The French Open ends on June 10, while Wimbledon starts on June 25, with only two weeks apart. In these two weeks, Europe, especially the United Kingdom, will hold a series of grass events as a warm-up before Wimbledon. These grass events include the Tour Germany's Harley Open, the Tour Queen's Lawn Cup, the Tour Holland Open and the Tour Nottingham Station.
The levels of these games are not high, there are no ATP1000 level masters. Among them, the Tour Germany Halle Open and the Tour Queen's Lawn Cup are ATP500-level events, and the two events are overlapped, and athletes can only choose one of the two; while the Tour Holland Open and the Tour United Kingdom The Nottingham station is an ATP 250 level event, and the game time also overlaps.
Federer and Nadal seemed to have negotiated a long time ago. They were very tacit and participated in the German Halle Open and the Queen's Lawn Cup, but neither of them won the championship. Federer chose to retire in the middle of the German Harley Open, and Nadal was defeated by French Mahathir in the quarter-finals of the Queen's Meadows.
As for the two ATP250-level events, Federer and Nadal are certainly not going to participate.
With the arrival of the new week, ATP announced the latest men's singles world rankings. Federer still ranked first with 6190 points. This score is a relatively small number of points for Federer. You must know Federer at the peak. The points are maintained at around 8000 points. However, this year lost an Australian Open champion and a French Open runner-up, so the points should be more than 1,300 points less in the normal period.
Nadal was ranked second with 4425 points. He lost a French Open championship and his points also declined.
Zhang Guan ranked third with 4000 points by two Grand Slam titles. This is also the first time Zhang Guan ranked in the top three in the world.
With this update of the ATP World Rankings, Wimbledon's 32 seed players were also released. The first seed is still Federer, the second seed is still Nadal, and Zhang Guan has become the third seed.
Although the detailed grouping of Wimbledon has not yet come out, the position of the seed player is fixed. Zhang Guan, as the third seed, is divided into 2/4. If there is no accident, he will meet Federer again in the semi-finals, and meet Nadal in the final.
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A few days later, the drawing process of the live broadcast of Wimbledon.
Zhang Guan's first-round opponent was named Jimmel Stober. He was an American. This was another name that Zhang Guan had never heard of.
Jimmel Stober is a veteran who was still active in previous years but did not achieve top results, and in recent years has begun to shift towards sports reputation. His current world ranking is no longer in the top 50, so he is not a strong opponent.
This is the case in tennis. The more advanced the seed players, the more they will encounter weaker opponents at the beginning. For example, in the Australian Open, they have faced the seed players continuously since the second game. Zhang Guan, the third in the world, will find it no longer possible to encounter seeded players.
After the Wimbledon grouping, those professional sports commentators also began to express their opinions, but this time, almost everyone is optimistic that Zhang Guan can successfully enter the semi-finals. By defeating Federer in the semi-finals, he can secure a Wimbledon title. As for the victory and defeat of Zhang Guan and Federer, absolute generosity experts also believe that it is a 50-50 situation, like the former "Wimbledon King" Sampras, but also support Zhang Guan in winning the Wimbledon championship.
In an interview, Sampras said this, "This year's Wimbledon Tennis Open, I have put Zhang Guan in the position of the winner. Zhang Guan has performed well this year and he has won consecutively championship of the Australian Open and the French Open and currently, we can say that he has not lost any game or even any set of games. This is incredible. What is more important is that Zhang Guan uses the pre-net game. Hitting the ball for the first time, this will undoubtedly make Zhang Guan play more aggressively at Wimbledon. And I heard that Zhang Guan has started to cooperate with Zhang Depei. Zhang Depei was a very smart player at that time, really playing with his brain. I think Zhang Depei knows what Zhang Guan needs. He can help Zhang Guan win the Wimbledon championship."
At the same time, among the odds of winning titles issued by British bookmakers, Zhang odds are also tied with Federer. This is an amazing odds. Federer is not only ranked first in the world, but he has also won four consecutive championships at Wimbledon, which is enough to prove Federer's dominance. Zhang Guan is participating in the Wimbledon game for the first time, but also the first time participating in the grass field competition, no one knows Zhang Guan's strength on the grass field, if he can win the same odds as Federer, it can be said is unprecedented.
Even Federer himself said in an interview that Zhang Guan will be the biggest obstacle to his five consecutive Wimbledon championships.
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Zhang Guan glanced at the contents of the media and felt a little weird in his heart.
"How has the wind changed? The previous Australian Open and French Open, but no one is so optimistic about me. Now in this situation, I have become Wimbledon's favorite to win the championship." Zhang Guan sighed a little.
"That's because your ability to serve and to play in front of the net is excellent." Sharapova continued, "After all, it's a grass field. Your kind of high-speed service, as long as there are no mistakes, you can score steadily. It is almost impossible to get a break from your hand; and you should be the best tennis player in the world before playing online. Even if your opponent's serve, your play before the net is very threatening. If it a player with a weak serve, I'm afraid they won't win a set from you!"
"It sounds like I think the Wimbledon champion is none other than me." Zhang Guan said with a smile.
"But you have to be careful in the first game, don't overturn the boat in the gutter." Sharapova then reminded me.
"Why, my opponent, the American is called... Oh, yes, the guy named Jimmy Stober, is it a nerve knife? Is his condition very good?" Zhang Guan then asked.
Sharapova shook her head, "Jimmel Stober is not terrible, but the court you are playing on has a nickname."
"What nickname?" Zhang Guan asked.
"Champion's grave. Also called the seed cemetery." Sharapova continued, "In the games played there, the seed players were usually eliminated by the lower ranking players, including Sampras, Agassi, and Federer in 2002. Also, there are some players with higher rankings and singles who are not so famous and have once fallen there.
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On June 25, the 2007 Wimbledon Tennis Open officially began.
Zhang Guan appeared as the No. 3 seed of the tournament at Wimbledon No. 2 Stadium, known as the "Champion's Tomb" and "Seed Cemetery". His opponent is a non-seeded American veteran Jimmel Stober, and this game is also the opening game of Wimbledon at the second stadium this year.