Chapter 22 Chapter Eighteen

My start to 2007 was actually pretty good.First, he defeated Russian star Dementieva at the Sydney Open in January and successfully entered the semi-finals.This is also the first time I beat a top ten player in the world after beating Schneider and Kuznetsova.So far, my world ranking has risen to 16th, creating the highest world ranking for a Chinese player. After that, I played the Australian Open as the 19th seed.In the first three rounds, I advanced very smoothly. In the third round, I defeated No. 9 seed Russian star Safina in straight sets.Entering the 1/8 finals, I met the No. 6 seed, Princess Hingis of Switzerland. After winning a set first, I was reversed and ended up in the top 16.But this is my personal best at the Australian Open.Hingis is the world's top player. In the confrontation with her, I did not blindly be beaten passively, but found some ways to compete with her. Although I lost the game in the end, it made me realize that I am the best in the world. The gap between masters is not as big as I imagined, and it is still helpful to improve my self-confidence.

At the American Indian Wells Tennis Tournament in March, I eliminated Jankovic and Zvonareva in the fourth round and quarter-finals respectively to enter the semi-finals.It is said that this is the first time a Chinese singles player has appeared in the semi-finals of this event. I participated in the Miami Masters in late March. It is worth mentioning that in the round of 16, I reversed the Belgian star Clijsters in the third set.She was ranked No. 2 in the world in 2005 and No. 5 in the world in 2006. She has won many Grand Slam titles and has the reputation of "Belgian Twins" with Haining.Last year's Wimbledon was because I lost to Clijsters and said goodbye to the game. Now that I have found a chance to win back, my confidence in myself has increased by one point.

But just when my self-confidence was soaring and the outside world was generally optimistic about me, an accident happened. The clay court season started in April 2007, and I was going to play in Europe for nearly two months. This time, Jiang Shan accompanied me all the way - after I returned from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Jiang Shan still stayed at the school to study, and he successfully completed four years Undergraduate studies, and then entered the Hubei team as a tennis coach.At my repeated request, the national team transferred Jiang Shan to serve as my full-time coach.

Tennis is a lonely sport.This is especially true for players like me who often go abroad alone. The European season will last at least three months. If there are no players and coaches from the national team, these three months will be like a long hard labor.Even with a coach, there are times when you're inconvenient and you want to have family by your side.In this circle, when young athletes play games, they are usually accompanied by their parents. When they grow up, the people who accompany them are replaced by brothers or husbands.Foreign players basically have their own fixed small teams. When playing, players will bring their partners, physical coaches, technical coaches and therapists, and some will bring their families to the game.At that time, the national team also hired a foreign coach in my name, but after the coach came to China, he had to take on the task of guiding the entire team, so he had very little energy to spend on me.

I can't do two things at the same time. I have always been afraid that when I am concentrating on playing, I will be distracted to think about such questions as "have you registered for the game" and "have you booked the hotel room".Some of the other players on the team had their own personal trainers, and I thought, I need a personal trainer too.No one is more suitable for this role than Jiang Shan, so I applied to the national team to transfer Jiang Shan to be my coach. After much thought, the national team agreed to the application.I have always been a straightforward person, while Jiang Shan is more rational, thinks more about things, and is more thoughtful.With Jiang Shan as a buffer between me and the national team, our efficiency in dealing with problems has improved significantly. His existence has effectively reduced the friction between me and the national team. I no longer feel lonely when I go out to play. Jiang Shan is A competent personal trainer plus assistant, he can help me deal with the problems that I didn't expect.

This time, however, we encountered a problem that even he hadn't thought of. At the end of April 2007, Jiang Shan and I arrived in Europe. It was the time when spring flowers were blooming. While admiring the beautiful scenery of ancient European flowers, I suddenly found that I started to sneeze non-stop, about thirty or forty times a day. It hasn't stopped since arriving at the station.This is really an unprecedented strange thing! After going on like this for two months, I switched to playing on grass, and suddenly one day I felt discomfort in my right rib.I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but later it became more and more serious, and the pain under the ribs became more and more obvious. When it was a week before Wimbledon, I found that as long as I took a deep breath, there would be obvious pain under the ribs immediately.

Originally, there was a match a week before Wimbledon, and I discussed with the national team to cancel it, so that I could give myself enough time to rest.It may be that I have practiced too hard during this period. I think, let's take a break and prepare for Wimbledon with all our strength.Then I flew to London with Jiang Shan to prepare for the upcoming Wimbledon.At that time, the national team rented a villa in London, where all the players lived, and Jiang Shan and I also moved there to recuperate. When I arrived in London, I found that the situation was more serious than I thought. I couldn't even sit up in the morning. I had to turn sideways and use the strength of my elbows to prop myself up.

Later, the pain was so bad that he went to the hospital to take a film. On the way to the hospital, Jiang Shan suddenly became anxious and said, "Don't you just don't want to play the game? If you don't want to fight, let's go back to China." He didn't believe what I said and got angry. I was speechless and in no mood to argue with him - the pain in my ribs made it hard for me to get distracted, I just felt wronged. The most prone to problems for tennis players are the wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles, but few tennis players will be injured in this area.In desperation, I told the manager that I might be injured and went to the tournament doctor.

The doctor at the competition suggested that I take a film to see, and I went to the hospital with Coach Jiang and Jiang Shan.After diagnosis, the doctor said that it might be a bone problem. This kind of occupational disease is common in golf players, but almost never in tennis players.The results of the final radiograph also verified the doctor's speculation: the ribs were fractured. I'm wondering, since this place has never suffered a serious collision, how could it have a fractured bone? The doctor carefully asked me about my activity status at this stage and told me: I suffered from hay fever allergy when I first arrived in Europe, and the bone fracture was caused by my constant sneezing during this period.

Sneezing can break bones!It's incredible.The bones are broken, and the game will definitely not continue.My mood instantly darkened. Back at the station, Jiang Shan took care of me and told me to rest in bed. He turned around and went out, not knowing what to do.About 50 minutes later, he came back with a huge pile of ribs and seasonings.It turned out that he was going to buy ribs to make soup for me. The place where we live is about 20 minutes away from the supermarket.Jiang Shan ran out alone, and he didn't understand the language, so he found a place for him, and brought a lot of food in big bags and small bags, and came back to the kitchen.Even though the pain is still going on, I still feel very caring.The next day, we returned home with our teammates from the national team.

In June, we returned to Beijing, and I continued to rest.After two months, I felt that the bones should be almost healed, and I wanted to go back to the game.To be on the safe side, I went to take a film first.The team doctor of the national team contacted a female doctor in her 30s. I found her with the film I had taken. She looked at it and asked me, "Are you an athlete?" I said yes. The other party put down the film: "What kind of film is the athlete shooting, go back and practice!" I came back in a daze, thinking that if the doctor said to continue practicing, it must be because the bones had already grown.I went back to the training ground, practiced for two weeks, and prepared to go to the United States to participate in the competition. I just arrived in the United States, trained for a day, and when I woke up the next day, I felt the familiar pain come back.I went to the local hospital to take a film for consultation. The doctor who received me saw the film and asked me why I started training before my bones grew well.I had to ask the doctor: How long will it take for my injury to recover? "At least six weeks," said the doctor. It was already August at that time, and when October came, wouldn't the entire season be over? I felt a chill in my heart. But the bone injury had to be maintained. In the end, I had to cancel all the games that year and went to Munich for treatment.That's when I met Eric, my doctor, and Hanas, my strength and conditioning coach. While recuperating, I lost a lot of weight, lost weight, and lost some of my muscles. Jiang Shan comforted me: "Take it as a rest and adjust your state." I can't relax, I'm in a bad mood. When I first practiced tennis, I didn't like this sport. I played hard just to fulfill my parents' wish.Students in sports schools don't have winter and summer vacations, and they exchange their lost childhood for excellent professional skills.Such a loss is not without regret.I don't know what I've lost and won't have a chance to know later. But after years of training, tennis and I have become inseparable.It's my whole life.I keep paying for it, and it keeps rewarding me in its own way.I have had sorrows and joys from tennis.It matures me and pushes me to think.After so many years of playing as a player, I have very complicated feelings about tennis. At this point, I can't use simple "like" or "dislike" to summarize my feelings about tennis. I don't want to publicly admit that I need tennis.I have hated it for so many years.But I really can't live without it, which leads me to a paradoxical situation. When I was forced to leave the tennis court, my confidence and fulfillment went with it.My stage is on the court, and that's when I'm at my happiest and most confident.Now, I'm bedridden, worse than a toddler, and it's depressing. How can we return to the game as soon as possible?This is my biggest concern right now. In the first quarter of 2007, my development trend was good. If it weren't for that accident, maybe there would be a thriving development period.But an accident happened.When people describe a person who is unlucky, they like to say "drinking cold water will clog your teeth". My sneezing and bone fractures are comparable to that.Inexplicable allergies, inexplicable bone fractures, and irresponsible doctors, since April, I have spent almost half of the season in a state of injury, and these injuries are so ridiculous... But , some things may be destined to be unsolvable.The disaster caused by a sneeze seemed like a bolt from the blue at the time, and it split me, who was determined to fly higher, to the outside and the inside.However, looking back now, it seems like a funny episode. A person's life will inevitably encounter all kinds of ups and downs. When you are in a situation, you will think that you can't make it through.If you can go out of your body for a while, let yourself stand in mid-air, or travel to a few years later, and then come to talk to yourself at that time, you probably want to say: "Calm down, calm down. There is nothing difficult."