552 A Dream Come True (1/2)

Wiggins was the best tennis coach in the U.S. He used to coach many players that went on to play in the grand slam. Of course, his fee was the highest. $20,000 for one week. For tennis coaching, this was ridiculously high.

The reason Wiggins dared to charge so much for his services was that his training was worth that price, especially for young players who needed to work on their technique. With guidance from Wiggins, these players improved by leaps and bounds.

Zhen Chen was exactly the kind of young player whose technique needed work. It was fair to say that his weaknesses were abundant; that is how Wiggins saw him. The current Zhen Chen was too weak. He was filled with mistakes and shortcomings.

Zhen Chen was, after all, a player who grew up in China. The training standard and the overall tennis environment in China was far from those in the Western countries. So, compared to Western athletes, he had lots of room for improvement.

The more weaknesses an athlete had, the more areas he could improve on. This meant that his area for improvement was large. For athletes like that, every weakness remedied was a big step towards getting better.

Zhen Chen was just like that. Based on his B+ talent potential grading, although it was impossible for him to win the grand slam, it was still possible for him to make it into the main tournament. That meant that he could make it into the top 100 in the world rankings. However, he only made it to the top 200. The reason was that, in China, his training was so bad that a lot of his weaknesses were never improved upon.

After arriving in Coach Wiggins' training camp, Zhen Chen's main goal was to be transformed by Coach Wiggins. He tried to change and remedy the various mistakes in his technique.

Zhen Chen had never received the guidance of a world-class tennis coach like that before. To Zhen Chen, an opportunity like this was incredibly valuable. Every sentence, every word Coach Wiggins told him, was as holy as the Bible. Zhen Chen executed Wiggins' suggestions without deviation, he did not dare to be sloppy.

Coach Wiggins also lived up to his name. Under him, Zhen Chen improved each day. Although the entire length of the training was a mere five days, under Coach Wiggins' direct one-on-one guidance, Zhen Chen improved significantly. He grew a great deal.

Although Zhen Chen wasn't the best, he wasn't the worst either. After receiving the best training around, he had been reinvigorated.

It was as if he had was a piece of jade processed by a master carver. A mineral of the highest quality would be ridiculously expensive without any sort of processing. However, after going through the hands of a master jade carver, its price would skyrocket. It might even be regarded as a priceless treasure.

If it were a less valuable type of jade rock, its quality would be less than a high-quality one. However, if the one responsible for processing that lesser jade were a master jade carver, then, after processing, the value of the lesser jade would still significantly increase. Although it was far from comparable to the higher-quality jade, it was still a very highly valued item.

Zhen Chen did not have an S grade talent, he didn't even reach an A grade. His B+ talent could be regarded as lesser quality jade, but Coach Wiggins was clearly a top-class ”Jade carver.” After his processing, even if he were a lesser jade, he could still be sold for a decent price.

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Among the four grand slam tournaments held every year, the first was the Australian Open. It was usually organized in the last two weeks of January every year, in Melbourne, Australia.

The second was the French Open. It was usually organized annually in either May or June. The third was the Wimbledon Open. It was the tournament with the longest history, and was usually held in the month of June or July. The last tournament was the U.S. Open, which was usually held in August or September.

It was an Olympic year. So, all international competitions took a step back for the Olympics. The dates of the French and Wimbledon Opens were moved forward, while the U.S. Open was slightly postponed.

Before the U.S. Open, the qualifier and wildcard tournaments began. The participants in the qualifier were based on the world rankings, and the wild card tournament consisted mainly of American players. It was the U.S. Open, so they had to take better care of the American players.

The qualifier was a single-round elimination tournament, which meant that, as long as one could win three rounds, one would most certainly advance to the main tournament. Losing once meant elimination. For every player taking part in the qualifier, every match was a death match.

Zhen Chen's ranking was around 200. Among the 128 participants of the qualifier, he was among the middle-lower rankings. The opponent of his first match was most certainly someone with a higher ranking.

Zhen Chen was very nervous, as this was his first time in the qualifier of a grand slam tournament. He performed terribly in the first round, and Zhen Chen's opponent was clearly not participating in the qualifier for the first time. His head was in the game right away, so he easily beat Zhen Chen with the score of six - two.

In the men's single of the grand slam, the main tournament utilized a system of three victories in five rounds. The qualifiers and the wildcard tournaments both used only a two-out-of-three rounds victory system. This meant that after losing the first round, the opponent could win with the next round.