Now that I've been reborn, I have to play tennis!

Chapter 15 Crowds of people
The ability to improve one's stats is an essential core skill for professional tennis players.

The closer the game gets to the crucial moment, the more important your ability to improve becomes, and it may even become the key to determining the outcome.

A 5% upgrade capability is enough in critical moments.

In a battle between masters, the difference often lies in the slightest margin.

Meng Hao has spent a lot of money during this period, using up a large portion of his savings.

Save your New Year's money so you can use it to get married later?

No, there's absolutely no need for that. If you need to spend money, you should spend it without hesitation!
Meng Hao spent 1500 yuan to buy a Head tennis racket, and then spent more than 1000 yuan to buy a pair of ASICS tennis shoes.

Why not buy the famous Nike tennis shoes?
Actually, Nike shoes, especially tennis shoes, are not very suitable for Asian foot shapes. They feel very tight and uncomfortable to wear, unless they are specially customized.

In comparison, ASICS tennis shoes are much more comfortable to wear.

With everything prepared, Meng Hao embarked on his journey to Ningzhou City.

He didn't have to use much persuasion to convince his parents.

After all, he had already defeated everyone at Donghai No. 2 Middle School. Whether it was foreign coaches or college team players, they all became Meng Hao's defeated opponents.

"If you get a ranking, you can get extra points on your college entrance exam. If you win the championship, you can even get a guaranteed admission to a top university!"

That reason is enough!
As for how I learned tennis? I was exceptionally talented and self-taught, you know?

Haven't you seen him practicing his racket at school every day?
Compared to emerging first-tier cities like Ningzhou, Meng Hao's hometown, Donghai City, is just an ordinary, unremarkable small county town.

But he believes that an international superstar can emerge from this small county.

Meng Hao registered online in advance and then paid the registration fee of 200 yuan on site.

This price is really not low; it's not cheaper than adult competitions at all.

After all, there are no restrictions on participation; anyone born after January 1, 1996 can register, and it's open to people worldwide, so the only way to raise the bar is by charging an entry fee.

There are 64 slots available in the main tournament!
Damn, that's really complicated.

In addition to the four Grand Slam junior tournaments, which are the highest level, there are also junior tournaments such as J500, J300, J200, and J100, which are at a higher level than J60.

How many teenagers around the world are learning tennis? A vast and mighty number, like a swarm of locusts crossing a river.

Moreover, tennis is a very popular sport for both men and women, and it has the smallest income gap between male and female players among all sports.

Wow, there are so many people!

Meng Hao looked at the registration site, which was packed with people. A group of boys and girls were accompanied by their parents, and there were also quite a few foreigners.

For older participants like him, born in 1996, this is the last year they can participate in youth competitions, while younger participants include those born in 97, 98, and even 99.

Many parents have high hopes for their children, hoping they will become successful and outstanding, which is why they are willing to continuously invest a considerable amount of money to support their children's tennis learning.

If you could pull it off, the reward would be enormous, but what about the odds? They're extremely rare.

Meng Hao even went out of his way to inquire about the competition format.

Sure enough, the champion player gets a wildcard for the Hopefuls Tournament, and it's not at the ITF15 level, but at the ITF25 level.

Because at the end of this month, an ITF 25 level international tennis open will be held in Kunming, Yunnan.

This is the only clay court tennis tournament held in China to date.

Red soil!

God help me too!

Traveling to Europe to participate in lower-level clay court tournaments is too far and too costly, making it a completely unprofitable endeavor.

Now that there are clay court tournaments held on home soil, things are different; he can compete without any pressure.

Many male players in China, even those on the national team, are clay-court specialists, which greatly boosted Meng Hao's confidence.

Meng Hao weaved through the crowd; the registration site was incredibly lively.

He even discovered that many of the female players who signed up were born in the 00s, only 14 years old. It's not uncommon for female players to mature early and participate in youth competitions at this age.

Meng Hao also took the opportunity to chat with the parents of these young players.

Many of them start in their teens, accompanied by their parents to participate in competitions everywhere, while also receiving tutoring in their academic subjects.

It was very tough, but we had to grit our teeth and persevere.

Meng Hao saw a deep sense of anxiety on the faces of these parents.

But he's different; he has both strength and talent, so he's not anxious at all.

After registering, Meng Hao booked a room at a nearby hotel and then took his tennis racket to the court.

There are 16 tennis courts here, all packed with people and bustling with activity.

With his competition certificate in hand, Meng Hao successfully entered the training ground.

Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice came over, but the Chinese was broken, clearly belonging to a foreigner.

"Handsome young man, you've actually come here to participate in the competition!"

Meng Hao turned around and immediately recognized the person. Wasn't this Mina, the Norwegian foreign teacher at the school?
The female foreign coach later sought her out for practice, but he completely thrashed her, leaving her yelling and praising Meng Hao's skills as excellent, far superior to the male foreign coach.

"Yes, I signed up for the competition here. Teacher, what brings you here?"

“A friend’s son has also signed up for the competition here. They don’t understand Chinese, so I’m here to help him out.”

"Also from Norway?"

"Yes, he's one of the best young players in Norway! His name is Ruud, and he's the No. 8 seed in this tournament!"

Rude? Is this the Rude I know, the one with the foul mouth? The one hailed as the worst Grand Slam runner-up in history?
Just as Meng Hao was wondering what was going on, Mina's friend arrived with her son.

Holy crap, it really was Rude.

He looks very inexperienced, but he is definitely the real deal—this foul-mouthed guy.

This guy has a famous saying: "You media always say that the ATP or WTA shouldn't hold so many tournaments in Middle Eastern countries, saying there are all sorts of problems there. But wouldn't these tournaments be fine if they were held in China? Why don't you say that? That's such a double standard!"
When he was being relentlessly attacked by Chinese netizens, he complained that the media had misinterpreted his meaning.

Later, he suffered a shock defeat to a Chinese player at the US Open despite being the No. 5 seed, and he remained resentful about it. He even said in a very sarcastic way: "Now I get extra excited whenever I encounter a Chinese player in a Grand Slam tournament!"

"how old is he?"

"16 years old!"

Meng Hao also observed this so-called "famous general from a previous life," whose brows still held a certain arrogance.

In youth competitions, rankings are often not the deciding factor.

Ruud is the 8th seed, but he is probably in the top 4.

This youth competition is quite interesting; I wonder how many future stars it will produce?
Meng Hao didn't bother with small talk; his first impression wasn't good, and secondly, his English wasn't good either.

"Alright, I'm going to training now. I hope your friend's son doesn't run into me!" Meng Hao waved and walked away.

Rudd frowned and asked the female foreign teacher, Mina, "What is he saying?"

Mina hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth: "He said he hoped you wouldn't run into him so soon!"

What was his ranking among teenagers?

"He doesn't have a youth ranking!"

"Two years older than me?"

"Yes!"

"Arrogant! He's almost 18 and still not ranked among teenagers, what a piece of trash!" Rude said with disdain.

……

(End of this chapter)