main tournament . That meant that he could make it into the top 100 in the world rankings . However, he only made it to the top 200 . The reason was that, in China, his training was so bad that a lot of his weaknesses were never improved upon .
After arriving in Coach Wiggins' training camp, Zhen Chen's main goal was to be transformed by Coach Wiggins . He tried to change and remedy the various mistakes in his technique .
Zhen Chen had never received the guidance of a world-class tennis coach like that before . To Zhen Chen, an opportunity like this was incredibly valuable . Every sentence, every word Coach Wiggins told him, was as holy as the Bible . Zhen Chen executed Wiggins' suggestions without deviation, he did not dare to be sloppy .
Coach Wiggins also lived up to his name . Under him, Zhen Chen improved each day . Although the entire length of the training was a mere five days, under Coach Wiggins' direct one-on-one guidance, Zhen Chen improved significantly . He grew a great deal .
Although Zhen Chen wasn't the best, he wasn't the worst either . After receiving the best training around, he had been reinvigorated .
It was as if he had was a piece of jade processed by a master carver . A mineral of the highest quality would be ridiculously expensive without any sort of processing . However, after going through the hands of a master jade carver, its price would skyrocket . It might even be regarded as a priceless treasure .
If it were a less valuable type of jade rock, its quality would be less than a high-quality one . However, if the one responsible for processing that lesser jade were a master jade carver, then, after processing, the value of the lesser jade would still significantly increase . Although it was far from comparable to the higher-quality jade, it was still a very highly valued item .
Zhen Chen did not have an S grade talent, he didn't even reach an A grade . His B+ talent could be regarded as lesser quality jade, but Coach Wiggins was clearly a top-class "Jade carver . " After his processing, even if he were a lesser jade, he could still be sold for a decent price .
. . .
Among the four grand slam tournaments held every year, the first was the Australian Open . It was usually organized in the last two weeks of January every year, in Melbourne, Australia .
The second was the French Open . It was usually organized annually in either May or June . The third was the Wimbledon Open . It was the tournament with the longest history, and was usually held in the month of June or July . The last tournament was the U . S . Open, which was usually held in August or September .
It was an Olympic year . So, all international competitions took a step back for the Olympics . The dates of the French and Wimbledon Opens were moved forward, while the U . S . Open was slightly postponed .
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Before the U . S . Open, the qualifier and wildcard tournaments began . The participants in the qualifier were based on the world rankings, and the wild card tournament consisted mainly of American players . It was the U . S . Open, so they had to take better care of the American players .
The qualifier was a single-round elimination tournament, which meant that, as long as one could win three rounds, one would most certainly advance to the main tournament . Losing once meant elimination . For every player taking part in the qualifier, every match was a death match .
Zhen Chen's ranking was around 200 . Among the 128 participants of the qualifier, he was among the middle-lower rankings . The opponent of his first match was most certainly someone with a higher ranking .
Zhen Chen was very nervous, as this was his first time in the qualifier of a grand slam tournament . He performed terribly in the first round, and Zhen Chen's opponent was clearly not participating in the qualifier for the first time . His head was in the game right away, so he easily beat Zhen Chen with the score of six - two .
In the men's single of the grand slam, the main tournament utilized a system of three victories in five rounds . The qualifiers and the wildcard tournaments both used only a two-out-of-three rounds victory system . This meant that after losing the first round, the opponent could win with the next round .
Zhen Chen was forced into a corner . After losing a round, he finally used all of his potential and won the round, with the final score being seven to five .
That round gave Zhen Chen confidence . In the third round of the match, Zhen Chen had clearly become used to the match . He was no longer nervous and he showcased his true abilities, beating his opponent with a score of six to four .
The final score was two to one, with Zhen Chen advancing to the second round .
. . .
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In the second round of the qualifier, Zhen Chen's opponent was a Frenchmen . He was also ranked above Zhen Chen .
However, Zhen Chen won easier this round easier than the first round . Two rounds with the score of 6 to 4 meant an overall score of two to zero .
Clearly, the French player was not good at playing on a hard court, which Zhen Chen was very adept at .
Among the four major tennis tournaments, the Wimbledon Open used a grass court, the French Open used a clay court, and the Australian and U . S . Opens used a hard court . The difference between the U . S . and the Australian Open was that the Australian Open used rubber, so the ball bounced slower . In the U . S . Open, they used cement floors with a special material on top of it, it was regarded as a fast hard court .
The tennis courts in China were basically all rubber courts . There were no grass or clay courts . However, the rubber courts in China mainly used acrylic materials of normal quality . Courts conscientiously constructed would have two layers of coarse rubber under a layer of fine-grained rubber . For courts that were hastily constructed, the surface hardness was pretty much the same as a cement floor .
Most tennis players in China, therefore, were more used to playing on hard courts . They could easily adapt to the Australian and U . S . Open . It was the French Open, because of the clay court, which was the most difficult .
. . .
It was the third round of the qualifier . Zhen Chen's opponent's world ranking was 119 . For him, it was an extreme challenge .
Zhen Chen's opponent clearly did not take him seriously . Just a few months ago, in the Wimbledon Open, Zhen Chen wasn't even eligible to participate in the qualifier for the grand slam tournaments . For his opponent, Zhen Chen was only a passerby .
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The 119-ranked player clearly did not realize that his real opponent was himself . His overconfidence was his biggest enemy!
Although Zhen Chen's world ranking only just passed the 200 mark, he had transformed himself . He wasn't that much weaker than his opponent . "119" underestimated his opponent too much . As a result, he suffered defeat at the hands of Zhen Chen in the first round .
After losing the first round, his opponent was mentally imbalanced . He was anxious to try and take back a round but, in the end, it resulted in more unforced errors . Zhen Chen capitalized on these errors and scored points consecutively .
Zhen Chen, who was in the lead, gained momentum as he played . On the contrary, his opponent became more anxious by the second . In the end, the result was completely one-sided .
Another two to zero . Zhen Chen won the third round of the qualifier and obtained a spot in the main tournament of the U . S . Open!
Beside the court, Dai Li let out a sigh and said, "I did not waste that 20,000 dollars!"
After that, Dai Li looked towards the court . He saw Jianguo Chen .
The current Jianguo Chen was laughing and crying at the same time…
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