The Prince of Tennis: The Quincy of Rikkai University.

Chapter 56 Testing
"The game begins. In the first set, Youth Academy serves."

The team that guessed correctly was Qingxue, so they served first.

The person responsible for the first serve was Eiji Kikumaru. After serving quickly, he immediately took a step forward and ran to the front court.

Facing the flying tennis ball, Marui Bunta, who was standing in the front court, did not move, but just glanced at the tennis ball.

Instead, Yanagi Renji, who was standing in the backcourt, took a few steps forward, easily caught up and hit back the serve.

The quality of this return ball was average, the speed and spin were very mediocre, not like the level that Yanagi Renji usually hits.

"Leave this ball to me."

The tennis ball fell in the midfield. Kikumaru Eiji retreated to fill the position, tilted his body to intercept the tennis ball, and threw it to the empty area in the front court.

Marui Bunta naturally would not let his opponent score like this. He moved sideways flexibly, caught the bouncing tennis ball, then adjusted the angle of the racket and hit back, hitting a backspin ball at an oblique angle.

“Oops, but I can catch up.”

When Kikumaru Eiji saw that his opponent was about to drop the ball, he immediately adjusted his center of gravity and ran straight towards the tennis ball that was about to fall to the ground.

The tennis ball hit the ground and flew sideways at a height far below normal, but was still caught up by the agile Kikumaru Eiji, who scooped it up like a goldfish.

The high ball that was hit back slowly rose into the air and fell towards Rikkai University's half of the court.

Yanagi Renji, who had been waiting in the backcourt for a while, raised his head slightly and locked onto the tennis ball in the air. When the tennis ball fell above his head, he raised his arm and swung it from top to bottom.

A precise flat shot went straight to the opponent's baseline.

Shuichiro Oishi reacted quickly, running to catch up with the tennis ball, and with a forehand drive, the tennis ball was hit back like an arrow, and it rushed straight into the opponent's half of the court again.

砰

砰

砰

……

In the stadium, the dense sound of hitting the ball was as dense as raindrops.

No one expected that after just the first round, the two sides would enter into a long tug-of-war.

0-15
15-15
30-15
30-30
As if it had been agreed in advance, the scores of both sides rose alternately, and the end time of each ball was very long.

This was something that many spectators outside the venue had not expected. They had thought that this match would be a crushing victory for the Rikkai University doubles team, or even if it was not a crushing victory, they would definitely have the upper hand.

However, as the number of rounds of fighting increased, they found that the two sides were actually evenly matched. Sometimes, Kikumaru Eiji and Oishi Shuichiro even accidentally gained the upper hand and took the initiative to control the offensive rhythm.

"Kikumaru and the others did a good job. They fought back and forth with the opponent." Fuji Shusuke in the preparation area looked at the situation on the field and praised slightly.

However, Inui Sadaharu saw all of this, but his thoughts were different from Fuji Shusuke's.

"Renji, what exactly are you planning?"

Inui Sadaharu's gaze was fixed on the direction of Yanagi Renji on the field. Looking at the other party's calm expression, he knew very well that the situation on the field was far from as simple as Fuji Shusuke said.

On the court, Yanagi Renji, who was standing in the backcourt, suddenly attacked. He seized the gap when Kikumaru Eiji's center of gravity had not yet stabilized after he jumped and landed. He held the racket with both hands and hit a backhand slice ball. The tennis ball fell over the net at a high speed and landed along the sideline.

Kikumaru Eiji had no time to defend, and although he tried hard to catch up, his outstretched racket still failed to catch up, and the tennis ball flew out of bounds the next second after it landed.

"Game, 1-0, Rikkai University is leading."

The first game ended with this ball, and the two sides shifted their offense and defense. The second game was Rikkai's generous serve.

"What a pity! We had a chance to win this game." Oishi Hideichiro said regretfully.

"Yeah, if I had reacted faster just now, I really can't say for sure." Kikumaru Eiji nodded regretfully and said, "I feel that the opponent's strength is not as strong as we imagined, Oishi." After the first game, Kikumaru Eiji's original fear had disappeared, because he found that the opponent's level did not bring him much pressure.

"Don't be too careless. They might start to exert their strength in the next round. We should be careful."

Although Oishi Shuichiro had the same feeling, he was calm and reminded Kikumaru Eiji not to be careless.

"The second game begins, Rikkai University serves." After a moment, the referee blew the whistle.

Marui Bunta had a piece of gum in his mouth without him noticing, chewing it leisurely.

He got into a serving stance, threw the tennis ball in his hand with a raised arm, and then swung the racket down heavily.

At the same time as he served the ball, Marui Bunta also took advantage of the situation and quickly went to the net.

The high-speed flying tennis ball crossed most of the court in an instant and headed straight for Qingxue's receiving area. The person standing there to be responsible for receiving the ball was Kikumaru Eiji.

Eiji Kikumaru had excellent dynamic vision and instantly captured the flight trajectory of the tennis ball. After seeing where the ball would land, he swung his racket quickly and hit the bouncing tennis ball back.

However, just as the tennis ball passed the net, right in front of it, Marui Bunta had already taken position and was ready to hit the ball.

嗖

A light yellow shadow passed through Kikumaru Eiji's body and exploded beside his backhand foot.

A sudden change of direction of the ball in front of the net hit the blind spot of Qingxue who had not yet completely landed in position.

"15 to 0"

After seeing that he had scored, Marui Bunta nodded with satisfaction, chewed the gum in his mouth twice, and blew bubbles.

Then turn around and return to the middle and back court position to prepare for the next round of serve.

"What a quick volley at the net."

The ball just now made Kikumaru Eiji and Oishi Shuichiro both shocked.

It also made them immediately return to their tense state after having relaxed a little after the previous game.

The game continued, and Rikkai University's Marui Bunta served again.

Another dull sound of hitting the ball announced the start of the game.

However, compared to the situation in the first game, starting from the second game, Marui Bunta's active offensive moves became unusually numerous.

The occasional sudden interceptions at the net doubled the defensive pressure on Kikumaru Eiji, and the frequency of using stunt tennis became more and more frequent.

Many times, in a back-and-forth ball, he would be forced to jump continuously to receive some threatening return balls.

Shuichiro Oishi was not much better. He was in the backcourt guarding against the high-speed angled balls that Renji Yanagi would occasionally shoot from his blind spot.

In the blink of an eye, after the change of rhythm, Kikumaru Eiji and Oishi Shuichiro, who were unable to adapt, lost the second game.

This time, the second game took only 3 minutes.

Taking a slight breath, Oishi Shuichiro came to Kikumaru Eiji and reminded him: "Eiji, something is wrong."

Kikumaru Eiji naturally understood what he meant. He looked at the two people from Rikkai University opposite him and found that they still had a calm look on their faces, but he already understood the current situation.

"These two guys were just testing our strength in the first round, but now they are really starting to get serious."

While Kikumaru Eiji and Oishi Shuichiro were still preparing to discuss countermeasures, the referee blew the whistle, signaling the players to change sides.

(End of this chapter)