Love Tennis and Yumiko Miura

"That's good." Zhixian smiled slightly.

After being interviewed by Tennis Weekly, they won the championship in the subsequent Kanto Tournament final without any difficulty. Coupled with the exclusive interview in the magazine, the Platinum Combination can be said to be in high spirits.

The national competition also went smoothly and reached the semi-finals.

The toughest match was only with a score of 6:4.

Their opponents, the Dongfang/Nan team, had been playing tiebreaks in half of their matches since the national tournament. Yumiko even complained about this, saying they couldn't win without tiebreaks, and she also felt that their opponents were simply too physically fit to wear them down in the tiebreaks.

So just a quick victory would be fine.

This way of thinking is very elegant, but Zhixian did not object.

Chiba Prefecture where the two of them are located belongs to Kanto, while the other team is from Kansai. Due to insufficient information, they are unable to make any specific targeting.

Considering the existing information, Zhixian also felt that Youmei's idea of ​​a quick victory was appropriate.

----split line----

After the warm-up time, the four players spun their rackets in the tennis court to determine half-court and serve rights.

"Which?"

"Rough." (reverse)

(Author's voiceover: I want to complain here. If you guess heads, the first two letters of the word will be blocked, so when it comes to spinning the racket, guess tails.)

Yumiko, who is always lucky, guessed the direction correctly.

"We choose to serve," Yumiko said to the referee.

It stands to reason that the other party chose the venue.

Zhixian noticed that the boy on the other side lowered his head while spinning the racket.

Could it be that the other team also had a stronger female team? Zhixian didn't say much. After all, it was just a matter of serving rights and court. One person just needed to keep an eye on it.

After deciding on the half-court and serve, both sides took their positions.

Since it was their serving game, Chixian and Yumiko deployed the Australian formation—now that everyone knew their duo knew this formation, there was no need to hide it. Furthermore, if they wanted a quick victory, the Australian formation had an absolute advantage in serving games.

Although Chigen Yumiko doesn't know the situation of the other group, the other group doesn't know much more about Chigen Yumiko either.

The Australian formation of the Platinum Combination was very strong and was generally considered difficult to crack. Therefore, even if the opponent knew this, they would have no way to study it in detail. After all, it was only a junior high school league, and there was no video footage to study the opponent.

So sometimes tennis players choose to go to other people's games in person to collect data.

Zhixian would sometimes do this in order to adjust tactics, but although Youmiko would go along, most of the time she would sit next to Zhixian, taking out her flip phone and chatting with her friends - except for tennis, she didn't completely ignore her friends.

However, this time their opponent Zhixian had not watched their game before, so he could only guess based on the score of their advancement.

Zhixian stood at the baseline, took a look to make sure the opponent was ready to receive the serve, then raised his hand and threw the tennis ball out.

Dongfang, who was on the diagonal line, returned the ball with both hands. The ball wasn't particularly powerful, so the return was quite easy.

At this time, the tennis player Yumiko was ready. She counterattacked at the landing point of Dongfang's return ball, which had arrived in advance after Zhixian served.

While looking at his opponent, Zhixian also saw Yumiko's gestures at the net and chose how to serve accordingly.

With his vision blocked by Yumiko in front of the net, Dongfang had to passively receive the ball, so the return route was predicted and he scored easily.

15: 0.

Zhixian changed the racket hand for his second serve because after the previous ball, the opponent would definitely pay more attention to Yumiko's position and deliberately change the direction of his return, which would be difficult to predict.

Tachibana Chigen is a master of dual swordsmanship.

The decision to change the racket hand was conveyed when Yumiko turned around at the moment of scoring, so when Yumiko returned the ball in the east, she ran in the opposite direction of the landing point.

So the ball came in front of Zhixian and he hit it in a straight line towards Nan who had not touched the ball yet, and then returned to the center line.

In the brief interval when the ball flew over, Nan observed the direction of movement of Zhixian and Youmiko: both of them were moving towards the center line.

So she chose to hit back with a diagonal shot, landing at the spot where Yumiko had left.

But in the blink of an eye, Zhixian had already moved quickly and appeared at the landing point. At the same time, he switched the racket to his left hand and hit a backhand slice.

The ball landed in front of Nan.

—but it didn’t bounce.

"...Zero-style slice." Nan picked up the ball.

This was indeed known information, but she still couldn't handle the Zero-style slice when it appeared. Furthermore, Yumiko's lateral movement in the opposite direction of Zhixian's had obscured Zhixian's hand-switching movements. Although Dongfang on the other side could see it, Zhixian naturally wouldn't be so foolish as to hit the ball towards him.

30: 0.

So the platinum pair successfully held their serve.

Next, Dongfang's serve was broken.

Yumiko successfully held her serve.

The score was 3:0, everything seemed to be going very smoothly, and the two sides exchanged venues.

During the break, Youmiko picked up a sports drink and drank it, while Zhixian wiped the sweat off his face with a towel.

In the first three games, they are on the field with the backlight, and then when they switch half of the game, they will become the field facing the light.

Junior high school extra 4

In the fourth game of the match, Nan served.

From this round on, Zhixian found that it was becoming difficult for his team to score.

South and East began to frequently switch between high balls and straight balls to fight back.

Zhixian felt that his eyes began to feel uncomfortable and began to make some unforced errors.

Yumiko's situation was even worse at the net. She looked up to determine where the tennis ball would land much more frequently than Zhixian who was near the baseline, so her eyes felt even more uncomfortable.

After the venue change, the three games were one win and two losses, which means the current score is 4:2.

Change venue again.

During the break, Yumiko sat in her chair and complained, and Zhixian noticed that she drank water much more urgently than during the last break.

This means that you need to drink more water, which means that your physical energy consumption will be greater than in the first three games.

Is this the opponent's tactic? Using an early disadvantage to quickly deplete the opponent's stamina.

Only then did Zhixian realize that his opponent had carefully considered the court's conditions when choosing his racket, and had deliberately given the two players, who were eager to win quickly, the backlit court in the first three games. He also coordinated their offensive moves throughout the game, allowing them to confidently expend their energy to score points.

The Australian formation requires running, so the consumption of Zhixian and Youmiko must be higher than that of Dongfang and Nan.

After Dongfang and Nan arrived at the backlit venue, they began to deliberately slow down the pace, and each ball resulted in multiple shots. This not only further weakened Chixian Yumiko's physical strength, but also created a tug-of-war, causing the two players who were eager for quick success to make mistakes.

Especially the smooth sailing in the first three games gave the main attacker Yumiko an illusion. Whenever she failed to score in a counterattack, she would suspect that there was something wrong with her. The vicious cycle made Yumiko in a very impatient state.

"Ahhhhh, Yangguang is so annoying! They keep lobbing the ball, it's really annoying, can't they just have a head-on showdown?"

Yumiko complained as a hat was suddenly placed on her head.

It's really a slap on the wrist.

Yumiko blinked and stopped complaining.

She raised the brim of her hat and found that Zhixian was also wearing a hat.

Zhixian raised the corner of his mouth: "It's just as I imagined."

"...Really? Don't put it on my head so suddenly! It'll mess up my hair!" Yumiko said this, but honestly adjusted the hat with her hands. She felt her mood calm down a little.

By the way, Ms. Yumiko will tie her hair into a ponytail during the competition.

The two of them came on stage again, playing with full spirit.

The situation on the field gradually became intense, but the opponent still had the upper hand overall.

The two sides entered the tie-break with a score of 6:6.

----split line----

As the name suggests, the tie-break is not only the seventh game after 6:6, but also the first team to get seven points in the game and be two points ahead of the opponent to win.

比方说需要7:5，但是7:6就不行，要8:6才能胜出。

Different competitions have their own rules, but junior high school students all adopt the most basic rules considering physical strength.

Chixian and Yumiko were unable to continue with the Australian formation in the tiebreak; they were too tired. Now was the time for the real fight.

The brave wins when we meet on a narrow road.

Another tug-of-war. Zhixian's own strength was already failing, and Youmiko was gasping for air, her breathing rhythm completely disrupted. Failure to save the ball was a common occurrence.

It seems that this is the end... Zhixian thought helplessly.

15:13, total score 6:7, East/South wins.

----split line----

After the game, Yumiko came out of the bathroom and lay down on the grass under the tree, with her tennis bag aside.

The sunlight was blocked by the branches, but some of it still passed through the dense branches and leaves, forming light and shadows on the ground. With the breeze blowing, the shape of the light and shadows sometimes distorted and sometimes restored.

Suddenly, Yumiko felt a chill on her cheek.

"Ah!" The reaction is very cute.

"Your favorite lemon tea." Zhixian moved the can away from his partner's face and placed it next to her.

"You scared me." Yumiko breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhixian lay down beside Youmeiko, with his arms across his eyes, as if he didn't want to see the sunlight.

"Is it dazzling?" Yumiko asked.

"No, I just want to escape from reality for a while." His arms were more like pressing on his face than across his eyes.

"What's there to avoid? It's just a game." Youmiko slapped Zhixian unhappily.

"You said you wanted to reach the semifinals in Tennis Weekly, and we actually did. I'm wondering when you can get another interview and just say you're the champion, so next time you can easily win the championship." Zhixian said seriously, "When I get tired of winning championships, I can open a shrine to worship you. Only one person will be allowed to visit each year during the tournament, and the highest bidder will win."

"Puchi, if they don't open for a year, they can eat for a year after opening it?" Youmeiko couldn't help laughing.

"Of course, you can also quietly accept a few more visitors and tell them to keep it a secret and not let anyone else know."

"Isn't this just profiteering?"

"The shrine is not responsible for after-sales service." Zhixian was not justified but still felt strong.

"Really..." Yumiko smiled and shook her head.

The two stopped talking and fell silent, letting the wind blow across the sky and the leaves fall.

"Hey, Chixian." Youmiko suddenly spoke.

"what happened?"

"We must win the championship!" The girl's tone was full of determination.

"Of course."

"It's agreed?"

"It's agreed."

Zhixian raised his hand, opened his eyes and held a slowly falling leaf.

It starts with a fallen leaf.

38. Old things brought up again

After the game, Zhixian and his old classmates found a nearby milk tea shop to sit down.

The old classmate ordered a cup of milk tea, while Zhixian ordered a cup of oolong tea, saying that no sugar was needed.

"It's still about controlling your calorie intake." The old classmate laughed. The large cup of milk tea in front of him was also added with pearl pudding and coconut flakes. Compared with the monotonous oolong tea in front of Zhixian, he seemed particularly extravagant and dissolute.

"I'm used to it. It's been like this for the past year anyway." Zhixian replied.

Chicken breast cooked in a plain water pot, with corn and sweet potatoes as the main course, and broccoli as a side dish.

He endured all these things. He even rarely ate his favorite ramen, only occasionally visiting after the game was over as a cheat meal.

Zhixian simply talked about his training.

My old classmates were impressed by his self-discipline and wondered why he was so strong. Those who played better than you worked harder than you, leaving no room for error.