The French Open ends on June 10, while Wimbledon starts on June 25. There is only two weeks between them. During these two weeks, Europe, especially the United Kingdom, will hold a series of grass-court events as warm-up matches before Wimbledon. These grass-court events include the Tour's Halle Open in Germany, the Tour's Queen's Turf Cup in England, the Tour's Audina Open in the Netherlands and the Tour's Nottingham stop in England.
The level of these games is not high, there is no ATP1000 level masters tournament. Among them, the Halle Open in Germany and the Queen's Turf Cup in England are ATP500-level events, and the two competitions are held at overlapping times. Athletes can only choose one of the two; while the Audina Open in the Netherlands and the Queen's Cup in Tour The competition in Nottingham, England is an ATP250 level event, and the competition times also overlap.
Federer and Nadal seemed to have discussed it long ago. They had a tacit understanding and participated in the German Halle Open and the Queen's Turf Cup respectively, but neither of them won the championship. Federer chose to retire midway through the Halle Open in Germany, while Nadal was defeated by Frenchman Mahat in the quarter-finals of the Queen's Turf Championship.
As for those two ATP250-level events, Federer and Nadal definitely disdain to participate.
With the arrival of a new week, ATP announced the latest men's singles world rankings. Federer is still ranked first with 6190 points. This score is a relatively small number for Federer. You must know that Federer was at his peak. The points are basically maintained at around 8,000 points. However, this year we lost an Australian Open champion and a French Open runner-up, so the points are more than 1,300 points lower than in the normal period.
Nadal ranks second with 4425 points. He lost a French Open championship and his points also dropped.
With two Grand Slam championships, Zhang Guan is in third place with 4,000 points. This is the first time that Zhang Guan has ranked among the top three in the world.
With this update of the ATP world rankings, the 32 seeded players at Wimbledon have also been released. The first seed is still Federer, the second seed is still Nadal, and Zhang Guan becomes the third seed.
Although the detailed grouping of Wimbledon has not yet come out, the positions of the seed players are fixed. Zhang Guan, as the third seed, was placed in the 2/4 area. If there are no accidents, he will meet Federer in the semi-finals again. , met Nadal in the final.
…
A few days later, the Wimbledon draw was broadcast live.
Zhang Guan's opponent in the first round was named Kimmel Stob, an American. This was another name Zhang Guan had never heard of.
Kimmel Stober is a veteran who was relatively active in the past few years, but did not achieve top results, and in recent years has begun to transform into a sports celebrity. His current world ranking is no longer in the top 50, so he is not a strong opponent.
This is the case in tennis competitions. The higher the seeded players are, the more they will encounter weaker opponents at the beginning. For example, at the Australian Open, they faced seeded players continuously from the second game on. For the current ranking, It is impossible for Zhang Guan, who is ranked third in the world, to happen again.
After the Wimbledon grouping, professional sports commentators also began to express their opinions. However, this time, almost everyone is optimistic that Zhang Guan can successfully enter the semi-finals. Up to 70% of people think that as long as Zhang Guan can Defeating Federer in the semifinals will secure the Wimbledon title. As for the outcome between Zhang Guan and Federer, absolute magnanimity experts also believe that it is a 50-50 situation. For example, the former "King of Wimbledon" Sampras even supported Zhang Guan to win the Wimbledon championship.
In an interview, Sampras said this: "I have placed Zhang Guan as the winner of Wimbledon this year. Zhang Guan has performed well enough this year, and he has won consecutive titles. The champion of the Australian Open and French Open, so far he has not lost any game, or even any set, which is really incredible. What's more important is that Zhang Guan adopts a front-court style of play. Hitting the ball for the first time will undoubtedly allow Zhang Guan to play more aggressively at Wimbledon. And I heard that Zhang Guan has begun to cooperate with Zhang Depei. Zhang Depei was a very smart player back then, and he really played with his brain. , I think Zhang Depei knows what Zhang Guan really needs, and he can keep Zhang Guan and win the Wimbledon championship."
At the same time, among the winning odds offered by British bookmakers, Zhang Guan's winning odds are tied for first place with Federer. This is definitely an amazing odds. Federer is not only ranked number one in the world, he has also won four consecutive Wimbledon titles, which is enough to prove Federer's dominance. This is Zhang Guan's first time participating in Wimbledon, and it is also his first time participating in a grass court game. No one knows how good Zhang Guan is on grass court. It can be said that it is unprecedented to be able to win the same odds as Federer. of.
In fact, even Federer himself said in an interview that Zhang Guan will be the biggest obstacle on his way to five consecutive Wimbledon titles.
…
Zhang Guan browsed the contents of the media and felt a little weird.
"Why has the trend changed? In the past Australian Open and French Open, no one was so optimistic about me. Now under the circumstances, I have become the favorite to win Wimbledon." Zhang Guan sighed with some regret.
"That's because your serve and net skills are very good." Sharapova continued: "After all, it is a grass court. Your high-speed serve can basically score stably as long as you don't make mistakes. If you want to It is almost impossible to get a break from you; and your play in front of the net should be the best among active tennis players. Even if it is your opponent's serve, your play in front of the net is also very threatening. If Those players with weaker serves may not be able to win a set from you!"
"It sounds like I think the Wimbledon champion is mine." Zhang Guan said with a smile.
"But you have to be careful in the first game, don't capsize in the gutter." Sharapova then reminded.
"Why, my opponent, the American named... Oh, yes, the guy named Gimelstob, is he a crazy knife? He is very powerful when he is in good condition?" Zhang Guan then asked.
Sharapova shook her head: "Gimelstob is not very good, but the court you play on has a nickname."
"What nickname?" Zhang Guan asked.
"Champion's graveyard. Also called the seed graveyard." Sharapova continued: "In the games played there, seeded players are usually eliminated by lower-ranked players, including Sampras, Agassi, and Federer in 2002. There are also some higher-ranked single players who are not that famous, but they also failed there."
…
On June 25, the 2007 Wimbledon Tennis Open officially started.
Zhang Guan, on the other hand, appeared as the third seed in the tournament at Wimbledon Court No. 2, which is known as the "champion graveyard" and "seed graveyard". His opponent is unseeded American veteran Kimmel Stober. This game is also the opening game of this year's Wimbledon on Court No. 2.
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