Almighty Coach

It seemed as though Halls had transformed into another person. He no longer went to play football at night. Instead, he went to bed early every day and put all his energy into his training the next day.

The trip to Spain significantly affected Halls. He had personally witnessed the way two giants of football, Real Madrid and Barcelona, trained their youths. He even had the chance to play in a couple of practice matches. He finally saw what world-class youth training was like.

All of that generated a drive within Halls. He desired to train in Real Madrid or Barcelona. He wanted to enter one of their teams and become a part of them. He aspired to play with awesome teammates and against amazing opponents.

However, because of his dwarfism and his Wagner’s line closing, Real Madrid and Barcelona rejected him. It wounded his pride, and this sort of wound quickly inspired his motivation to train.

Just as Dai Li said, only a person with a vivid goal would strive and fight to achieve it.

Halls was doing exactly that. Although he had wished to play in Europe when he was younger, he never really witnessed what a top football club was like in Europe. The dream of playing football in Europe had been based in fantasy. The current Halls had visited Spain and two of the biggest clubs in football, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Playing football in Europe was no longer just a fictitious dream, it had become a target he strived for in reality.

Halls knew that his height was the reason he got rejected by the clubs. He had dwarfism and his Wagner’s line had closed. Those were things he could not change. Halls realized deep down that training at Dai Li’s place was his last hope of growing any taller.

Having dwarfism meant that Halls had a congenital deficiency, so the teenagers who had already entered the Real Madrid and Barcelona youth academy had a huge advantage over him. In such a dire situation, Halls had to work much harder and put it more effort than the others if he wanted to succeed.

Halls understood that. He knew that his path was much harder than everyone else’s. However, he would never give up. He would sprint towards his goal.

…

It was ten in the morning and Dai Li was in his office developing a training plan for a client. His phone suddenly rang.

Dai Li grabbed his phone and glanced at it. The caller ID surprised him a little.

“It’s Zhongyi Xu. Why is he calling? It should be midnight in China.” Dai Li calculated in his mind. The West Coast of the U.S. had a 16 hours time difference from China. Taking into account daylight savings time, there was at least a 15-hour time difference between the West Coast and China. It was morning for Dai Li, so it was definitely early in the morning in China. Xu should be sleeping.

Old Xu, calling me at this hour? I just hope it’s not something too serious. Dai Li did not hesitate and picked up the phone immediately.

“Hello, Old Xu. Why aren’t you sleeping right now? Is something wrong?” Dai Li asked directly.

“It’s because I don’t want to affect your rest.” Zhongyi Xu laughed and said, “But I really do have something that I need to ask you.”

“What’s up? Let me hear it,” Dai Li said generously.

“Our provincial sports team. The coach’s name is Jianguo Chen. He’s a tennis coach. You’ve heard of him, right?” Zhongyi Xu asked.

“That sounds vaguely familiar.” Dai Li paused briefly and said, “But isn’t our provincial tennis team pretty weak? There’s not a lot of players and even fewer coaches.”

“That’s right. Apart from some first-tier cities, the other places have never really developed tennis as a sport. Policy and financial support are also pretty limited.” Zhongyi Xu did not stay on that issue for long. He said, “Jianguo Chen and I have known each other for a long time. He has a son named Zhen Chen who he trained in tennis. The fella is pretty talented. He won the bronze medal in the national games when he was only 18 years old. He also participated in several international competitions this year. In the most recent world rankings, Zhen Chen made it into the top 200.”

“A male player from our country making it into the top 200 in the world ranking is pretty impressive,” Dai Li praised.

“And making it into the top 200 in the world ranking means that he can participate in the qualifiers for the U.S. Open. It’s been a long time since a male player from our country participated in one of the four grand slams,” Zhongyi Xu said.

There were four grand slam tournaments. The main competitions had 128 spots, among them, 104 were based on the world rankings. The top 104 ranked players were eligible to participate directly in the main competition of the four tennis grand slam tournaments. However, it was inevitable that some of the players would drop out due to injury or other sudden factors or incidents. The lower-ranked players were the substitutes. So, under normal circumstances, as long as someone was among the top 110 in the world there was a chance to participate in the four grand slam tennis tournaments.

Another eight spots were left to wild cards. Sometimes big shot players drop out of the top 104 rankings if they stop participating in competitions for long periods of time. In such situations, these players are provided the chance to enter the grand slams as a wild card. Players from the host country have an advantage in the wild card selection. So, for the Australian Open, there are always a few Australian players selected; for the Wimbledon Open, British players are selected; for the French Open, French players are selected; for the U.S. Open, Americans are selected.

The last 16 spots in the main competition were determined by the qualifiers. Before the four grand slam tennis tournaments, a qualifier would first be organized. A total of 128 athletes would participate in the qualifiers. Participation in the qualifiers was based on the players’ world rankings. Three rounds of elimination matches were played, and players who won all three matches were allowed to advance to the main competition.

From the rules, if nobody retired early due to injuries, the top 104 and 232 ranking players would be able to participate in the qualifiers. However, because many usually retired early, the top 250 ranked players are usually able to participate in the qualifier.

Zhen Chen was already in the top 200 in world rankings, so his place in the qualifiers was guaranteed.

“You want my help, right?” Dai Li asked.

“Yes, Jianguo Chen hoped to bring Zhen Chen to the U.S. early to help get him acclimatized to the environment. It would be ideal to find a U.S. tennis coach in advance so that he could guide Zhen Chen in advance. You are more familiar with the U.S. so I would like to ask for your help,” Zhongyi Xu stated.

“No problem, you can let Jianguo Chen know that he can contact me directly,” Dai Li said.

“Jianguo Chen isn’t very wealthy. His is an average, working-class household. They rely on their fixed salary. Grooming Zhen Chen to be a tennis player cost them a lot of money, so I hope you don’t get him someone too expensive,” Zhongyi Xu reminded.

“Is that so…” Dai Li hesitated for a moment and continued, “Old Xu, you are a coach. You must know that, in the sports training industry, any skilled coach will not be cheap. The better they are, the higher their wages.”

“I know, I know. That’s the reason I’m calling you in the middle of the night. I need you to help me think of something. You’re doing very well in the U.S., so you must know many people. Perhaps you could help Zhen Chen,” Zhongyi Xu said.

“How about this? Let him train at my training center. Some of my clients are reputable tennis players, they’re among the top 50 in the world rankings. Zhen Chen can train with them. Although it’s just fitness training, perhaps he will learn a thing or two. If it’s possible, I’ll try recommending some of the players here practice with Zhen Chen,” Dai Li said.

“Then, in terms of the fees, you better give them a discount. I know the fees at your place is amazingly expensive,” Zhongyi Xu said intentionally.

Dai Li understood what Zhongyi Xu meant. He chuckled and said, “If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t bother but it’s you, Old Xu. How can I say no to you! By the time they get here, it’ll only be a few days before the U.S. Open. I won’t charge them anything.”

…

Three days later, Jianguo Chen and Zhen Chen arrived in Los Angeles.

Jianguo Chen used to be the coach of the Hanbei Provincial Sports team, but Dai Li didn’t have much of an impression of him. First of all, they were in different sports. Second of all, provincial tennis had always been a niche sport, it wasn’t important.

Zhen Chen was a genius youth tennis player, part of the new generation in China. Dai Li used the detector on him and discovered that his talent potential grade was B+. It was enough to dominate in China and possibly participate in some of the lower-level international tours. However, when it came to competitions like the four grand slams, he would barely manage to meet the minimum requirement for the main competition.

In the U.S., tennis was fairly popular. The U.S. has a lot of specialized schools in tennis, and a large number of tennis players are produced annually. Among Dai Li’s clients, there were a few reputable tennis players in the top 50 of the world rankings. As the U.S. Open neared, they trained more frequently. Their fitness training was the most important part of their training schedule.

Under normal circumstances, the U.S. Open would last for around half a month. Most of the non-seeded players would be in both the individual singles competition and the doubles or mixed doubles competition. Some participants would even have to deal with both matches in singles and doubles. They needed a lot of stamina, so they were willing to place more emphasis on their fitness training before the competition.

For Zhen Chen, these tennis players were “idols” that he didn’t think he’d ever have a chance to meet.

Zhen Chen’s ranking was just inside the top 200. In theory, his ranking was just 150 spots away from the top 50, which doesn’t seem like too big a deal. However, when it came to tennis, the jump from 200 to 50 was like heaven and earth. A lot of the players ranked around 200 would not ever be pitted against a top 50-ranked player.

In tennis, the qualifier was determined by the world rankings. For example, the most important ATP tournaments were the four grand slam tournaments. Following that was the ATP 1000, then the ATP 500, and then the ATP 250. A player ranked in the top 10 of the world would not participate in the ATP250 tournament because, to them, the talent level in an ATP 250 tournament was too low.

After that, it was the Challengers tournament 125K +H level, the Challengers 125K, Challengers 100K, 75K, 50K, and 40K. For Challengers tournaments below 100K, it would be difficult to see any players ranked in the top 100. After the Challengers tournaments, there was the Hope tournament. Only players who were not in the world rankings would participate in the lower levels of the Hope tournament.

So for any players ranked within the world’s top 200, at most, they would take part in a few of the Challengers tournaments. It was difficult to participate in tournaments above the ATP 250 so, it wasn’t often possible to play against players in the top 50 world rankings.

Even when players ranked within the top 232 in the world were allowed to take part in the qualifiers of a grand slam tournament, the three rounds of games were all death matches for the players ranked in the 200 regions. If they wanted to advance through to the main tournament, they had to get three consecutive victories against opponents higher rankings. There would have to be an upset every match. One upset was still possible, but to have three consecutive upsets was extremely unlikely.

So, in the qualifiers of the four grand slams, the ones who ultimately made it to the main tournament were usually the top 150 players. Those ranked outside of the top 150 could barely ever make it to the main tournament.

…

On the training ground, Jianguo Chen watched Zhen Chen as he trained. With a benevolent smile, he said, “When Zhen Chen first picked up a tennis racquet, he wasn’t even taller than the racquet. Back then, I had just retired and was supposed to become the coach of the team. He was like my tail. I trained while he picked up the balls. Later, I saw that he imitated the athletes swinging the racquets. It was then that I began teaching him tennis.

“Zhen Chen had talent. Among the athletes I trained, he was the most talented. He only needed to learn the things I taught him once. From then on, I decided that even if I went broke, I would properly groom him. I hoped that one day he could play in the grand slam tournaments, and achieve everything I couldn’t.”

Jianguo Chen sighed. “When I was an athlete, I hoped to play in one of the four grand slam tournaments. I would have been satisfied with one match. However, back in our day, it was impossible. Tennis players didn’t even have the chance to take part in tournaments outside China. Especially after the tennis player defection during the 1980s, our chances of leaving the country for competitions got even slimmer. I’ve never left the country to participate in any competition.”

Dai Li, who was at this side, nodded. Back then, a tennis player competing in a tournament in the U.S. left the team and stayed in the U.S. He even applied for government protection to stay in the United States. However, if one thought carefully, only people who were being politically persecuted were eligible to apply for government protection. An athlete was not a politician with influence. Who would politically persecute an athlete? So, the athlete wanted to stay in the U.S. and the American government was more than willing to use him as a political tool. Today, the athlete would have been deported by the U.S. immigration service.

Jianguo Chen then continued, “When I saw that Zhen Chen made it into the top 200, I was really happy. He has the chance to take part in a grand slam tournament. It was my lifelong dream and, although I never realized it, there is a chance my son will realize this dream for me!”

As Jianguo Chen said this, he became more and more excited.

Dai Li looked at Jianguo Chen’s face and felt a tinge of pity. With Zhen Chen’s current standard, not to mention the main tournament of the grand slam,it would be difficult for him to make it through the first round.

It was always difficult working in tennis back in China. Dai Li knew what the tennis environment in China was like. He glanced at Zhen Chen, who was in the middle of his training. Zhen Chen looked serious, but Dai Li could feel that Zhen Chen was a little nervous.

It wasn’t a tournament or a match, only a normal training session. Yet, Zhen Chen was actually nervous. It wasn’t because Zhen Chen was mentally weak, it was because he knew how important this training was. He valued training and he treasured the chance to train with tennis players in the top 50, even if it were only fitness training.

“Looks like even Zhen Chen knows that he is living the dream of two generations. His participation in the U.S. Open isn’t just for him, it is also for his father!”

Dai Li finally made the decision. He decided to help this father and son pursue their dreams.