south wind into my arms

Chapter 115 The First Champion

After Xu Zhiyao was depressed for a few days, he suddenly rebounded, and the training became very active and enthusiastic, which shocked both Muller and Luo Shuibin.

Why is it suddenly so active? Everyone can guess that it is because of shame and courage, but how long can this guy last?

Muller thinks three days at most, but Luo Shuibin is more optimistic, thinking that he can last for a week.Song Tianran stood up for his good buddy, and firmly believed that it would be at least half a month... In the end, everyone made a private bet on how long Xu Zhiyao could last.

Lu Sheng also participated in the gambling, and she was the only one who thought that Xu Zhiyao could persevere and completely change herself.

After the beginning of the new year, the competitions that Lu Sheng will participate in are all finalized after discussions between Muller and Nanfeng.There are many professional tennis events, and it is very important to choose an event according to one's own characteristics and needs.For example, Lu Sheng, according to her current ranking, Nanfeng comprehensively selected a small number of ITF events and relatively more WTA events. For WTA events, the prize money of the same level is relatively small. For the same points, less prize money means less competitive pressure, which will help Lu Sheng gain points and rise up the ranking.

After choosing the competition, Nanfeng took care of all chores such as signing up for visas and booking tickets. If the subordinates in his company knew that the boss had gone to work as a secretary for others, they would probably cry.

In the first ten days of February, Lu Sheng went to Thailand to play a WTA international tour, and reached the semi-finals, which was not bad.

So far, Lu Sheng's ranking broke into the top 120.The further you go, the slower the ranking rises.Lu Sheng's short-term goal is to break into the top [-], so that he can directly hit the Grand Slam without a wild card, and he doesn't need to start climbing from the challenge...

In late February, Nanfeng told Lu Sheng that he would take her to Rio de Janeiro.There is an international tournament in Rio de Janeiro at this time, Lu Sheng knew about it, but she was very surprised: "Is that a clay race?"

"Correct."

Lu Sheng said weakly, "I have never played clay court..."

"I've fought since this time." Nan Feng rubbed her head and looked at her with encouraging eyes. "Mu Le and I have always believed that you are suitable for clay court competition."

At this time, Lu Sheng said belatedly, "So, is it because of this that Coach Muller asked me to practice hard on my spin skills?"

"Well, part of it."

If you want to serve the spin ball well, you must have enough strength, so if Lu Sheng wants to practice the spin ball well, one of the prerequisites is to improve his hitting power.She always thought that the purpose of this kind of training was to improve her overall strength... well, that's right.Anyway, she didn't think about red clay, the main reason was that she was too unfamiliar with it.

Clay is a type of tennis court.Different materials have different properties.Of all the courts, clay courts are the most resilient.The greater the elasticity, the longer the tennis ball rebounds and buffers, so the speed after the rebound will slow down, and the bounce height will be higher.This feature determines the characteristics of the slow ball speed of the clay court, so it is also called "slow court".

The slow speed of the ball does not mean that people can react slowly. On the contrary, when the speed of the ball is slow, the opponent will have more time to change the route and pull the angle. At this time, you must have enough running ability to deal with it.The slow ball speed brings about a longer baseline stalemate, and the situation of taking multiple shots with one ball is very frequent, which puts high demands on the running ability of the players on the court.At the same time, the stability of hitting the ball in the case of multi-shot is also very important.

In summary, players with strong defensive capabilities often have unique advantages on clay courts.However, it is not enough to just defend but not attack.The best attacking weapon on clay is topspin.After the topspin ball hits the ground, the rebound angle is large and the speed will increase. These characteristics are amplified on the highly elastic clay, thus forming an invincible killing move.

Of course, it doesn't mean that you must have strong topspin ability to play clay court.If you can't hit topspin well, at least you have to be able to catch topspin well.

Lu Sheng's own topspin is so-so, he dare not say it is good, he can only say it is not bad.After being trained by a famous coach, he has been playing more and more in style recently.So Nanfeng decided to let Lu Sheng go to the clay court to experience it.

The Rio de Janeiro Tour is the first clay-court event of the year, across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, where the regular clay-court season (starts in April and ends in May).I don't know if this is the reason, but there are very few big-name players in the WTA who sign up for the Rio clay-court tournament every year, and this year is even more exaggerated. None of the top 4 players came.

This is cheap for Lu Sheng. He doesn't need to play in the Challenger League, and can directly be shortlisted for the Main Match.

Very good very good.

Lu Sheng arrived in Rio two days earlier, and rented a local court for training. After all, it was his first clay court match, so it was important to find the feeling.

Nanfeng, as Lu Sheng's representative, went to help her draw lots. Unfortunately, she was drawn in the same half as the No. [-] seed.

The No. 28 seed is Brazil's native star Lecia, who is currently ranked [-]th in the world.Fortunately, Nanfeng's hands are not too dark. If Lu Sheng can meet Lai Xiya, he will reach the semi-finals. Before the semi-finals, there is no need to worry about being ravaged by the No. [-] seed.

The opponent Lu Sheng met in the first round was a Mexican girl whose ranking was comparable to hers.The Mexican girl has a good backhand from the baseline and high-quality shots, but this level of attack power is not good when compared to Lu Sheng's tight defense.Lu Sheng, on the other hand, tried to hit her with a topspin ball and tasted the sweetness.

So winning the first round was fairly easy.

The opponent Lu Sheng met in the second round was a little fierce, not only playing well with topspin, but also sliding.However, the clay court game consumes a lot of energy. This opponent with a very cool technique slowed down a bit in the second half of the match. Lu Sheng seized the opportunity to attack.The process was a bit unsatisfactory, but at least the result was a win.

After playing two games, Lu Sheng felt that the clay court was not bad. Although it was her first time playing, she felt like a fish in water.

The opponent in the third round was obviously much stronger, and he was also from Mexico. His skills were very comprehensive.It can be seen that she is very suitable for such a venue.

Lu Sheng wrestled with her for two and a half hours and fell into match point twice.Fortunately, even if Lu Sheng was about to lose, she didn't rush. I don't know if it was her luck or something. In the end, she hit two balls in a row to seal the victory.

The fourth round is the semifinals, and Lu Sheng will face the No. [-] seed Laishia.

Lecia's serve quality is very high, the baseline and net ability are good.However, as far as the clay court is concerned, neither a good serve nor a good net can form its due power.Another specialty of Laishia is her backhand and wide-angle slash shots. The speed, line, and landing point of the ball are all very good. The speed of the ball on the clay court is more convenient to change the line. As long as she is given a chance, she can use this to score.This specialty of hers made Lu Sheng very distressed, the effect of long-distance raids was always not good, and it was very exhausting.Later, Lu Sheng simply gave up part of his defense, stepped up his offense, and played desperately with topspin. Now he doesn't care about winning or losing, it's time for exercise!
Lycia was a little disturbed.Her defense is actually not as good as Lu Sheng's.

Lu Sheng played this match heartily, she became more and more energetic as she played, and gradually knocked out Laishia's state.

At the end of the game, Lu Sheng still couldn't believe it. She just won?Win against the top [-] players in the world?

God!

Nan Feng asked her with a smile: "Do you think it's impossible for you to win?"

Lu Sheng scratched his head, "I did have such an idea."

"Nothing is impossible, this is the charm of sports."

Even having won the No. [-] seed, Lu Sheng was full of confidence and played super relaxed in the final.And her own technical characteristics are very suitable for this land, so in the end she won the championship trophy without too much difficulty.

This is the first WTA trophy in her career, which is of great significance.

And this competition also made her understand that no matter how high the opponent's ranking is, they are not invulnerable.There are many factors that affect the outcome of the game, but rankings are not included in these factors!

Come back with a trophy.The domestic media had heard the news a long time ago and praised her to the sky.Someone contacted Nanfeng and asked about interviewing Lu Sheng, but Nanfeng refused.He felt that the media's attention might make Lu Sheng impetuous. After all, she was only 21 years old.

After returning, Lu Sheng found that Xu Zhiyao hadn't trained.

Are you being lazy again?She was suddenly disappointed.

Mueller asked Luo Shuibin: "How many days did he last?"

Luo Shuibin: "Actually, he has been insisting on it until yesterday, but today he suddenly said to do something serious."

"what's up?"

"Uh, shut yourself in the house and play on the computer."

Lu Sheng: What kind of business is this!

She was so angry, she left everyone behind and ran to find Xu Zhiyao, banging on the door of his room, "Xu Zhiyao, open the door!"

Xu Zhiyao seemed taken aback by her, and asked her in a low voice after opening the door, "Junior Sister, what's wrong with you?"

Lu Sheng glared at him, didn't speak, and broke into his room directly, and sure enough, he saw an open laptop on the table.She glanced at the computer screen, had already taken a breath of her dantian and decided to ask questions, and then suddenly realized... um, I don't understand...

This is a bit embarrassing.

She raised her hand to touch her chin, pretending to be calm and said, "What are you doing?"

At the mention of this, Xu Zhiyao cheered up, "Hey, I came up with a good idea. Do you know mathematical modeling?"

"I know half of it."

Xu Zhiyao: "Half???"

"I know the word mathematics, but I'm not very clear about the last two words."

"Junior Sister, you are so humble..."

Xu Zhiyao explained his idea to her.Although she couldn't understand what he said, but some famous players' names were mixed in his uncommon vocabulary, so Lu Sheng suddenly felt that he had discovered the truth: "Do you want to use this to play tennis?"

"Yes, yes, that's what I mean!"

"What do you mean……"

Xu Zhiyao was a little sad, feeling that there was no one who understood him in the entire training base...

In the end, he had no choice but to say simply, "In summary, it is based on the past performance of the players to make statistical data to build a model for behavioral analysis and finally obtain a targeted strategy."

"is that useful?"

"Not sure yet, I'm trying."

"If it was useful, someone else would have done it already?"

"That's not necessarily true. To do this requires a good mathematical foundation."

Lu Sheng wanted to say, let the mathematicians do it and then tell the players the results, but after thinking about it, the communication between the mathematicians and the players is very problematic... With that time and energy, the players probably want to train for a while to hone their skills Bar……

Forget it, let him go, as long as he is not depraved.

Lu Sheng patted Xu Zhiyao's shoulder: "Come on!"

Xu Zhiyao's face was serious: "Okay!"

He was so solemn, which made Lu Sheng a little worried: I'm just being polite, so don't take it too seriously... Go to training when you've had enough fun...

(End of this chapter)