Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 2 Youth in Full Bloom
"Holy crap! We almost lost."

Zhou Xiao gasped for breath: "Forty minutes, and we only won by two points in the end. My god, that was so close! If we had lost, wouldn't the whole class have gone crazy?"

"However, scoring over thirty points in just over ten minutes, Acheng, you're still the best!"

"How did you train so well? I've never seen you practice extra, how come your technique is so good?"

Overwhelmed with emotion, Zhou Xiao suddenly turned to his partner Li Yang, who was eating instant noodles, and asked, "Li Yang, you and A-Cheng live in the same neighborhood. Does he usually practice at home?"

Li Yang shook his head: "No, I haven't seen it."

"That's talent, there's no comparison to that."

Zhou Xiao spread her hands and looked at Gu Cheng: "Acheng, what would you like to drink? Sprite or Coke?"

Gu Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Wahaha!"

"Okay, wait a moment."

"Damn it, what about mine?" Li Yang panicked when Zhou Xiao didn't ask him.

Zhou Xiao rolled her eyes at Li Yang: "You didn't do a single thing, you just sat there eating, how can you be so shameless?"

"Damn it, my throat's practically burning from cheering you guys on!" Li Yang immediately complained. He was the loudest one cheering on the court, so he deserved some credit for his hard work!
Zhou Xiao thought he must have heard Li Yang shouting encouragement, so he agreed to bring him a Coke, and that's how the guy stopped bothering him.

A short while later, Zhou Xiao returned with the things, and the three of them walked back to the classroom side by side.

By this time, the classroom was already quite full.

In the corner, a few boys were gathered together, discussing something that seemed to be related to ball sports.

"The NBA these days is really boring."

"The meaning is still there, but once Yao Ming retires, the NBA no longer has any of his own people, so it's naturally not as interesting to watch."

"We're good at small ball sports, but we're basically bad at big ball sports. Basketball is alright, but football is the worst problem area. It's just unwatchable. The more we play, the worse it gets. And the players are bad, yet they still refuse to accept it."

"I thought the 1-0 win against Brazil was just the beginning, but it turned out to be the peak."

"Isn't tennis considered a big ball sport?"

"Let's not even talk about tennis. After Li Na announced her retirement some time ago, there's been a lack of successors."

"I won't talk about the men, the highest world ranking is only around 100, but aren't Sister Peng and Sister Zheng human? They've both won the Wimbledon women's doubles title."

"They're getting old, just like Sister Na! Especially Sister Zheng, who's in her thirties and her competitive form isn't what it used to be. I think she'll have to retire in a year or two. Sister Peng is probably about the same. With tennis, except for a few people, once you're over 30, your physical functions will decline significantly, and no matter how good your technique is, it's hard to make up for the impact of this decline."

"Once these two retire, who will be able to take their place?"

Upon hearing this, the students who had previously argued back were immediately rendered speechless.

"Forget about football, basketball, and tennis, we can't beat anyone at table tennis anyway," Li Yang said with a smile as he joined the fray.

"Li Yang, you're just spouting nonsense."

The boy who had spoken rolled his eyes and turned to another boy sitting in the seat: "Xin Jie, didn't you say you were going to participate in a tennis tournament? How about it?"

When tennis was mentioned, Yu Xinjie gave a wry smile: "Don't even mention it. The opponents were too strong. I was eliminated in the qualifiers. Otherwise, I wouldn't have time to chat with you guys here. I would have been showing off on TV with my racket by now."

"They were eliminated in the internal qualifiers?"

"if not?"

"Weak chicken!"

"You weakling, my ass!"

Yu Xinjie said irritably, "You don't know anything. The guy I played against has been playing tennis since he was a kid. He's aiming to become a professional. I only started playing in the second year of junior high. It's already a good thing if I can get a few points from him. If it were you, you wouldn't even be able to serve properly."

The other side was somewhat skeptical, thinking that serving a ball was no difficult task.

"Pro player?"

"No, that's not it. I'm just planning to pursue a professional career in it. Whether it will work out is hard to say, but I think it's unlikely. That guy isn't young anymore."

Are there age restrictions for going professional?

"That's not true."

Yu Xinjie shook his head: "But generally, if you really want to go professional, it's basically decided by the age of ten. Some might be as young as seven or eight, but by the time they're thirteen or fourteen, most are already accumulating points in the ITF to try and get into the ATP. That guy is still playing in China, and his path to becoming a professional player is pretty much over." "Unless he performs exceptionally well and can get a wildcard entry in the future, but that requires extremely strong skills."

"You love tennis so much, why didn't you pursue it professionally? I heard that you can make a lot of money playing tennis well."

"I'm too big!"

"Only fifteen years old? What a load of crap!"

Yu Xinjie was too lazy to explain.

Explaining it to someone who doesn't understand is useless.

Gu Cheng sat quietly to the side, listening without comment.

Indeed, tennis can be profitable, but it can also be incredibly expensive. It's certainly entertaining, but the barrier to entry is also incredibly high.

Playing it for fun and exercise is fine, but if you plan to become a professional player, it's considered an aristocratic sport.

The cost of a racket isn't very high; you can usually make do with a slightly cheaper racket. But the cost of a court and a coach is astronomical.

The training fee of several hundred yuan per hour is enough to deter most enthusiasts.

Besides these, there are also travel expenses and the cost of studying abroad, which can easily amount to over a million a year, or even several million.

Even if you stay in China, just food, accommodation, and transportation alone will cost you tens of thousands of yuan. If your grades aren't outstanding, that money will basically be wasted.

Moreover, even if you have talent, you have to consider the support of your whole family. It's a marathon for the whole family. Your parents have to quit their jobs to train with you, and even travel all over the world year-round. It's a bottomless pit.

Even if they manage to break into the world's top 100, to put it bluntly, the prize money they earn from the competition might not even cover the team's expenses.

Of course, you can find a spokesperson.

That's a good idea.

To recoup your investment through endorsements, you need to be a top-tier professional player. Brands probably won't even bother with an average professional player.

Many people only see the glory of the champion, but ignore the most important thing: professional tennis is essentially a high-risk, high-investment gamble.

To pursue a professional career, passion alone is not enough; you also need sufficient financial resources.

Training a top-tier professional tennis player requires a net worth of tens of millions of dollars to cover all the expenses from basic training to international competitions.

It's cruel, but that's reality.

Gu Cheng didn't join in their conversation, but he was still somewhat surprised that they were discussing tennis.

During their school days, the topic boys talked about the most was probably basketball. Aside from the connection with Yao Ming, basketball was more down-to-earth and convenient for most students.

Although many people enjoy football, finding enough players is a major challenge. Also, most schools only have one football field, and football matches take a relatively long time. Basketball, on the other hand, is different; you can play a couple of games during breaks.

As for tennis, the school doesn't even have tennis courts, so playing tennis there is absurd.

When I was a child, I would specifically learn about tennis, which was largely related to the anime "The Prince of Tennis".

What sports do you like?

"tennis!"

"Could it be because he watched The Prince of Tennis??"

Anyone who's watched The Prince of Tennis dreams of having a club at their future school, especially a tennis club. Of course, that's just a dream.

Children are probably like this when they are young. They see something in anime and believe it unconditionally, and believe that their lives are just like in the anime. This is probably the legendary innocence that belongs only to children.

It can be said that the anime "The Prince of Tennis" was the starting point for many students' introduction to tennis.

Ryoma Echizen embodies the youth, hard work, and dreams of countless people.

For Gu Cheng, The Prince of Tennis was not just a dream, but a reality that had come true. However, if he were to tell his story, probably no one would believe it.

However, Gu Cheng wondered, since he was able to perform those amazing tennis skills in the world of The Prince of Tennis, what would happen when he returned to the real world?

Is it alright?

After thinking about it, Gu Cheng didn't know if it would work, but he didn't plan to try. Whether it would work or not didn't matter anymore. He didn't plan to touch tennis again in his life. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy his youth while he was young?
(End of this chapter)