Chapter 57: Charging into the Finals and Reaping the Rewards!

Jiang Hong paid no attention to his opponent's emotional state.

It was at this moment that Jiang Hong realized their match had concluded the earliest among all.

Instead of rushing back to the hotel to rest, he stayed to observe the other matches. Among the people there, Jiang Hong only knew Zhang Long.

Zhang Long's match was quite fiercely contested, having just reached the latter half of the second set.

The score of the first set was 7:5, and the second set was tied at 4:4!

To be honest, both Zhang Long and his opponent made a fair number of unforced errors during the match.

Ultimately, Zhang Long proved to be slightly superior.

He successfully claimed victory and advanced to the second round.

Zhang Long clenched his fist with a beaming smile. People's joys and sorrows are never truly shared, and his opponent was far less cheerful, walking away with his head lowered in utter frustration.

"Coach, I won!"

After shaking hands with his opponent and the referee, Zhang Long ran up to his coach with great excitement and said.

"Getting proud over such a tiny achievement? If you managed to secure Jiang Hong's results, your tail would be pointing straight up into the sky!" Although Coach Zhang seemed to be reprimanding him, the smile on his face was impossible to hide.

Hearing this, Zhang Long scratched the back of his head.

Turning around, he spotted Jiang Hong not far away.

"Old Jiang, you're here too!"

Jiang Hong walked over and first greeted Coach Zhang.

"Coach Zhang, long time no see!"

"Long time no see!"

Coach Zhang smiled and nodded.

Although Jiang Hong had previously declined the coach's invitation to join them, their interactions remained pleasant.

"I remember your match started around the same time as mine. How did you finish so quickly? I recall your opponent had a ranking!" Zhang Long said, somewhat surprised by Jiang Hong's speed.

"Just got lucky. In the latter half of the match, my opponent's mental game collapsed," Jiang Hong replied casually.

Zhang Long nodded, recalling the practice match he had played with Jiang Hong a couple of days ago.

He couldn't help muttering inwardly: Playing against this guy really does make one's mental resilience crumble easily!

After a brief chat, Coach Zhang had to take Zhang Long away to review the match footage.

Not lingering any longer, Jiang Hong bid them farewell and returned to the hotel.

After jogging five kilometers on the treadmill in the gym, he went back to his room to review match tapes.

Just as he finished watching, his computer suddenly started coughing wildly as if it had caught a cold.

Opening QQ, he saw a message pop up from Li Hua.

"Old Jiang, I'm so envious of you. We're all stuck taking exams, and you're out there having fun!"

"By the way, how did your match go today?"

"Are you feeling confident about winning the championship this time?"

Calculating the time, the exams should take another two days to fully conclude.

"Sigh, I'm envious of you too. To be able to sit in a bright classroom and study, while I can only suffer and play hard under the blazing sun!"

"As for the match result, of course it was an easy win!"

Seeing Jiang Hong's reply, Li Hua immediately fired back a few cleaver emojis.

Over the next few days, Jiang Hong's opponents weren't particularly formidable. He cruised through smoothly all the way to the semi-finals of the tournament.

His opponent this time was a national team player!

Jiang Hong guessed that the tournament draw committee might have arranged it intentionally.

An internal showdown ensured at least one homegrown player would reach the finals.

After all, winning the title at a 10K tournament meant he was no ordinary competitor on the domestic circuit.

Zhang Long had been eliminated by a foreign player in the second round.

However, he wasn't too dejected himself, remarking that earning ranking points meant the trip wasn't made in vain.

His opponent, Li Yan, held an ATP ranking in the 700s.

Upon seeing Jiang Hong, Li Yan's eyes burned with competitive spirit.

Although his ranking was higher than Jiang Hong's, ever since his junior days, he had yet to capture a professional singles title.

Yet Jiang Hong had seemingly emerged out of nowhere to claim an ITF circuit championship.

Consequently, he was fiercely curious about Jiang Hong's true strength!

After the referee verified their identities, Li Yan won the right to serve via a coin toss.

Li Yan had specifically done his homework on Jiang Hong prior to the match.

Jiang Hong's serving technique was extremely ferocious and possessed great velocity!

His overall skill set was also quite well-rounded.

Li Yan immediately stepped up to serve, tossing the ball high and opting for a topspin serve!

The service speed wasn't particularly fast, but after bouncing, it reached a high altitude and skidded quite a distance toward the backcourt!

Seeing his opponent's movement, Jiang Hong instantly adjusted his positioning.

Instead of backing away from the serve, he actively stepped forward to meet the ball.

"Right now!"

The height was just right. Jiang Hong swung his arm decisively, striking the tennis ball with a flat, powerful pull.

The tennis ball shot straight toward Li Yan's vacant left court!

Being a national team member, Li Yan was hardly someone who would miss a routine return!

Though his posture was somewhat awkward, he managed to blindly bunt the ball back just before it bounced a second time.

Facing such a routine, gift-wrapped ball from Li Yan, Jiang Hong had no intention of letting it go.

He rapidly launched a fierce attack, changing the direction of the ball deep into the outside corner.

Facing this shot, Li Yan was powerless and could only watch helplessly as he surrendered the point.

15:0!

After losing the first point, Li Yan didn't sit back and wait for defeat.

Instead, he decided to switch up his service tactics.

A flat serve!

The speed of this serve was blistering, with the tennis ball traveling almost entirely rotation-free, cutting through the air like a straight line!

As his opponent served, Jiang Hong adjusted his position in a split second.

"Thwack!"

Just as Jiang Hong had run a few steps, he heard a dull thud.

The tennis ball caught the net!

First serve fault!

While a flat serve offered high velocity, it also carried a much higher error rate!

Following the first serve fault, Li Yan's second serve turned considerably more conservative.

Caught off guard by Jiang Hong's sudden change of direction during a brief rally, he was easily beaten.

In the opening game, Li Yan managed to secure only a single service point before Jiang Hong broke his serve!

Faced with Jiang Hong's service games, Li Yan had only two words echoing in his mind:

Despair!

Sitting in the stands, Xie Hong, the head coach of the national men's tennis team, watched as Li Yan offered virtually no resistance against Jiang Hong.

Yet no look of disappointment crossed his face!

Instead, a glint of excitement flickered in his eyes.

"Where on earth did this kid Jiang Hong pop out from?"

Although Li Yan wasn't the top-ranked male player in the country, he was certainly among the upper echelon of the national team!

Even the country's number one player wouldn't be able to reduce Li Yan to such a disheveled state!

Though both belonged to the national tennis team, the men's and women's squads were worlds apart.

The women's team boasted several players in the WTA top 100, with Li Na and Zheng Jie even breaking into the world top 20 and capturing Grand Slam doubles titles.

As for the men's team, finding a single player inside the ATP top 300 at present was impossible.

Thus, the direction of the Tennis Association's funding allocations was self-explanatory.

And this Jiang Hong appeared exceptionally talented.

While he couldn't squeeze out the current national men's number one for the Olympic singles spot,

Jiang Hong possessed impressive skills at both the net and the baseline. If he were transitioned into a doubles specialist, he might just have a shot at competing in the Beijing Olympics next year.

Though Li Yan continued to put up a stubborn resistance, he remained unable to turn the tide.

One could say he was thoroughly suppressed by Jiang Hong in every department.

The match lasted just over an hour, with Jiang Hong taking the victory in straight sets, 6:1, 6:2.

He successfully advanced to the tournament's final.

At this point, Jiang Hong was guaranteed to earn 16 ranking points and $1,600 in prize money.

This haul already surpassed his harvest from the Shanghai tournament.