Chapter 144: Defeat Wu's Enemy Again
Defeating the top seed in the first round of qualifying, Panci was a minor upset. However, because it was only a qualifying round, and Chinese players such as Wu Di, Zhang Ze, and Zhang Zhizhen also won and advanced, Pan Xiqi's victory did not attract much attention.
In the second round of qualifying, Panci met a South Korean player. The South Korean teenager is in his early twenties, but he is already on the edge of the 200th place in the world rankings, which is arguably higher than all the Chinese players, including Pan Xiqi.
If it were in China, the South Korean would have been treated as a star player. But because South Korea has a talented Zheng Hyun, while he is younger than him, his grades are much better than him. Not long after moving to the senior group, Jung Hyun has already raised his world ranking to within the top 50 in the world. Therefore, in South Korea, everyone's eyes are on Jung Hyun, and the Korean teenager is almost unpopular.
Thinking that Zheng Hyun has now frequently participated in various top competitions, but he can only struggle in the challenge tournament, the Korean player is naturally unwilling. So against Pansiqi, he turned all of those emotions into a strong victory**.
This is because China, Japan, and South Korea, which are the three great powers in East Asia, have strong competition in all fields due to their geographical location and history. The same is true in the world of tennis.
Unlike players from other countries, these three players do not need to do any pre-match mobilization after meeting each other, and will definitely show 100% of their form to meet their opponents. Even an inconsequential tournament like a challenge qualifier doesn't let up easily.
That's what the South Korean youngster thinks. He can be suppressed by Zheng Hyun in China, but in the face of Chinese players who are all rookies, he is absolutely not allowed to lose. At this moment, it is not only about winning or losing, but also rising to the level of national honor.
Pansiqi, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have such a high level of consciousness. This South Korean teenager is just an ordinary opponent on his way to promotion. Therefore, after the start of the competition, Pan Xiqi was still a little surprised by the high momentum and high spirit of the Korean players.
"As for it, I thought I was playing a Grand Slam final." Pansiqi complained in his heart.
Because at this moment, the Korean players opposite are like being beaten with chicken blood, and there is hardly a moment of quietness. Either that's just stomping your feet, and you don't know what you're muttering with words in your mouth. At the same time, after every ball, the Korean teenager stared at Pan Xiqi, as if he wanted to swallow him whole.
However, the other party's euphoria did not last long, and Pansic hardly gave him a chance to shout. Because after the start of the fight, the Korean players found that their strength with Pan Xiqi was not on the same level at all. As for how big the gap is, he doesn't know very well. Because looking at Pansiqi's appearance, it is obvious that he has not done much.
Two 6:1, less than 50 minutes, the South Korean player humiliatingly swallowed the first defeat against the Chinese player. And it was also from this match that in the following years, Pansic became a mountain that weighed on the heads of all Asian players, so that they could not see any day of turnover.
Advance to the decider, and with just one more win, Panci will be able to appear in the main draw of the Challenger for the first time. However, in this last round, he encountered an opponent he didn't expect. This person is none other than Wu Di, a Shanghai player who has just been taken away from the position of China's first brother by himself not long ago.
In the first two rounds of qualifying, Wu Di did not meet many strong opponents and won two games in a row. Although he knew that Pan Xiqi had also signed up for this competition, Wu Di did not expect that he would meet the other party in advance in the qualifying round.
Pan Xiqi's recent crazy performance has made Wu Di really have a strong sense of crisis. Although he lost to the other party in the Grand Prix, he felt that his position as a brother should still be relatively stable. Unexpectedly, in just two months, he had already been replaced by the other party.
In the face of this opponent who overtook him, Wu Di was even a little excited before the game. Because he knew that although there was a difference in strength due to the disparity in the last challenge encounter, Wu Di believed that the biggest reason was because he didn't understand Pan Xiqi.
During this time, Wu Di did a targeted study of the video of his match with Pan Xiqi. The result of the analysis is that Wu still has a chance to defeat Pan Xiqi. The reason why he failed last time was because he was completely suppressed by Pansiqi's power and was led by the nose by his opponent. This time, as long as he brings the pace of the game to the fastest and plays with his good movement, it is possible that Pancich will not have time to play to the advantage of power.
You must know that this challenge has a lot of points, once you defeat Pansiqi and win a few more games in the main match, it is very likely that you will rely on the points gained in this tournament to achieve a reversal of Pansiqi in the rankings. Therefore, for Wu's enemy, defeating Panxiqi became a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.
The plan is wonderful, but whether it can be realized is another matter. After the start of the game, Pan Xiqi clearly felt Wu Di's strong ambition for this match. Because it was just the beginning, the opponent didn't want to test himself at all, but directly increased the pace of the game to a very fast level.
"It seems that the last Grand Prix final, it still didn't make the other party completely dead." Pansic sneered in his heart, and at the same time knew what to do next.
"Damn, I can't run away again!" Watching the tennis ball fly away from his hand without knowing how many times, Wu Di sighed in frustration.
This game, as expected, was brought into a fast-paced draw by himself at the beginning. However, the imaginary advantage did not appear, but instead fought, Wu Di found that Pan Xiqi's pace was getting faster and faster, but he became the side that fell behind.
No matter how much he changed the line, he always seemed unable to disrupt Pancic's pace, and Panci never had a defensive misposition. On the contrary, under the pressure of Pancic, the arrival rate is getting lower and lower, and there are more and more mistakes in returning the ball.
However, what made Wu Di even more frustrated was that throughout the game, Panci controlled the return power to a level comparable to his own. Attention is control, which also shows that Pansiqi did not use his full strength at all. Pan Xiqi's intention is already obvious, that is, putting aside the strength advantage, even if he fights for pace and rhythm, he will be far superior to Wu's enemy.
Wu Di was naturally very clear about the meaning conveyed by Pan Xiqi, which made him feel ashamed and angry. But beyond that, he didn't have anything to do. Because as the game progressed, he found that the gap between himself and Pansiqi in this area was much bigger than he thought in his heart.
Finally, after the second match with Pan Xiqi, Wu Di, the former first person in China, finally completely recognized the gap between himself and Pan Xiqi, and at the same time extinguished the flame of competition, and willingly gave up the title of number one player to Pan Xiqi.