Chapter 21 Chapter 17 Wimbledon

2006 seemed to be the year my luck turned. In May, I participated in the French Open for the first time, defeated No. 27 seed Chuck Vitadze, and entered the top 32. Ten days later, in the Birmingham DFS Classic, I reached the third round.Throughout the clay court season, my form has been good, and my world ranking has risen to 30th.This is also the first time a Chinese player has entered the world ranking TOP30.Many old friends called to congratulate me, and I was very happy myself.Everything before seems to be no problem now, and the anxiety, pain, and sense of crisis have all become a thing of the past.

That Li Na full of positive energy is back. After the Birmingham Classic, I still have two races in the Netherlands.The long journey from Birmingham to the Netherlands, with planes and buses all the way, made me exhausted. The game schedule is very tight. I went to the Netherlands in the morning and went to training in the afternoon, because the game will be held the next day.I am not alone in this competition, because there are teammates from the Chinese national team who came to participate together.I played a round on the day of the game, and when I was concentrating on how to break my opponent's serve, I suddenly twisted my neck!It hurts!Can't even turn around.I immediately froze in place, and the referee immediately went to ask for the doctor of the game. While waiting for the doctor, I was sitting in the lounge and surfing the Internet. When my teammates called me, I couldn’t turn my neck to agree. I could only use the spine as the axis of the whole person The teammate turned around, looking quite embarrassed.

The doctor of the competition took me to the WTA infirmary, gave me a massage, put on plaster, and let me rest for two days.Following the doctor's advice, I didn't dare to move my neck for two whole days, but with little effect.Wimbledon is about to start, so what to do? With the mood of "death is certain", I went to the venue of Wimbledon with several other teammates of the national team. When I was training on the court of Wimbledon, I still had the weird straight neck. My friends were worried about me. At this time, we met a Chinese student who was studying here. He said that he knew a Chinese medicine doctor, so he could ask the Chinese medicine doctor to give me acupuncture and moxibustion.

It was Saturday, and Wimbledon started on Monday. I think, this is the end of the matter, there is no harm in seeing Chinese medicine.At this time, I was ready to go back to my country at any time. At this juncture, an Indian doctor at the Wimbledon WTA Infirmary saw me with a stiff neck.I told him that my neck was uncomfortable and how I was injured.The Indian doctor didn't say much, and put his hand on my neck, and broke it with a "click", and the neck was miraculously healed! Surprised and delighted, I expressed my thanks repeatedly, and told everyone that an Indian doctor in WTA had rejuvenated my neck and healed my neck with a light stroke.This doctor has probably treated many players before, and everyone is deeply impressed by his medical skills. Many athletes immediately know: "Oh! He!" Then they told me that they used to see this doctor when their necks were fine. After massaging, the result was that I couldn't turn my head.Everyone congratulated me and said that I was one of the lucky ones in a million.

It's really auspicious people have their own natural appearance! This is my first Wimbledon.As it turned out, I was really lucky this time.On Monday, suddenly the weather was not good and it rained heavily. Wimbledon was forced to be postponed for one day.I have another day off.On Tuesday, I played against a French girl in the first round. I played easy and won quickly. This is somewhat beyond my expectations, Wimbledon is a grass game, and I have never practiced on grass.To participate in Wimbledon, I didn’t have much confidence in my heart. Before Wimbledon, I joked with my teammates: “I don’t know how to play grass. If you come to Wimbledon, you can only get the money for the first round, and then go home. "

The reason why I am not familiar with grassland is that there are no two kinds of venues in China, grassland and red clay, and I have no idea about these two venues.This is also the weakness of many other athletes.Two of the four major open tournaments are played on hard courts, and we spend about 8 months a year on hard courts. When I was young, I practiced on the gray sandy ground in Wuhan, and I still have a little impression of the sandy ground. This impression allows me to make do with the red soil. I can slide a little bit—like skating on dry land. That kind of footwork, but playing on grass, it's a whole other story.

In grass court games, the friction between the ball and the field is small when it hits the ground, and the rebound speed of the ball is fast and irregular. Therefore, the requirements for the player's reaction, running style and skills are very high.As soon as a person goes on the grass, the center of gravity must be lowered immediately, and it is even more impossible to slide. This is a great challenge for many athletes. From hard court to clay court, I still have a little bit of childhood experience to learn from, and there are two or three weeks in between to allow me to practice and adapt to the venue.But from clay to grass, the huge change is really overwhelming. Every time I go on the grass, I feel at a loss, and I don’t even know how to move.And Wimbledon can provide you with very short practice time, I can only adapt while playing.

Because I was a small seeded player, after winning the first round, I met with Kuznetsova.This game was relatively difficult. In the third set, I had already led by 4:1. If I handled the next ball well, it might be 5:1, but I missed this opportunity. Kuznetsova immediately Followed up and pulled the score to 3:4 all the way, I thought nervously: It's over, I'm back to the same starting line again.Unexpectedly, the next few points went smoothly, and finally I won the set 6:3. Winning the top 10 players in the four major open tournaments, to me, is somewhat different from beating the top 10 players on the tour, which seems to have a more formal meaning.I feel that I am moving to a higher level step by step.

After defeating Kuznetsova, I entered the round of 16, and the next opponent is Vajdisova of the Czech Republic.Coincidentally, Vajdisova and I played on the same court where Kurz was played.I was in good shape that day, and I won the first two sets. Before the third set, Wai went to the bathroom. I thought to myself, whoever breaks the serve first between us will win. This belief is very strong. firm. After playing, I really broke her serve. I cheered for myself in my heart, and then won the game like a broken bamboo. I was very excited when I won, and I yelled a few times to cheer myself up.

After Wai, I entered the top eight, and my opponents were all top ten players. This is the furthest I have gone so far-I have reached the quarterfinals in the four major open tournaments.I participated in Wimbledon as the first seed player from China in the history of the Grand Slam. When I left, the prefix in front of my name became "the first Chinese player to enter the quarterfinals since the Grand Slam".Previously, the best record of a Chinese player was Zheng Jie's 2004 Roland Garros round of sixteen record.From this day on, foreign media began to pay attention to me.I finally graced the Western world's vision.

After entering the semi-finals, I met the powerful Belgian veteran Clijsters. She defeated her Polish opponent in only two sets in the previous round. 55 minutes.Against Clijsters, I gave it my all and was still forced into mistakes, Clijsters won and my Wimbledon tour was over. However, six days later, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi defeated the former world number one Suarez and Pasquale's cross-country combination and won the women's doubles championship at Wimbledon. Tennis is a highly professionalized global mainstream sport. It can be said that it is the "big ball" of "small balls" and is recognized by universal sports values.Among tennis events, the most influential ones are the four major tennis tournaments. The Wimbledon tennis tournament with a long history has a detached status. Now, Chinese people have also entered the four major tennis tournaments, and they are becoming more and more eye-catching. No matter from the perspective of sports or business, this is a piece of news that lifts the spirits of Chinese people and foreign media at the same time. I am very happy to have teammates from the national team play together. When my compatriots appear on the sidelines, the loneliness and irritability disappear.Even though I was standing on the grass in Wimbledon, I could still vaguely hear the cheers from the motherland from the far east. At that moment, I knew that I was no longer an island, and that each of us was connected. On July 16, I won two singles victories in the Confederations Cup World Group play-offs. In this competition, the Chinese team defeated the German team 4:1, entering the top eight in the world for the first time in history. The world ranking has also risen from the original 13th to the 7th. In August of this year, my world ranking entered TOP20. In September, I went to the US Open. There was no abnormality in the first two rounds. In the third round, I won 12 games in a row after losing one game first. Reversed the famous French player Pierce and reached the top 16 of the US Open for the first time. So far, I have made some progress in the four major open tournaments, and finally ended the season with a year-end ranking of 21st. However, I faintly felt that my body was beginning to send a warning signal to me: the pain accumulated over the years was slowly showing its power, and I was worried about it.The same monster that devoured so many great players is now stalking me.I don't know if I can win against it.