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

Chapter 57 Win-Win and Derby

Reaching the semi-finals and making a small profit from Boss Ma was a double blessing for Meng Hao.

With this legally obtained 150 million yuan, he wondered if he could hire a physical therapist to massage him and relieve his fatigue.

However, this matter needs to be considered carefully.

"Zhang Ze's ranking is 192nd, which is right in the top 200, meeting the system's requirements!" Meng Hao muttered to himself.

To experience the second "Alcalas' 2024 Indian Wells Tour", you must defeat a TOP200 player.

In addition, the task required for "Federer's 2014 Shanghai Masters Tournament" is to complete 100 aces.

Meng Hao has hit 20 aces in two games, and is still 80 away from his goal!
Back at the hotel, Meng Hao lay on the bed, bored out of his mind, playing with his phone.

These days, Weibo is full of news about the World Cup.

Only a handful of tennis bloggers reported that he had reached the Challenger semifinals.

The Chinese derby between Meng Hao and Zhang Ze still attracted a considerable number of fans to discuss it, even during the World Cup in Brazil.

After all, it is very rare for two Chinese players to play a derby match in the deep rounds of a competition at the Challenger level.

"Huh, what's this..." Meng Hao suddenly caught a glimpse of a trending topic on Weibo.

[Taobao is giving away a big prize! Someone correctly predicted the score of the Brazil vs. Germany match!]

This trending topic is actually ranked in the top five of the trending topics list!

Meng Hao's first reaction upon seeing this was that the trending topic must have been bought on Taobao.

Trusting his intuition, he clicked on the trending topic to find out more.

At this moment, many media professionals posted this Weibo post, and even some official media accounts did.

Everyone praised the stranger's good luck for being able to bet on such an incredible score!
For Taobao, a company with deep pockets and huge profits, it's a pleasure to see netizens win big prizes, especially when they can guess scores with such high odds. This greatly helps promote the "sports betting business."

Mr. Ma's subordinates believe that after this wave of publicity, more netizens will flock to Taobao's sports betting platform.

However, they were in such a hurry that, in order to increase the authenticity of the winning, they did not blur out the winning account.

Then, those observant netizens immediately noticed something unusual.

The winning account name is "I'm not interested in money"?
Wait, isn't that one of Jack Ma's famous quotes?
Many netizens have raised questions: "Are you sure this wasn't done by one of your own Taobao employees?"

"Yes, yes, it must be fake!"

"This is your usual advertising tactic!"

Netizens expressed their disbelief, saying they wouldn't believe it unless the winner showed up in person.

How is that possible? Taobao has always guaranteed user privacy and would never disclose the winner's specific information.

The reason they promoted this news wasn't because of the prize money—a mere 150 million yuan, a drop in the ocean! The key was that the topic of "guessing the score correctly" was more attention-grabbing and easier to attract traffic.

"Let the winner show up in person to refute the rumor? The netizen who said that must be a shill for the rival company, with ill intentions!" That's what the Taobao employee thought.

Although the internet was abuzz with this story, with some believing it to be true and others believing it to be false, the buzz came and went quickly.

Meng Hao, as the person involved, deeply practiced the principle of "knowing when to quit while you're ahead," and also changed his Taobao nickname to "Nobody knows more about football than me."

Finally, Meng Hao spent another 1000 yuan to bet on Germany vs. Argentina in the final, saying, "I'm a grateful person, so this is just a small way of repaying Mr. Ma!"

……

When Meng Hao arrived at the competition venue, he found that the two staff members from the day before looked utterly dejected and listless.

"Why do we have to contribute to Jack Ma's cause just to buy a ball? Is there any justice in this world?"

"Sigh, all my salary for this month is gone!"

"I've quit! I've really quit this time! Otherwise, I'll really have to go to the rooftop!" Meng Hao frowned upon seeing this.

Will these two guys be able to work in peace now?

One of the staff members saw Zhang Ze organizing his backpack and asked, "Brother, did you buy any World Cup tickets yesterday?"

Zhang Ze's face darkened, his expression turned gloomy, he shook his head, then took a tennis racket from his backpack and walked away without saying a word.

"I bet he definitely bet, and he lost!" the staff member said, seemingly a little happy, finally encountering someone who had the same experience.

Then, the guy walked up to Meng Hao and asked, "Brother, you bought World Cup tickets too, right?"

Meng Hao looked up at his opponent and smiled, "I won!"

"Wow, you actually won money! How much did you win?" The staff member looked surprised and envious, but didn't notice that the other person hadn't mentioned the word "money" in their words.

Meng Hao said calmly, "My teacher once taught me a principle: not gambling is winning! I've never forgotten that! That's why I won!"

As I said before, cheating isn't gambling.

The staff member suddenly realized that this was what the other person meant by "I won".

"Not gambling is winning!" he muttered to himself. "That makes sense!"

I understand now, I understand now!
"Look at him, so young yet so insightful, he's something we should all learn from!" the two staff members whispered, nodding in deep agreement.

"Not bad!" Meng Hao said with satisfaction.

He won money, and the other party also learned the life philosophy that "not gambling is winning," which is a win-win situation!

The semi-final has officially begun.

Meng Hao finally saw the CCTV reporter, Chen Yu.

A few days ago, that guy was pulled into the World Cup team to help out, but he couldn't go to Brazil, so he could only run errands at the main station.

Now, he finally has some free time and has been sent to Guangzhou by CCTV.

After all, this is an ATP Challenger Series, the highest level of tournament that Chinese male tennis players can currently participate in.

Meng Hao glanced at Zhang Ze's height of nearly 1.9 meters, a physique completely different from Wu Di's, indicating outstanding physical talent.

The current top male tennis player is also the first player in the top 200 that he has encountered.

If we look at Zhang Ze's career, there were actually some highlights, far surpassing Wu Di's.

In the 2012 China Open, Zhang Ze, then only 22 years old, defeated world number 14 French player Gasquet in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals.

As a top-tier 500 tournament, the China Open has always attracted many top players. Winning two consecutive matches to reach the quarterfinals is indeed a remarkable achievement.

At the time, many domestic fans believed that Zhang Ze had a bright future and would become the first Chinese player to enter the TOP100 and was expected to establish himself on the tour.

However, competitive sports are full of unpredictability.

Being successful at a young age does not guarantee a smooth future.

Two years have passed in a flash, and Zhang Ze's current ranking is actually lower than it was two years ago.

Standing before him was an even younger contestant, a rising star poised to challenge the established order.

Meng Hao stood by the baseline, rhythmically and slowly hitting the tennis ball.

Zhang Ze stared ahead, feeling a strong sense of unease for some reason.

"This is my strong ground, the hard court. As the number one player, I absolutely cannot lose!"

……

(End of this chapter)