Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 106 Gu Shenjun Arrives at the Scandinavian Stadium in Sweden

"ou!"

"What's wrong, Payne?"

Payne grinned broadly: "Carlo, you're incredibly lucky. CHENG is in the upper half of the draw, and you're in the lower half. That means if everything goes smoothly, you should face CHENG in the final."

"Is that so?"

"That would be great!"

Carlo shook off the gloom that had been plastered on his face these past few days, his smile practically shoving at Payne: "If I meet him in the finals, I can at least get a runner-up title, which would give me 50 points."

"However, your opponent in the first round seems to be CHENG's doubles teammate, YU."

"YU?"

"It's him?"

"Correct!"

Caro looked relaxed: "Paine, I've watched Yu's matches. Apart from his net play, his overall skill is quite average. My baseline game is better than his, so it won't be easy for him to come to the net. I'm confident I can win the match by a large margin."

"Uh~"

"what happened?"

"you do not believe me?"

Payne's reaction displeased Caro: "You've seen Yu's matches. In his doubles, apart from serving, it was all Cheng doing all the work. He was also eliminated early in the singles competition. His strength is obvious, while I..."

"As you know, if I hadn't met CHENG in the first round, the Junior Zagreb Cup singles title would definitely have been mine, Carlo, and we might even have won the doubles title."

"I have seen it, but..."

Payne thought of the match he had seen at the street court that day. Yu Haoyang and Gu Cheng seemed to be evenly matched. With such strength, could Carlo really win so easily?
Or did CHENG throw the game that day?

Thinking about how Yu Haoyang was eliminated early in the Junior Zagreb Cup, Payne suddenly felt that Yu Haoyang might be just as Carlo had said, and wouldn't pose much of a threat to Carlo.

"There are no buts, Payne, my friend, you have to believe me."

"As long as I don't run into CHENG beforehand, I can beat anyone."

Payne nodded: "Carol, I believe you, but..."

“How come there’s still one but…” Carlo said helplessly.

Although Caro might not like hearing this, Pine said it anyway: "This is Sweden, and the participants are all Swedish teenagers. They have tennis legends like Federer and a deep tennis culture. Don't underestimate them."

At this point, Carlo's expression became much more serious: "Indeed, you're right, this is Sweden, but please rest assured, I will be careful."

"By the way, what about doubles?"

When it came to doubles, Payne's expression darkened considerably: "We've had some bad luck in doubles; we might run into CHENG in the semifinals."

"The semi-finals?"

"The semifinals are alright, at least our points will increase. We'll try to break into the top 200 before mid-January so we can participate in the qualifying rounds for the Australian Open Junior Championships."

"Hopefully."

Compared to the slightly optimistic Carlo, Payne was quite worried.

He also wants to participate in the junior Australian Open, but all of this depends on things going smoothly. If things don't go smoothly, he won't be able to participate in the junior Australian Open.

"It will go smoothly." Looking at Carlo's smiling face, Payne seemed to be infected by his joy and felt a slight sense of relief.

……

As we approach the end of December, the SALK OPEN Junior Tournament will be held today.

Compared to the Croatian Junior Zagreb Cup, the SALK OPEN Junior Tournament is much more popular, especially after the ITF website released the player information for the draw, and Gu Cheng's name appeared in it, which immediately boosted its popularity.

Of course, compared to ATP events, ITF junior events still receive much less attention.

but it does not matter.

The relatively low global popularity of the SALK OPEN youth tournament does not diminish its immense popularity in China.

It's been almost a month since I've seen my dear Gu Shen, brothers, what do you think of the first round of the competition?

A day apart feels like three autumns, and a month without seeing Gu Shen is almost too much for me.

[Brothers, does anyone understand?! I'm practically addicted to Gu Shen! Seriously, can't the ITF junior tournaments be scheduled a little more tightly? What's with this half-month gap? The sooner they start and finish, the better, so Gu Shen can compete in the four junior Grand Slams!]

[Is Gu Shen able to make it to the Australian Open Junior Championships at the end of January next year? Isn't that a bit too late? I think you need to be in the top 200 to qualify.]

[There's still time! If Gu Shen wins both the singles and doubles titles at the SALK OPEN Junior Tournament, his ITF Junior Circuit points will be close to 200. Ranking in the top 500 will definitely be no problem. Once in the top 500, he can participate in the Level 1 tournament. Winning two titles in Level 1 tournaments gives a lot of points; winning the title alone will give him at least 400+ points. Adding the doubles title, he'll have at least 900 points. Forget the top 200, he's almost at the top 50 level.]

[Holy crap! Three matches and they've broken into the top 50 in the world junior rankings?! That's insane!]

[I've seen many young professional players who have been playing for years still hovering around the top 500, Gu Shen's rise is just too fast!]

If you win every race, you'll be fast too.

The difference between winning the championship and being eliminated in one or two rounds is beyond your imagination. Who are those people? Can they compare to our Gu Shen? One is a god, the other is a human. Don't compare a human to a god.

In short, awesome!

Is there a broadcast? It seems like CCTV doesn't even know about the youth tournament; just reading the text updates is so frustrating! I just want to see Gu Zhen use his Prince of Tennis skills to crush the weaker opponents. Watching the other players' matches is so boring; they play until they're exhausted and don't even get two points.

Go to Pig Brother's live stream; he'll definitely find the stream source whenever Gu Shen has a match.

Will Gu Shen use any new techniques in today's match?

[They should know how to use the existing skills, otherwise what's the point of learning them? But whether they'll be able to use new skills is another matter.]

……

Gu Cheng's opponent in the first round was Jonas, a 17-year-old boy from Sweden.

"Jonas, you must remember that your advantage is strength, unparalleled strength. Use your advantage to strike your opponents. No one is stronger than you."

"Use your overwhelming power to strike your opponent; that's the key to winning the game."

Jonas's tactical coach, Nabil, was making the best tactical arrangements before the game, while Jonas seemed a bit distracted, his gaze constantly wandering.

Nabil, with his keen eyesight, immediately noticed this and his expression turned serious: "Jonas, what are you doing? Do you think I'm wrong?"

“Oh? I’m sorry, Mr. Nabil, it was my fault. I was a little distracted just now. You’re absolutely right.”

Jonas realized what was happening and quickly apologized, "I will definitely follow your tactics, I promise."

"That's not the point."

Nabil knew, of course, that Jonas would play the game according to his tactics. He walked up to Jonas, pulled up a photo on his phone, and said, "If it were anyone else, you wouldn't need to do anything else. Just follow my tactics, and winning the game wouldn't be a problem."

"but……"

"Jonas, you're in a bad situation. Your opponent is the Chinese player CHENG, who is known as the 'cheating mastermind' on the court. His flexible and unpredictable playing style and those amazing skills are a huge threat to you."

"With your abilities, it's almost impossible for you to beat him."

Jonas looked up seriously for the first time: "Mr. Nabil, what should I do?"

Nabil took a breath: "A provocation."

Jonas looked puzzled, clearly not understanding what Nabil meant.

Nabil explained, "If you want to beat CHENG, you have to make him compete with you in strength, give up those skills, and have a man-to-man duel. As long as you can make him compete with you in strength, you've already won half the battle. As for the other half, it depends on how young CHENG is and whether he'll fight you to the end."

"If he chooses to give up on competing with you in strength halfway through, the outcome of the match will still not change."

"But it's not absolute."

“Your serve and return are very powerful. Even if Cheng’s technique is very good, it will still put a lot of strain on his arm after playing for a while. Maybe it will be too late when he decides to give up on competing with you in power.” Nabil squinted his eyes: “But all of this is based on the premise that you make him compete with you in power in the first set. Otherwise, it’s useless to say anything more.”

"So, Jonas, have you remembered everything I said?"

“I understand, Mr. Nabil.”

"very good!"

"Take your racket and go, let CHENG see the power of Jonas."

"I will."

……

Zhu Wen's live stream.

"Brothers, welcome to Zhu Wen's live stream."

"How long has it been? It's been almost half a month since we've seen Gu Shen play. Aren't you guys itching to see him play?"

"To be honest, I'm really excited right now. From today onwards, I'll be able to watch Gu Shen's matches almost every day."

"According to rumors, Gu Shen has also registered for an ITF Junior Level 1 tournament to be held in Sweden in early January, which means that Gu Shen may soon be stepping onto the stage of the Australian Open Junior Championships."

Zhu Wen first boasted about Gu Cheng in the live broadcast room for a while, and then started operating the equipment. Soon, the live broadcast of the SALK OPEN Youth Competition appeared.

"Sweden's tennis culture is no joke. Even for junior tournaments, the broadcasting equipment is quite good, much better than the junior Zagreb Cup. However, it's still far inferior to ATP tournaments. Guys, just bear with it; it's better than watching text-based live streams."

After saying that, Zhu Wen started fiddling with the equipment in the live streaming room again.

During this period, although he broadcast other tennis matches every day, not many people watched them, far fewer than when he broadcast Gu Cheng's matches.

But today is different. Just a few minutes after the broadcast started, tens of thousands of people flooded into the live stream room, more than in the past few days combined.

Gu Cheng is his secret to live streaming.

He was even considering going abroad and flying around with Gu Cheng.

Despite considering the travel expenses, Zhu Wen decided against it, realizing that following someone was definitely unrealistic until he had a net worth of millions.

However, considering that Gu Cheng will soon be playing in the Australian Open Junior Championships, there is a high probability that CCTV will broadcast it live. Compared to CCTV, his small live broadcast room is completely insignificant.

However, there are definitely a group of die-hard fans, but not many.

These two tournaments before the start of the junior Australian Open should be his last chance.

At that point, he'll have to change.

"Gu Shen's first round of the SAKL OPEN Junior Tournament is about to begin. As usual, let's first introduce Gu Shen's opponent in the first round."

"Jonas, the powerful player from Sweden, I've watched a few of his matches. He's a typical power player, and he wins every match by wearing down his opponents with his big, heavy serves and shots."

"His serve might cause Gu Shen a little trouble, but Gu Shen will definitely win the match."

"The biggest problem is whether we can continue to shut out our opponents."

"This is what I care about most, and of course, it's also the key to whether the brothers can wash their feet."

Zhu Wen chuckled and made a joke.

The more matches Gu Cheng plays, the lower the odds offered by the bookmakers become. If he wants to make some money, he either has to bet heavily or use his Happy Beans to bet on the scores of smaller matches, or even the points lost. Otherwise, even with heavy betting, he won't make much money.

We also have to worry about whether we'll lose.

Of course, given Gu Cheng's current performance, the possibility of him losing the ITF Junior Tournament is zero.

But it’s not like nothing.

This is something that Happy Bean players have to consider.

At this moment, the on-site director was quite sensible and immediately focused the camera on Gu Cheng. Gu Cheng had already entered the scene, and his mouth was constantly moving, as if he was chewing something.

The referee spoke with Gu Cheng for a while, and only returned to his post after Jonas stepped onto the court.

That's the downside of being famous; you get fans everywhere you go.

Even the referees are.

It's only because he's very strong that he won't lose the game; otherwise, people might accuse the referee of bias.

upset.

After Jonas entered the court, the referee glanced at the time and signaled for the two players to come forward and decide who would serve.

"Character."

“I’ll pay,” Jonas quickly replied.

The referee opened his palm, revealing the suit of the coin: "It's a suit, Jonas gets the first serve, CHENG, you can choose half of the court."

"This is it."

The SAKL OPEN Junior Tournament will still be played on indoor hard courts, so switching sides will have no impact.

After the two decided on the right to serve and choose sides, Gu Cheng turned around to return to the baseline, but heard Jonas's deep, husky voice, which didn't sound like a teenager, say from behind: "CHENG".

Gu Cheng turned around.

“My tactical coach told me that if I don’t provoke you into a strength contest with me, I can’t possibly beat you.”

"so……"

Jonas revealed an extremely sincere expression: "CHENG, can you compete with me in strength? Let's have a duel between men."

Gu Cheng was taken aback. Wasn't that a bit too direct?
He glanced at the middle-aged man on the sidelines; that must be the tactical coach Jonas had mentioned.
This guy probably didn't expect that Jonas would be so naive as to repeat what he said verbatim to Gu Cheng.

Otherwise, he'd probably be furious!

Before Gu Cheng could respond, the referee spoke first: "Contestant CHENG need not pay attention."

But Gu Cheng did not refuse; instead, he readily agreed to Jonas's request: "Okay."

"Really?"

"Thank you, CHENG."

Gu Cheng smiled slightly, watched Jonas walk to the finish line, and then turned around.

A power-type athlete?
Considering Jonas's large size and muscular build, this possibility is extremely high.

If it were a real contest of strength, he would definitely be no match for Jonas, that big guy.

But... if you rely on your ball skills to compensate, you could probably make Jonas cry!
It's truly heartbreaking to make such an innocent child cry.

One more thing, in this match, he needs to reveal at least two more of his skills.

He was really afraid of revealing too much and being pulled aside for questioning.

The key issue is that he couldn't explain it clearly either.

You can't exactly say he's returned from the world of Prince of Tennis!
Even if he said it, no one would believe him!

Li Yang and the others hadn't believed it before.

Frustrated, Gu Cheng walked to the baseline and glanced at Jonas, who was about to serve: "Wait!"

After saying that, he quickly took off the weighted wristband.

He's not a power player; those two ball skills already put a lot of strain on his arms, and if he were to wear a weighted wristband, his hands might even be ruined.

(End of this chapter)