The French Open ends on June 10 and Wimbledon starts on June 25, with only two weeks between the two. During these two weeks, a series of grass-court tournaments will be held in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, as a warm-up match before Wimbledon. These grass events include the Tour Halle Open in Germany, the Queen's Lawn Cup on the Tour, the Odina Open in the Netherlands and the Tour in Nottingham, England.

These tournaments are not of a high level, and there is no ATP 1000 level Masters. The Tour's Halle Open and the Queen's Lawn Cup are ATP 500 tournaments that overlap and athletes can only choose one of the two, while the Otina Open in the Netherlands and the Nottingham tournament in the UK are ATP 250 tournaments and overlap in time.

Federer and Nadal seem to have been in agreement for a long time, and they played in the Halle Open and the Queen's Grass Cup respectively, but neither of them won the title. Federer withdrew midway through the Halle Open in Germany, while Nadal was defeated by France's Mahatt in the quarter-finals of the Queen's Grass Tournament.

As for those two ATP 250-level events, Federer and Nadal certainly disdain to participate.

With the arrival of the new week, the ATP announced the latest men's singles world rankings, Federer is still ranked first with 6190 points, which is a relatively small score for Federer, you must know that Federer's points at his peak are basically maintained at about 8000 points. However, this year, he lost an Australian Open title and a French Open runner-up, so the points are more than 1,300 points less than in normal times.

Rafael Nadal is second with 4,425 points, having lost one of his French Open titles and dropped his points.

Zhang Guan is in third place with 4,000 points with two Grand Slam titles, which is also the first time that Zhang Guan has ranked in the top three in the world.

With the update of the ATP World Rankings in this issue, the 32 seeded players of Wimbledon have also been released, and the No. 1 seed is still Federer. The second seed is still Nadal, and Zhang Guan has become the third seed.

Although the detailed grouping of Wimbledon has not yet been released, the seeded positions are fixed, Zhang Guan is placed in the quarter-finals as the third seed, and if there are no accidents, he will meet Federer in the semi-finals and Nadal in the final.

……

A few days later, the Wimbledon draw was broadcast live.

Zhang's first-round opponent was named Jimel Stolber, an American, another name that Zhang Guan had never heard of.

Jimel Stuber is a veteran. In the past few years, he was relatively active, but he did not play top results, and in recent years, he has begun to transform into a sports celebrity. He's no longer in the top 50 in the world rankings, so he's not a very strong opponent.

This is the case in tennis, the higher the seeded player, the more he will face some weaker opponents at the beginning, such as the Australian Open, which has been facing seeded players from the second match, which is impossible for Zhang Guan, who is now ranked third in the world.

And after the Wimbledon grouping, those professional sports commentators also began to express their opinions. This time, however, almost everyone is optimistic that Zhang Guan will make it to the semi-finals, with a whopping 70% believing that Zhang Guan can win Wimbledon as long as he can beat Federer in the semi-finals. As for the victory or defeat of Zhang Guan and Federer. Absolutely generous experts also believe that it is a five-five situation, such as the former "Wimbledon King" Sampras, who even supported Zhang Guan to win the Wimbledon championship.

In an interview, Sampras had this to say: "This year's Wimbledon. I've put Zhang Guan in the winner's position. Zhang Guan has been good enough this year, winning back-to-back Australian Open and French Open, and he hasn't lost a single match so far. I didn't even lose a single set, which is incredible. What's more, Zhang Guan uses a style of play in front of the net, hitting the ball at the first time, which can undoubtedly make Zhang Guan play more aggressively at Wimbledon. And I heard that Zhang Guan has started to cooperate with Zhang Depei, Zhang Depei was a very smart player back then, and he was really playing with his brain, I think Zhang Depei knows what Zhang Guan really needs, and he can keep Zhang Guan winning the Wimbledon championship. ”

At the same time, among the odds offered by British bookmakers to win the championship, Zhang Guan's odds to win the championship are also tied for first place with Federer. This is definitely a staggering odds, Federer is not only ranked number one in the world, but he has also won four consecutive Wimbledon titles, which is enough to prove Federer's dominance. And Zhang Guan is the first time to participate in Wimbledon, and it is the first time to participate in the grass court, no one knows how strong Zhang Guan is on the grass court, and he can win the championship with Federer, which can be said to be unprecedented.

In fact, even Federer himself said in an interview that Zhang Guan will be the biggest obstacle on his way to Wimbledon for five consecutive championships.

……

Zhang Guan browsed the content of the media, and felt a little weird in his heart.

"Why has the wind changed so much? In the past, no one was so optimistic about me at the Australian Open and the French Open. Now in this situation, I am the favorite to win Wimbledon. Zhang Guan sighed with some embarrassment.

"That's because your serve and your ability to play at the net is outstanding. Sharapova continued: "After all, it's a grass court, your kind of high-speed serve, as long as there are no mistakes, you can basically score steadily, and it is almost impossible to get a break from your hand, and your pre-net play style should be the best among active tennis players, even if it is the opponent's serve, your pre-net play style is also very threatening, if it is those players who are weaker in serve, I am afraid that they will not be able to win a set from you!"

"It sounds like I think I'm the Wimbledon champion. Zhang Guan said with a smile.

"But you have to be careful in the first game and don't capsize in the gutter. Sharapova then reminded.

"Why, this opponent of mine, the Americans call ...... Oh, yes, is the guy named Jimel Stuber a nerve knife, and he's in a very good state?"

Sharapova shook her head: "Gimel Storber is not great, but the stadium where you play has a nickname. ”

"What's your nickname?" Zhang Guan asked.

"Champion grave. Also called the Seed Cemetery. Sharapova continued: "In the tournaments played there, the seeded players are usually eliminated by the lower-ranked players, including Sampras, Agassi and Federer in 2002. In addition, there are some players who are relatively high-ranking and single, and they are not so famous, and they have also fallen in the sand there. ”

……

On June 25, the 2007 Wimbledon Open tennis tournament officially began.

Zhang Guan, on the other hand, appeared as the No. 3 seed in the tournament on the No. 2 court of Wimbledon, known as the "Champion Graveyard" and "Seed Cemetery". His opponent was unseeded American veteran Jimmel Stuber, and the match was the opening match of the year at Wimbledon on Court 2. (To be continued.) )

ps: The second chapter is delivered, thank you to the book friends and gods for always having a promise, mrhoratio, Mochizuki r, , cloud is not white, , 99***92, upside down riding pig 1, Ando Ken, Yi prawn 1482, book friend tail number 5035 reward. Thank you!