Tennis: He's so obedient!

Chapter 175 Nadal's Lifelong Rival, Stirring Up the Flames, the Match Begins! (Please Subscribe)

"Won!"

The happiest person right now is not Jiang Hong, but Director Sun of the Network Management Center.

Before the match started, leaders from the Tennis Management Center and the national team watched the match together on television.

"After this match, Jiang Hong's live ATP ranking has reached 61st!" A coach from the national team exclaimed excitedly after checking the ATP website.

"Ranked 61st in the ATP rankings, I think the Olympic singles spots are directly awarded to the top 56 players in the world, right?" Although Director Sun is not a tennis player, he has been doing a lot of intensive study on the subject since taking office.

Upon hearing Jiang Hong's ranking, they immediately reacted with remarkable acuity.

Upon hearing Director Sun's words, the leader of the Internet Association immediately nodded and said excitedly.

"That's right, the top 56 qualify directly, but with Jiang Hong's ranking, he's basically already secured a spot in next year's Beijing Olympics!"

"Hmm?" Director Sun turned his head and glanced at him.

The leaders of the Tennis Association didn't keep them in suspense and immediately explained.

"According to the rules of the International Tennis Federation, that's how it is. However, each country can only send a maximum of four players to the singles competition. So, some tennis powerhouses may have more than four players whose rankings qualify, and in that case, the final decision will be made based on their rankings!"

When the tennis singles spots for the 2008 Olympics were determined, Spain had as many as nine players who met the ranking requirements.

However, in the end, only the top three players were selected.

Upon hearing this, Director Sun sighed, "Our country's tennis is still far behind!"

The leaders of the Tennis Association did not react much to these words.

Before Jiang Hong's meteoric rise, women's tennis was basically the only dominant force in the sport.

The initial goal of the Tennis Association was to win medals in women's singles and women's doubles, and all funds and resources were allocated accordingly.

However, Jiang Hong's sudden emergence instantly boosted the popularity of tennis in China.

The tennis association leader continued to explain, "Moreover, most foreign tennis players are responsible for their own training and competition expenses, even for the Olympics. Many players even choose to forgo the Olympics!"

Director Sun had heard about this before; back when they played volleyball, the most important competition was the Olympics.

The reason is that after the Olympics, the US Open will follow immediately, and many players choose to withdraw from the tournament to avoid injury or a decline in form due to the Olympics.

After all, there is still a considerable gap between the Olympic Games and Grand Slam honors in the tennis world.

Of course, the influence of the Olympics in China is undeniable.

Upon hearing this, Director Sun's eyes lit up even more.

"So, the direct entry spot will most likely go to Jiang Hong!"

“That’s right!” The tennis association leader nodded and said with a smile, “Moreover, given Jiang Hong’s current points, even if he loses the next match, he can easily break into the top 60 by participating in just a few more matches.”

The leaders of the Tennis Association looked very excited.

Although as the host country, it already has wildcards that allow athletes to participate directly.

However, if the athletes themselves meet the entry requirements, there may be no difference for them.

However, there is a significant difference for their management department. After all, the fact that the athletes meet the standards to participate in the competition demonstrates the performance of the tennis management center!

Although Jiang Hong's achievements were not actually related to the Tennis Management Center, it was simply that a tennis prodigy like Jiang Hong suddenly emerged.

However, the above assessment criteria are all results-oriented.

"I remember that tennis ranking points are deducted every year, right?" Director Sun suddenly remembered something and asked.

“That’s right. The results achieved this week last year will be deducted this week.” The leader of the Tennis Association nodded, and then explained, “However, Jiang Hong doesn’t need to worry about the deduction of points. After all, he participated in low-level competitions before August this year, so the points deducted were very small.”

Director Sun nodded, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

After a moment's thought, he looked up and said, "By the way, we'll send a congratulatory letter later in the name of the Tennis Association and the Tennis Management Center to congratulate Jiang Hong on his performance at the Madrid Masters!"

Upon hearing this, the leaders of the Tennis Association immediately looked distressed.

"Last time we sent a congratulatory message, we were criticized by netizens. Should we send one again this time?"

Director Sun glanced at the other party and said decisively, "Jiang Hong, as a Chinese tennis player, has achieved good results, so of course he should be awarded!"

The leaders of the Tennis Association knew that Director Sun, a former athlete, was very decisive and once he made a decision, it was difficult to change it.

Let them scold me!

Not long after, a congratulatory letter appeared online.

[Jiang Hong: We witnessed you at the 2007 Madrid Masters, where you fought your way through the qualifying rounds, defeating many top players to reach the quarterfinals, creating a new height for Chinese tennis at the Masters and showcasing the fighting spirit of Chinese athletes...]

To be honest, this congratulatory letter wasn't posted everywhere, but rather on the official website of the Tennis Association, where it was instantly spotted by sharp-eyed netizens.

After it spread, the message board was overrun by a flood of netizens.

"Here you go again, trying to take credit. Does Jiang Hong's achievement have anything to do with you?"

"That's right, Jiang Shen is a free agent!"

"If it weren't for your interference, perhaps more top players would have emerged. You've only made things worse!"

"..."

Netizens don't have a very good attitude towards most sports associations.

Of course, the Football Association is the most resentful of them all.

The leaders of the Internet Association considered shutting down the message board, but Director Sun ultimately refused.

"No, since everyone has opinions about us, it means we haven't done enough. If we have, we should correct them; if not, we should strive to do better!"

Netizens are somewhat surprised that the Chinese Tennis Association did not implement a major censorship measure.

……

Inside the Adidas China headquarters building in Beijing, Chen Bochong's face was practically splitting with a grin.

Even he found it somewhat unbelievable, "So fast?"

When Jiang Hong signed the contract, he had only won a low-level ATP Challenger title.

After that, Jiang Hong's career took off, winning the China Open and finishing as runner-up at the Tokyo Open.

Jiang Hong's ability to consistently achieve good results in a short period of time demonstrates his potential.

Perhaps in the future, it will have the opportunity to break into the TOP10 and secure a place there.

But no one expected that Jiang Hong would grow up so quickly.

At the same time, I was also a little relieved. It was fortunate that the person in charge of Nike in China had made a brain fart and instead of directly binding Jiang Hong, he tried to lower the price. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had this opportunity!

"Sigh!" Chen Bochong took a sip of coffee and sighed, "It's a pity that I'll be running into Nadal in the next round!"

The sponsors of world number one Federer and world number two Nadal are both Nike, Adidas's arch-rival.

The past two years have been suffocating for them in the tennis world, but fortunately, Novak Djokovic, who is currently ranked third in the world, is sponsored by them.

However, it is still somewhat weaker than Nike at present.

However, in 09, Adidas made a blunder by choosing Murray, believing he had greater market potential, and opting to terminate its sponsorship contract with Djokovic. It has to be said that this was truly a genius move.

……

Located in Fujian, the Haide Huaxia branch also serves as the office building for authorized dealers.

As the head of the branch, Zhao Hui was frowning and pacing back and forth in his office.

"Gao Yan, have you asked the TV station yet? Why hasn't the commercial started?"

They handed over the advertisement to the TV station more than a month ago, and Jiang Hong, as the spokesperson, is becoming increasingly popular.

However, after so much time has passed, the advertisement has still not appeared in front of the public. The advertisements that are mainly broadcast on CCTV all need to be reviewed.

The review time for such departments is not necessarily long.

Upon hearing this, Gao Yan quickly explained, "President Zhao, I've already asked the TV station, and they said it will be broadcast tomorrow!"

"Really?" Zhao Hui asked again, still a little uneasy.

"Really, they had already specified the broadcast time, which was during Jiang Shen's... Jiang Hong's match!" As a fan, Gao Yan directly said the nickname he held in his heart.

Zhao Hui, too lazy to pay attention to Gao Yan, clapped his hands and said excitedly.

"Great!"

"Tomorrow's match against Nadal is just perfect for the style of our commercial!"

Zhao Hui turned around and immediately gave Gao Yan orders.

"By the way, tell the authorized distributors that starting tomorrow, all stores must display Jiang Hong's advertisements!"

"I'm going right now!"

Gao Yan nodded quickly and said.

……

Li Gong was in a good mood these past two days in his office at the IMG headquarters in Beijing.

They originally thought that as long as Jiang Hong wasn't eliminated in the first round, they could promote him extensively.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Hong became stronger and stronger throughout the competition, and made it directly into the top eight.

And he will also be playing against Nadal next.

Regardless of winning or losing, this is definitely a great opportunity for Jiang Hong to expand his fame worldwide.

Li Gong no longer intends to limit his business to the domestic market; he wants Jiang Hong to become a superstar in Asia to match his achievements.

Previously, neither Jiang Hong's racket nor Adidas's jersey sponsorship had much to do with IMG; it was mainly attracted by Jiang Hong's own commercial value.

Now we need to find Jiang Hong some big contracts to demonstrate our abilities.

Despite Jiang Hong's recent popularity and fame, various companies are constantly calling him hoping to collaborate.

However, a mature agent cannot only look at the size of the contract.

You also have to look at the other party's brand. If it's something inferior, even if you make money, you're actually damaging Jiang Hong's commercial value.

Li Gong would never do something so short-sighted as to drain the pond to catch all the fish.

Recently, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have also expressed their desire to have Jiang Hong as their spokesperson.

At this time, larger brands tend to choose Hong Kong and Taiwan celebrities because they feel that they are more fashionable, while domestic celebrities seem to have a lower social standing.

However, there are exceptions in China, where large fast-moving consumer goods companies still show great interest in athletes.

Moreover, Jiang Hong's sport is tennis, which has a high profile, so it's unlikely that her career will decline too much in a short period of time.

So if you can sign her as a spokesperson now, it would definitely be a great deal.

……

However, Jiang Hong was unaware of all this.

After leaving the ATP website, Jiang Hong opened his familiar Baidu Tieba forum.

An ad popped up as soon as I opened the app: "The place where the dreams of my country's famous tennis players began." Typical Du Zi!

Moreover, to avoid legal risks, they cleverly avoided writing Jiang Hong's name.

The operations manager of Baidu heard that Jiang Hong had mentioned Tieba in a post-match interview. Although he didn't name names, everyone knew who he was referring to.

But we absolutely won't give up on this trending topic; we have to jump on it.

They immediately pulled in graphic designers and programmers, making them work overtime to rush out the advertisement.

They also promoted this advertisement directly on various portal websites.

He had just logged into the forum when he saw that hundreds of people were sending him private messages in the background.

"God Jiang, God Jiang, quickly look at this post!"

"Report! Good news has arrived from the front..."

"Xiao Jiang, someone ate a tennis ball!"

"..."

The same post was still being sent to all the other posts, so Jiang Hong clicked on it out of curiosity.

Then, I saw a catchy headline!

[“Jiang Hong can beat me, I’ll eat a tennis ball!” A bet's a bet, I’ve uploaded the video to Youku!]

Below is a screenshot of my original statement and a link to the Youku video.

Instantly, Jiang Hong became interested.

Wow, he's definitely a veteran surfer, and his motto is keeping his promises.

After Jiang Hong clicked into the video, he saw a burly man who actually took out a tennis ball made of ice cream from behind his back.

He took a bite and said with a grin, "Hehe, they didn't say what the tennis ball was made of before, but I ate it anyway."

I was too naive!
Sure enough, opening the comments section revealed that the irritable guy was enthusiastically greeting the other person's family.

After all, at that time, websites didn't have that many censored words.

I've offended a guy on Tieba, so I'll definitely have to show him what true refinement and affability are all about.

Jiang Hong returned to the forum and posted a message.

[Thanks to Coach Cyber's advice, Xiao Jiang has successfully advanced to the quarterfinals and will next face Nadal. Any suggestions from you guys?]

The forum members had been waiting for Jiang Hong for a long time. Even some tennis fans who don't use the forum came over specifically because they heard that Jiang Hong would be making a statement on the forum.

As soon as Jiang Honggang posted, netizens enthusiastically left comments.

"Jiang Shen is awesome! It seems your suggestion to punch Nadal and kick Federer is about to come true!"

"Do you think it's just empty talk that we've built China's tennis glory?"

"I knew Jiang Shen was going to amount to something from the very beginning!"

"I remember you upstairs, you were the one who criticized Jiang Shen the most back then!"

"What do you know? This is because I love you so much and have such high expectations for you!"

"I did it to motivate Jiang Shen to work even harder!"

Although Jiang Hong felt quite pleased with the praise from his fellow forum members, he was actually quite pleased with himself.

However, he didn't forget the main point, as he still hoped to get some useful suggestions from the forum members.

Even if it doesn't help him win the game, getting a free reward seems pretty good!

As we all know, when surfing the internet, you create your own identity.

Therefore, the opportunity to coach professional tennis players is absolutely something to be seized.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Jiang Hong saw several suggestions about the competition.

"Jiang Shen, Jiang Shen, I really like you. Your usual suggestions and rewards are a bit too monotonous, so I suggest you change it up, like getting us some autographed tennis balls from Nadal or Federer!"

Several black lines instantly appeared on Jiang Hong's forehead.

Are you here to cause trouble?
Get out of here!
Jiang Hong couldn't help but glance at the system to see if it would give a notification.

[Ding! We have received a suggestion to change the reward gift to autographed tennis balls by Nadal and Federer. Reward: None]

Upon seeing the suggestion to offer a reward, Jiang Hong decisively chose not to adopt it.

Aside from the people who were just having fun, Jiang Hong also saw a few more serious suggestions.

"Jiang Shen, I'm a fan of Nadal. His forehand spin in the match is just too strong, so you need to limit his forehand attacks and increase the pressure on his backhand."

"...Nadal excels at long, drawn-out rallies at the baseline, so I suggest that Jiang Shen reduce baseline stalemates, increase rhythm variations, and prevent him from building up his baseline power."

"...He has a strong desire to attack with his second serve. If the serve is fast and the angle is shallow, it is easy for him to seize the opportunity to win with a forehand shot. So I suggest that Jiang improve the quality of his second serve."

"I suggest Jiang Shen play with his own style and try to secure the victory!"

Jiang Hong readily accepted all the suggestions and left comments below them so he could contact them later to send gifts.

However, don't think about getting Nadal and Federer's autographs for now.

After all, it's a bit awkward to ask someone for an autograph before a fight starts.

"I'm your fan, may I kill you?"

It was getting late, so Jiang Hong didn't dawdle. He had used up a lot of energy today, so he should get some rest!

The next day, after getting up, Jiang Hong did some simple exercises and felt that he was in pretty good condition.

At least I don't have to worry about my physical fitness today.

Not long after, Jiang Hong received a call from Li Gong.

The other party waited until Jiang Hong should have gotten up before calling him.

After all, as an agent for a sports star, it's impossible for them to influence his performance in the game.

"Jiang Hong, right now, both Pantene and Bawang shampoos are hoping you can be their spokesperson!"

As soon as the call connected, Li Gong's excited voice came through.

In this endorsement industry, there's a rule: the faster a product sells, the higher the endorsement fee.

"Pantene? Overlord?"

Jiang Hong has actually used Rejoice before, and the one that left a deep impression was when Michael Chang was the spokesperson for Rejoice.

"No dandruff, of course it's excellent!"

As for BaWang, it was naturally made into a bizarre and meme-worthy advertisement.

"Duang Duang!"

It seems that Jackie Chan is the current spokesperson for BaWang!
Jiang Hong only remembered that Bawang seemed to have fallen into decline after a rumor spread that it contained carcinogenic substances in a certain year.

However, at this time, if rumors spread that a foreign brand is acquiring or attacking a domestic brand, they usually spread rumors that the product contains something that causes cancer.

For example, MSG is similar to chicken essence. Jiang Hong remembers his mother telling him for a while that someone's child had become stupid from eating too much MSG.

"Bawang is very sincere, offering 1500 million Chinese yuan per year!"

"As for Pantene, they offered $150 million, which is more than $1100 million a year."

Both contracts contain upward adjustment clauses!

"Pantene is a brand under the international giant Procter & Gamble, while Bawang is a domestic brand. Jiang Hong, what's your opinion?"

As an agent, it's impossible for Jiang Hong to make the decision for him.

Jiang Hong thought for a moment, then gave his answer: "Don't rush, let's talk about the price again. Sign the contract with whoever offers the higher endorsement fee!"

He wouldn't lower his prices just because an international brand has been around for a long time.

"Huh? You're playing against Nadal today. If you lose, your endorsement fee might not drop, but it'll be quite difficult to raise it!" Li Gong hesitated for a moment before expressing his concern.

Jiang Hong's eyes were filled with determination as he said, "That's easy, just win, right?"

Although Li Gong felt that Jiang Hong was a bit too confident, since it was Jiang Hong's decision, he could only try to win him over.

……

Before the match began, reporters from China and Spain, not wanting to be left out, approached Nadal, who was training.

"Hello, Nadal, you're playing against Chinese player Jiang Hong tonight. You said last night that he would beat you. What did you say to him?" This was the question from a Spanish reporter who was preparing to mock Jiang Hong for overestimating himself after the match.

"As opponents, our goal is of course to defeat each other. Jiang's ability to reach the quarterfinals already demonstrates his strength, but I will also give 100% tonight!" Nadal appeared very modest in response to these questions.

The Chinese reporter glanced at the Spanish reporter with ill intentions, then immediately stepped forward and began asking, "Mr. Nadal, how much do you know about Jiang Hong? How much do you think he can achieve in the future?"

To be honest, Nadal really didn't follow the China Open or the Tokyo Open.

His attention is mostly focused on Grand Slams and Masters tournaments.

It was during the third round that his coach helped him gather information on Jiang Hong, saying that they might potentially face off.

To be honest, Nadal initially thought he might have to face Nalbandian.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Hong, this dark horse, actually defeated Nalbandian and stood in front of him.

Nadal thought for a moment, then smiled and replied, "I think Jiang Hong is an excellent player. His serve and baseline game are both very good, and he has a very comprehensive range of skills. If he can maintain his current form, we may have many opportunities to play against each other in the future!"

Being able to frequently play against players of Nadal's caliber demonstrates that Jiang Hong is capable of consistently participating in Masters tournaments.

He immediately drafted several news headlines in his mind about the mystery.

Nadal admits he needs to be at 100% against Jiang Hong!

"Nadal believes Jiang Hong will be his lifelong rival!"

After all, as journalists, if we don't use clickbait headlines, no one will want to click on them!
After obtaining a satisfactory press release, they returned home feeling triumphant and began writing their articles with great enthusiasm.

"A young Chinese player boasts that he will defeat Rafael Nadal in front of the Spanish at the Madrid Stadium!" - Marca

"Having spent six months in the tennis world, is his upcoming match against Rafael Nadal at the Madrid Masters just boasting or genuine confidence?"—Argentina Daily

"China's dark horse has emerged in Madrid; can it defeat Rafael Nadal and continue its upset run?" - Sports Daily

Spanish newspapers helped Jiang Hong attract hatred, and the stands were filled with Spanish fans just before the game started that night, with even a lot of local Madrid residents gathered outside the stadium.

Inside the gymnasium's locker room, Mark Jie checked the items in Jiang Hongqiu's bag.

"Brother Jiang, everything is fine!"

"it is good!"

Jiang Hong picked up his golf bag and left the locker room.

Step into the somewhat dimly lit player tunnel.

(End of this chapter)