Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 142 A Thousand Years Old, Vanished from the Sky

"Janowicz seems to be playing quite well in the second set! He actually managed to take two points from Gu Cheng. He was completely dominated in the first set, I really didn't expect him to play so well in the second set."

"It's true that Janowicz played well, but it's also largely due to the fact that Gu Cheng couldn't consistently hit Tannhäuser's serve."

"So... Tannhäuser's serve is very physically demanding?"

"Probably. Anyway, in the Prince of Tennis anime, it seems like Atobe couldn't keep playing that serve for long because it puts a lot of strain on his arm. If he kept playing it, Gu Cheng probably wouldn't be able to participate in the upcoming matches."

"I find the current situation increasingly incomprehensible. I have a feeling that if Gu Cheng can't come up with something new in the third set, Janowicz might launch a counterattack."

"Counterattack? That's hilarious. This is my first time watching a match. Gu Cheng already has three match points. Even if Yanowitz launches a counterattack, how far can he go? Besides, Gu Cheng hasn't even used the Tezuka Zone yet. How is Yanowitz supposed to fight back?"

……

"Holy crap! I forgot about that."

"Gu Shen, please, use the Tezuka Zone and win the match 3-0. We really can't let Janowitz get a single point! Otherwise, I'll explode."

"How much did they buy upstairs?"

"Stop talking, it's tiring to talk about it. I almost forgot that Gu Shen has always liked to take it slow since the previous matches. Even if he could finish the match quickly, he likes to drag it out for a while. As long as it doesn't affect his physical strength too much, he will drag it out for as long as possible."

"Alexander!"

"If Gu Shen doesn't step up his game, Yanowitz might actually take a point."

At this moment, Gu Cheng, who was resting alone on the sidelines, was unaware that he was shouldering the mission of helping a group of bean warriors get rich.

After assessing his physical condition, he realized that the two rounds had taken a toll on his energy, but it was still within his acceptable range. He couldn't play as casually in the third round as he had in the second.

To prolong the game, push your physical limits as much as possible.

But he had to consider the matches to come.

However, Gu Cheng really had no choice. If he wanted to break through his physical limits, training alone was definitely not enough. He still had to find opportunities in the game and try not to use his skills as much as possible.

However, without using his skills, his basic skills are sufficient to deal with professional players participating in junior tournaments, and his dominance remains strong. But against professional players like Jan Nowitz, who are already among the world's top 100, it would be too difficult without his skills.

Strenuous exertion means that physical energy will be rapidly depleted.

"Let's go all out in the third game." This thought flashed through Gu Cheng's mind.

The halftime break ended quickly.

Amid thunderous applause from the entire stadium, Gu Cheng and Janowicz stepped onto the field one after the other.

Janowicz glanced at the sidelines; the 2-0 scoreline was particularly glaring. However, his expression was much more relaxed than in the first set. As long as Gu Cheng couldn't come up with any new local specialties, he still had a chance.

"However, he also knows Tezuka Domain, which is a very troublesome thing."

Janowitz frowned.

"I can break the spinless shot, but I'm not very proficient at it."

"But... breaking Tezuka's domain shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

Janowitz wasn't entirely sure, but thinking about how Ryoma Echizen had unintentionally broken Tezuka's domain with his less-than-skilled right hand in The Prince of Tennis, he felt a surge of confidence.

If the match can find its rhythm, and given that Tannhäuser can't serve often, he... isn't without a chance to win the third set.

Of course, he wasn't really concerned about the outcome of the match.

With Gu Cheng already holding three match points and being stronger than him, winning the match would be too much of a luxury. The only thing to do is to force Gu Cheng to use as many of his skills as possible.

At this stage, most of the ball skills that Gu Cheng has used do not pose a significant threat to professional players like them who have entered the world's top 100.

However, there are a few specific ball skills that require attention.

At this moment, Gu Cheng was thinking about whether to play his own game or continue using other people's skills.

After a moment's thought, Gu Cheng decided to save his tennis skills for the quarterfinals against Novak Djokovic, the former top seed.

The other tennis skills in Prince of Tennis are different; they've already been exposed, but he just hasn't played them in real life, so it's no different from being exposed.

The only difference is that he didn't play, and many people probably assumed he wouldn't.

Of course, I might have thought he might, but... before we played against each other, I didn't care that much.

"In the third set, I served first, and it's easiest to win points in the service game."

Suddenly, Gu Cheng thought of a guy with long hair. Although he had traveled back to the real world before the national competition even started, he had to admit that the guy was quite strong.

Even Tezuka, when giving it his all, had to unleash his full potential to barely gain the upper hand over his opponent.

Shitenho-ji Temple, a thousand years and a thousand miles away.

When Gu Cheng first watched the National Tournament, he was particularly amazed by the Thousand-Year-Old God's Hidden Form. Back in the world of Prince of Tennis, Gu Cheng had used the Selfless Realm to defeat the God's Hidden Form several times.

Although his figure didn't pose much of a threat to Tezuka, his ball skills were anything but simple.

Whether used as a serve or a return, it is a highly threatening skill.

Moreover, none of the skills they displayed in national competitions were simple.

Most importantly, the Swift serve doesn't have the same limitations as the Tannhäuser serve, so it doesn't put too much strain on the arm, which is the most crucial point.

and……

Anyone who has watched The Prince of Tennis knows that among the seven players with national-level singles skills, Chitose and Tachibana have always been seriously underestimated.

Is it actually underestimated?
Let's start by talking about the seven national-level players, including Tezuka Kunimitsu, Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichiro, Atobe Keigo, Chitose Senri, and Tachibana Kichihei.

There were also Liu Lian'er or Baishi at that time.

Speaking of this, we have to mention Kintaro and Echizen Ryoma, the two youngest guys who performed the best in the National Tournament.

One was someone Chitose himself couldn't match, and the other defeated Sanada and, in the national tournament finals, mastered the light of composure, ultimately defeating Yukimura Seiichi, who was said to have never been defeated.

These two are definitely at the national level or above.

Of course, if we move this timeline back to when these people were in their second year, that is, before Echizen and Kintaro were even in their first year, they were still far from being at the national level.

From the above, we can see that Kintaro (whose skill Chitose is inferior to) and Echizen Ryoma (who defeated Sanada) are surprisingly not listed. These two are definitely at least at the national level. Therefore, the author's initial assessment of national-level singles players was based on the protagonist's performance before entering his first year. In other words, it refers to the singles level of the aforementioned members in their second year.

Among them, Tachibana and Chitose are arguably two seriously underrated individuals.

First, let's talk about Tachibana, specifically Tachibana Yoshihira's singles record.

In his first duel against Hyotei, his opponent was Ryo Anago, and the result was 6-0. Anago was also a regular Hyotei player. Besides Tachibana's own strength, Anago initially looked down on Fudomine, resulting in Tachibana failing to score a single point. The second match was Tachibana vs. Kirihara, with a result of 6-1. This was a more controversial match; some said Tachibana was under too much pressure and didn't play to his full potential, thus losing to Kirihara.

Some people believe that it was the demonized Kirihara who injured Tachibana, which prevented Tachibana from exerting his full power.

But even if we take a step back and assume that Tachibana were to unleash his full power in this match, defeating Kirihara wouldn't be easy, and it's even hard to say whether he could win at all.

why?
Tachibana's national-level strength is at Rikkai University, but during the match against Kirihara, the Rikkai members didn't mention him at all.

Moreover, Kirihara had not yet reached the state of selflessness at that time, which means that all the members of Rikkai University were at least at the national level or near the national level. It is not unfair that Tachibana, as a national level player, lost to Kirihara.

The third match was in the National Tournament between Tachibana and Chitose Senri. Tachibana's special moves were: Raging Lion and Raging Ball. Chitose's special moves were based on the Selflessness Realm, plus the ability to use other moves, Divine Concealment, and Talent Awakening.

Match result: 5:7. This match was a duel between the awakened Tachibana and Chitose, showcasing the strength of a national-level player.

After Chitose's divine concealment was broken, he finally used the power of his selfless state to unleash his talent and finish the match. However, considering this statement, Tachibana's strength is probably about the same as Chitose's when he mastered the power of his talent.

To be precise, Chitose's strength is slightly greater than Tachibana's. One person can defeat another national-level player, so Chitose's strength is quite evident.

However, there are significant differences between national-level and national-level.

This can be seen from the match between Tezuka and Chitose.

In this match, although both were national-level players, Chitose's strength was far inferior to Tezuka's at that time; they were not even in the same league.

His spirit was revealed when Tezuka saw him, and he was immediately imitated. His talent was overwhelmed and he was shut out.

Not to mention Sanada, Atobe, and the survivors.

Although Chitose's techniques seem very powerful, they are still far inferior to those of Sanada, Yukimura, and others, and he might not even be able to score a single point.

Even so, it cannot be said that a thousand years is not strong.

However, Qian Sui's strength is only at the beginner level among national-level experts.

The reason why Chitose disappeared from the scene was simply because the national tournament storyline was shorter, so his performance was not as strong as his other skills.

Most importantly, the "Hidden Strike" is not just a serve, but also a return technique. Given Janowicz's skill level, the probability of him being able to break through the "Hidden Strike" in a short period of time is not high.

Gu Cheng's idea was simple: trade seclusion for a quick victory.

As for whether it will be studied later, that's a matter for later.

Moreover, even if all the tennis skills in Prince of Tennis are thoroughly studied, he still has his own unique skills, which he has only used against players like Zhang Ming so far.

Even Gu Cheng suspected that apart from Zhang Ming, who still remembered the mirror serve, everyone else who had seen it had probably forgotten it.

The mirror serve is a serve that no player in the Australian Open has ever seen before.

Thinking of this,

Gu Cheng stepped back a few steps and stood behind the baseline, his gaze calm and his heart undisturbed.

This was his match point, and the most crucial moment of the entire match.

Janowicz was well aware of this, and he adjusted his position, trying to make a final effort in receiving serves.

However, Gu Cheng gave him no chance. He slowly raised his racket, took a deep breath, and then tossed the ball high into the air, his body relaxed, his movements fluid and precise.

The moment the racket touched the ball, a crisp sound of hitting the ball cut through the air. Gu Cheng's serve flew diagonally like an arrow, and after landing, it suddenly bounced to the outside.

Janowicz quickly started, barely managing to extend his racket.

But at that moment, the tennis ball, which had been rising, suddenly jumped and disappeared from everyone's sight.

Janowitz's racket hit nothing but air.

At that moment, the tennis ball, which had disappeared, suddenly reappeared from the side, leaped out of bounds, and crashed into the advertising board behind it with a thud.

"What the hell! What is this?"

"Can anyone tell me what this is?"

"It wasn't a serve that disappeared, but the ball did disappear."

"Gu Cheng started the third set with a new serve and brought a new local specialty: the 'Shinpei' of Shitenhoji Temple, Chitose Senri!"

"Brilliant!"

"Has he already started using the skills required for the national tournament? He's even revealed his hidden abilities, and his Tannhäuser serve is back in action. Is the realm of 'selflessness' far away?"

"Gu Cheng once hit an invisible serve at the ITF Junior Championship, right? The wind in the wind, the mountain, the forest. That's a national-level skill, but it's still a long way from Lei's."

The audience was stunned for a moment, then gave them thunderous applause.

"15-0!" At this moment, the referee also realized what was happening, and his voice echoed throughout the entire stadium.

"Where are the people who said Gu Cheng would have a relatively difficult time in the third set? Would you like to step forward and repeat what you just said?"

"A counterattack? How is Janowitz supposed to launch a counterattack?!"

A deafening roar of cheers erupted from the stadium, and the crowd rose to their feet to applaud. Many people waved their arms excitedly, celebrating this spectacular match.

Gu Cheng slowly lowered his racket, a faint smile appearing on his lips. He didn't shout excitedly or pump his fist in celebration; instead, he calmly tossed the tennis ball up and immediately served his second serve.

Janowitz has never been involved in the national tournament, or rather, even if he has seen it, he has never studied in detail the skills played by the players in the national tournament.

In his view, those skills were far beyond imagination and impossible to achieve in reality.

That's why Janowicz was caught off guard when he saw Shenyin. Having made no preparations before the match, he had almost no chance to fight back against Shenyin.

The key point is that the principle behind the disappearance of a player is different from that of a serve that disappears.

The disappearing serve is a high-speed outward flight, and its trajectory is relatively easy to predict. However, the vanishing serve is different; its flight trajectory is variable, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty for Janowicz to return it.

"30-0!"

"40-0!"

"Game score: 1-0, Gu Cheng is in the lead!"

It feels so good to score points against top 100 professional players in the world using my skills.

Gu Cheng liked this feeling. For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to the world of Prince of Tennis, back to the Kanto Tournament, and back to the overwhelming excitement of the upcoming National Tournament.

That feeling of defeating your opponent with your skills is the most beautiful aspect of competitive sports.

(End of this chapter)