Chapter 303: Rival Nation Player
With Zhang's back-to-back victories in the Asian Wild Card Tournament at the Australian Open, there are more and more news reports, and there are more and more fans or fans following Zhang's matches.
On Wednesday, December 3, although it was a working day, Zhang Huasong's second-round match was as full as it was held, and the number of netizens who watched the live broadcast on the Internet reached tens of millions.
In this round, Zhang Huasong met Chen Di, a player from Taipei, China, and was rendered as a Greater China derby by some media.
Of course, this so-called derby has a very low gold content. In the second round of a small wild card game, few people cared.
Chen Di has an ATP score of 115 and is currently ranked 310th in the world, which is a notch stronger than the strength of Dastov that Zhang Huasong met in the last round.
Moreover, Chen Di also entered the game after the first round of the game, and Zhang Huasong could not win as easily as he defeated Dastov.
However, Zhang Huasong still didn't use the killer feature of upgrading skills.
In the first set, the two played 6-6, and Zhang Huasong successfully won the tie-break and won the first set with a score of 7-6.
In the second set, Chen Di broke out abnormally, and Zhang Huasong directly lost to Chen Di with a score of 3-6.
However, after losing the second set, Zhang Huasong did not upgrade his skills, but looked at the situation in the third set.
As a result, Chen Di was not in the third set, but Zhang Huasong was still in stable form, and finally won the game with a score of 6-4.
In the fourth set, although Chen Di wanted to reverse the game and sent several aces, Zhang Huasong withstood Chen Di's offensive and finally won the fourth set with a score of 7-5.
The two played four sets, with the scores of 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, and Zhang Huasong won with an aggregate score of 3-1 and entered the quarterfinals.
After the game, the audience just applauded slightly, without big celebrations, Zhang Huasong also shook hands with Chen Di with a smile and did not celebrate too much.
In the era of paying attention to cross-strait relations, the audience was relatively restrained, and they did not make radical celebrations when they saw Zhang Huasong win the game.
After a night's rest, on Thursday, December 4, the quarterfinals began, and Zhang Huasong's opponent was Ilhan from Turkey.
Ilhan has an ATP score of 192 and a world ranking of 213, and his strength is one level higher than Chen Di.
Moreover, because of history and border ethnic issues, China and Turkey are really not friendly.
Before the game began, the spectators in the stands shouted the slogan "Zhang Huasong must win", and finally no one shouted "King of Athletics".
Ilhan also showed a strong antagonistic mood from the beginning, with murderous anger in his eyes, not a normal competition competition, but the kind of confrontation between countries.
Zhang Huasong naturally knew the reason why the other party was so murderous, and he was not to be outdone, he glared back, and he couldn't wait to kill the other party with his eyes.
After the start of the game, Yilkhan was not affected by his emotions, but because of his strong desire to win, his state exploded and he played at a high level.
However, Zhang Huasong is also eager to win, and he is in better shape than Ilkhan.
In the first set, the two went back and forth and played a score of 6-6.
But when the tie-break reached 30-30, Zhang Huasong sent two ace balls in a row, so that Ilhan didn't even receive the ball, and directly won the tie-break game with a two-goal advantage, which caused enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
The score of the first set was 7-6, and Zhang Huasong temporarily led one set.
In the second set, Zhang Huasong also firmly occupied the advantage with full dedication and stable state, and finally won the second set with a score of 6-4.
After the second set, Ilkhan's coach muttered to him on the sidelines, and in the third set, he was in danger, almost always pressing the boundary line.
Although many balls went out of bounds, they also managed to hit some pressing balls, which made Zhang Huasong unable to catch up.
In the end, Zhang Huasong lost the third set with a score of 5-7.
In the fourth set, Ilhan continued his strategy in the third set.
Although Zhang Huasong adapted a little, Ilhan's tactics were also more refined and there were fewer mistakes, and finally Ilhan won the tie-break after a 6-6 tie.
After four sets, the aggregate score was 2-2 and went to the fifth set decider.
This is the first time that Zhang Huasong has been dragged into a deciding set by his opponent, rather than a four-set match.
However, after the fourth set, Zhang Huasong has basically adapted to Ilhan's tactics and he is confident that he can handle it.
Therefore, Zhang Huasong also did not upgrade his skills, but continued to play against Yilkhan with his level 6 tennis skills.
The conventional style of play could not beat Zhang Huasong, and Ilhan could only continue to take the risk of pressing the line ball.
However, when Zhang Huasong was already prepared enough, Yilkhan really couldn't beat Zhang Huasong, and many balls were counterattacked by Zhang Huasong, but Yilkhan himself failed to catch them.
Combined with the fact that there were a lot of out-of-bounds points conceded by the ball, Ilhan was unable to win the final tiebreaker after winning two sets in a row, 3-6.
In the end, the five-set match was 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7, 6-3, resulting in two tie-breaks, and Zhang Huasong also won the first time in the deciding set.
It seems that Zhang Huasong's sixth-level tennis skills only have the strength to defeat players ranked around 200 in the world.
However, regardless of the process, Zhang Huasong finally defeated the Turkish player and advanced to the semi-finals, and the result was perfect.
As soon as the game ended, the audience not only waved the national flag or slogan and shouted Zhang Huasong's name, but some even sang the national anthem.
Obviously, this is a provocation to Turkish coaches and athletes.
As soon as the game was over, Ilhan fled from the gymnasium with the coach in a rage, and did not even shake hands with Zhang Huasong politely.
Zhang Huasong was naturally not unfamiliar with his handshake, and happily celebrated with the audience at the scene.
Some viewers asked for Zhang Huasong's autograph, and Zhang Huasong was also in a good mood to meet everyone's requirements, and stayed at the scene for more than an hour before returning to the hotel to eat and rest.
After the game, the Chinese media reported the news that Zhang Huasong defeated the Turkish player to advance to the semifinals in a tone that promoted my country's prestige.
"Zhang Huasong defeated the Turkish player 3-2 to advance to the semifinals of the Asian Wild Card Tournament of the Australian Open!"
"Zhang Huasong defeated Turkish player Ilhan, who is ranked 213rd in the ATP world, to advance!"
"Australian Open Asian Wild Card Tournament Zhang Hua Loose Momentum, Defeating World No. 213 Turkish Player Ilhan to Advance to the Semifinals!"
Viewers and readers also liked the news reports and comments, and praised Zhang Huasong for playing well in this game.
Although it seemed that Zhang Huasong played until the deciding set to win the match, it seemed that it was a bit hard to win, but as long as he won against the Turks, it was enough for everyone to cheer and celebrate.
Relations between the two countries can be seen in general.
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