Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 83 He finally acknowledged my strength (34)

Zhou Yuan doesn't have the habit of sleeping in late, especially as he gets older. He doesn't need much sleep anymore. Often, while others are still sound asleep, he's already up brushing his teeth and washing his face, and he even prepares breakfast for them.

After finishing his run, Zhou Yuan sat down at the dining table a while later.

While eating the meat buns his wife had made, Zhou Yuan finally had a moment to pick up his phone to check the morning news. He opened it and saw a WeChat message from Gu Cheng.

"Isn't that kid playing in the Australian Open wildcard tournament? How does he have time to text me?"

Zhou Yuan muttered something to himself, then looked at the message and saw that it had been sent at 1 a.m.

If it weren't for the mention of Yu Haoyang in the message, he would have suspected that Gu Cheng's phone had been stolen. What normal person would send a WeChat message to someone at 1 a.m.?

That's why he has the habit of silencing his phone every night; otherwise, receiving a WeChat message late at night would probably scare him half to death.

"You brat, texting me in the middle of the night, look what I'm up to disturb your sweet dreams this morning."

As Zhou Yuan muttered to himself, he had already dialed Gu Cheng's number.

"Coach Zhou, you're up so early?"

There were also sounds of panting as he spoke.

"What are you doing?"

"running."

Zhou Yuan subconsciously looked up at the clock on the wall; it was just before 7:30. "You went to bed so late yesterday, why are you up so early this morning going for a run?"

Zhou Yuan was somewhat surprised. Based on his understanding of young people, after staying up all night, they should at least sleep until after nine o'clock, and those who can sleep a little longer can even sleep until they get up for lunch.

Some of them didn't get up until the afternoon.

He called Gu Cheng, not expecting Gu Cheng to answer, since everyone usually silences their phones before bed and no one would answer anyway.

Unexpectedly, Gu Cheng was so self-disciplined.

"Now I know why you play tennis so well. At your age, getting out of bed is a huge challenge, let alone running."

"I'm used to it," Gu Cheng said calmly.

After joining the Seigaku Tennis Club, Inui's training plan was much more insane than it is now. The worst part was that if you didn't complete it, you had to drink all sorts of dark, unhealthy research drinks. He suffered a lot from it back then.

But after a while, I got used to it.

"I almost forgot, congratulations on your first official competition championship." Zhou Yuan said with a smile, his tone showing no surprise.

In his eyes, let alone an Australian Open wildcard tournament, it wouldn't be surprising if Gu Cheng won the championship in a higher-level event, given his strength.

"Thank you."

"By the way, what did you mean by that message you sent me last night?" Zhou Yuan suddenly remembered the important matter.

Gu Cheng got off the treadmill, walked to the window, and looked at the distant mountains: "Senior Zhang Ming called me last night. He told me not to wait until next year, but to participate directly in the ITF Junior Tournament at the beginning of next month."

Zhou Yuan nodded: "With your strength, there is indeed no need to waste time. You'll be playing sooner or later anyway, so playing sooner will help you accumulate ranking points and compete in the four junior Grand Slams, which will give you the opportunity to qualify for the ATP Challenger Series."

"With ATP Challenger qualification, ATP ranking points, and a place in the top 100, you'll be eligible to play in the four Grand Slam tournaments and other top-level events."

"but……"

Zhou Yuan paused for a moment, his tone tinged with doubt: "Zhang Ming has played in many ATP tournaments. Logically speaking, if you really want to play professionally, wouldn't it be better to skip the ITF junior tournaments and go straight to the ITF Hope tournaments?"

“ITF Hope Series ranking points can directly qualify you for ATP Challenger Series, while going through ITF Junior Series would take much longer.”

"Did he forget or..."

Gu Cheng explained, "Senior Zhang Ming said that while we are still young, we can win the Junior Grand Slam while playing in the ITF Junior Tournament. Then we will be the only player in the world to have won both the Junior Grand Slam and the Golden Grand Slam."

Just as Zhou Yuan was still confused, Gu Cheng's voice came through his ear again: "I think he's right. Anyway, we have plenty of time, so it's good to take it along the way."

Incidentally?

Did they win the Grand Slam for teenagers?

Holy crap! Are young people these days all so confident?
Faced with Gu Cheng's rather arrogant words, Zhou Yuan, for some reason, felt that what Gu Cheng said made a lot of sense.

If you can win the Grand Slam for teenagers, why not take it?
This is a feat that no one has ever accomplished before.

Among professional tennis players, there are very few who have won all four Grand Slam titles, and even fewer who have won all four junior Grand Slam titles. Moreover, these individuals have only won one or two of them.

Especially among juniors, no one has ever won more than two of the four Grand Slam titles. As for a Grand Slam, that's a legend, something many people wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Even those who crushed their opponents in professional matches, like Nadal and Djokovic, often only won a single title, and some even only reached the semi-finals or quarter-finals.

If Gu Cheng succeeds, he will truly be recorded in history.

No, no!

What am I even thinking about?

Zhou Yuan tried to control his wandering thoughts and coughed lightly: "If that's the case, then you should participate in the junior ITF events. But don't put too much pressure on yourself. Although the four junior Grand Slams can't compare to the real four Grand Slams, the players who can enter these four events are all very strong."

"Of course, with your ability, there is no problem, but in that case, you will have a lot of competitions in the second year, and you may even have to travel all over the world all year round."

"You're still young, I'm worried your body can't handle it."

"Senior Zhang Ming said he plans to help me find an agent."

"That's it..."

Zhou Yuan was slightly surprised. Zhang Ming had been too nice to Gu Cheng. However, considering Gu Cheng's strength, he could understand Zhang Ming's actions.

In other words, Gu Cheng doesn't need a coach. Otherwise, he would want to make a comeback, follow Gu Cheng all over the country, climb to the top step by step, and witness a miracle happen.

Zhou Yuan snapped out of his daze and suddenly realized what Gu Cheng wanted to do with him... no, he should say he wanted to see Yu Haoyang.

"You want to team up with Yu Haoyang for doubles, right?"

"Yes, Coach Zhou, could you ask Senior Yu Haoyang for me?" Zhou Yuan smiled and agreed: "No problem, I can even answer for you right now. Anyway, he's going to play in the ITF tournament, and he's probably worried about finding a doubles team right now. Asking him will solve his urgent problem."

"Really?"

"Of course I would lie to you about something like this."

Zhou Yuan pretended to be angry; this kid actually doubted him.

"That's great. I was worried that Yu Haoyang would be a tool and he would be unhappy if I didn't give him a share of the money. Now that you've said that, I'm relieved."

"Then I'll trouble you to tell Senior Yu Haoyang about this."

"and many more!"

"What do you say?"

Zhou Yuan thought he was hallucinating, so he asked again, "What exactly do you mean by saying that Yu Haoyang should be used as a tool and not given any money?"

"You're not thinking of keeping the doubles championship prize money for yourself, are you?"

"No... is that okay?"

Gu Cheng paused, realizing that Zhang Ming's words earlier seemed to suggest it was a good idea!
Zhou Yuan said helplessly, "It's not that it's impossible, it's just that this kind of thing has never happened before!"

He had a bit of a headache dealing with someone like Gu Cheng who didn't play by the rules.

In the past, it wasn't uncommon for doubles players to receive less money, but it's absolutely unprecedented for someone like Gu Cheng to not want to receive a single cent.

Considering Gu Cheng's strength, Zhou Yuan roughly understood what the kid was planning.

I'll help you win a doubles championship and get ranking points, but you can't take any money, not a single penny.

From Gu Cheng's perspective, there's absolutely no problem with this. In fact, if word gets out, some players who participate in ITF junior tournaments but lack the skill and have no chance of winning might actually be willing to be this tool, and might even forgo the prize money and pay out of their own pockets.

But this is something that's not easy to bring up!
Isn't that looking down on others?
Who could stand hearing that if they cared about saving face?
As a coach, he knew Yu Haoyang's personality all too well. If he were to tell Yu Haoyang about this, his student would probably explode on the spot.

Gu Cheng's choice to use Yu Haoyang as a tool was actually a great thing for Haoyang. Anyway, he was sure to win the doubles championship with Gu Cheng, and his ranking points would not be low. When Gu Cheng was eating meat, he didn't forget to throw you the bones with meat on them. No one could refuse such a thing.

but……

Zhou Yuan hesitated for a long time before finally agreeing: "Okay, I'll go talk to him about it first. As for whether he agrees or not, I can't do anything about it. But I'll give you the result as soon as possible. If that doesn't work, you can go to Zhang Ming and ask him if he has any suitable candidates."

"Excuse me."

"It's no trouble at all. Just don't forget to give me an autograph when you become really famous."

"it is good."

Gu Cheng readily agreed.

The two chatted for a couple more minutes before hanging up.

Gu Cheng stepped back onto the treadmill and set the speed to around 5 kilometers per hour for a brisk walk.

On the other end of the line, just after hanging up, Zhou Yuan's wife, with her hair tied up, came out of the room: "Who were you calling so early in the morning?"

"A student."

"Can your students get up this early?"

"He wasn't a student I taught; he was a kid who participated in the middle school tennis tournament before."

"I'll just say it."

Zhou Yuan's face darkened.

"By the way, is Yu Haoyang still in China?"

"He should be going abroad in a few days, right? There's an ITF junior tournament in December, right? He should have signed up."

"So why did this student come to you?"

"It's related to Yu Haoyang. I'm planning to team up with him for doubles, and he asked me to ask Haoyang for his opinion."

"Then why don't you ask for them? It's not a big deal."

"It's nothing major, it's just a bit... you know."

"Which one?"

"Go wash up first, let me think about how to bring this up with Haoyang later."

……

After the two finished eating, Zhou Yuan was sitting on the sofa watching the morning news. At that moment, his aunt was replaying the Australian Open wildcard tournament that had ended the day before. Watching Gu Cheng standing on the podium, he suddenly felt a sense of longing and anticipation.

Maybe it won't be long before that kid steps onto the stage of the four Grand Slams!
Just then, he heard his wife's voice calling out, "Old Zhou, it's Haoyang calling."

Zhou Yuan quickly got up and picked up the phone. Soon he heard Yu Haoyang's question: "Coach, did you have any questions about the teammate I mentioned to you a couple of days ago? How's it going? Are there any suitable candidates?"

"Yes, there is one. Someone specifically asked you yesterday, wanting to team up with you for doubles, but I don't know what your opinion is."

"Who?"

"Gu Cheng."

"Gu Cheng?"

Yu Haoyang was taken aback and quickly asked, "Did he ask you to ask me if I wanted to team up with him for doubles?"

"Correct."

"Has my strength finally been recognized by him?" Yu Haoyang's tone was filled with joy.

Zhou Yuan: "..."

(End of this chapter)