Chapter 284 Scouting Report

"John..."

Tobias heard a call from behind, stopped, and turned around to see the familiar figure of David Harnett.

"I'll give you a ride."

Hannett said loudly, and then quickly caught up with Tobias, and the two of them walked towards the elevator side by side.

The two were old acquaintances and had a good relationship privately, so Tobias had no scruples and made a half-joking remark.

"Why, sending you out to stop the loss?"

Hannett laughed. "How can you say it's a loss-cutting move? It should be a way to maintain friendly relations."

Tobias glanced at Hannett and asked, "Are you speaking as Adidas or as my friend?"

"Isn't it the same?"

"Ah, I see, this is still Adidas's position."

"John..."

Seeing Hannett looking somewhat helpless, Tobias still smiled and did not embarrass his friend any more.

"Even if the cooperation fails, we can still be friends. I understand this principle. Don't worry, there is no way I would offend Adidas. I am not a fool. I am not ready to change careers yet."

A joke made the two people smile at each other. Although the negotiation just now did not produce a result, it did not affect the friendship between the two good friends.

bite.

The elevator arrived, and the two people walked into the elevator. Hannett took the initiative to press the button for the underground parking lot on the third floor. After waiting for the elevator door to slowly close, he spoke, "I know you must have a lot of questions now..."

“But these question marks have no answers, so don’t worry, I won’t ask.” Tobias complained calmly.

Hannett chuckled twice, then spoke half-chattingly and half-explanatorily.

"John, you should know that the Challenge Championship is worthless, right?"

"If it was a Gold Tournament or a Championship Tournament now, the value would definitely be different, but the Challenge Tournament champion is basically the same as the Hope Tournament champion, and no one would care."

How could Tobias not understand this truth?

The Challenge Championship does not have enough weight, mainly because the contestants in the Challenge are relatively special.

Or they are young players who need training, their performance is unstable and their form fluctuates greatly.

Or they may be professional players who need to find their touch after returning from injury. They often treat the challenge match as a warm-up match or practice match to find their touch and do not try their best.

Or else there are professional players with limited talent and strength who give up on pursuing higher goals and just treat the challenge tournament as a means of punching in at the office to make money. The competition is just a job to make a living and they will not really try their best.

It is precisely because of this that the value of the Challenge Championship is questionable.

Throughout history, countless Challenge Tournament champions have hardly performed well in higher-level professional competitions; and now the top players in the professional arena often never participate in Challenge Tournaments or have never won a Challenge Tournament, such as the Big Four.

Strictly speaking, players who can truly maintain a top 50 ranking in the world for a long time often do not have many Challenge Tournament championship titles to their names.

Because the talented young players, after a little experience in the Challenge Tournament, will directly enter the higher-level Gold Tournament or Championship Tournament, starting from the Qualifying Tournament.

Just look at Zverev Jr., who relied on the care of the Tennis Association in Germany to get a wild card to participate in the championship and gold tournaments; he participated in the Binghamton Challenger to prepare for the North American season, and then did not participate in the Lexington Challenger, but directly participated in the North American series qualifiers.

These are objective facts.

But Hannett's starting point itself is wrong. If it is an ordinary player, then Hannett's point of view is correct, but Gao Wen is a Chinese player, so the historical significance of the Challenge Championship is different. Even if the Challenge Championship is of little weight, it has created history after all, and its meaning to the Chinese market is different.

Hannett's words were actually just an excuse.

Tobias did not intend to expose Hannett, so he said it lightly.

"When we win the Gold Tournament or the Championship Tournament, the decision will no longer be in your hands."

If Gao Wen wins a gold tournament championship now, I am afraid that all the top brands including Nike, Lacoste and Fila will flock to him. At that time, the decision of who to sign a contract will be in Gao Wen's hands, and he will also have to look at the bids of his competitors. Adidas may not be able to gain an advantage.

This is also an objective fact.

Tobias hit Hannett's weak spot with just one sentence.

Hannett shook his head helplessly, paused, looked at the slowly descending elevator, and finally told the truth.

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"Do you think we don't pay attention to Gao?"

“Not only are we watching him, but Nike is watching him, too, and we all know it.”

The truth was revealed in just two sentences, and Tobias became serious because he knew that Hannett was finally willing to tell the truth.

"We had been keeping an eye on him since we were in Athens. The NCAA tournament has always been a focus, and we also have a detailed scouting report."

"In the eyes of scouts, he has excellent basketball IQ, delicate touch, sharp tactics, good grasp of the context of the game, and has natural competitive ability."

Very, very good scout evaluation, but there is often a twist later, that is the key point, Tobias did not rush to express his opinion.

“However, despite his thin physique and lack of strength, he should be able to grow into a technical player with a basketball IQ in the future and achieve good results at the Challenge Tournament level.”

Hannett stopped talking at that point and didn't go on, but the subtext was obvious: competitions above the challenge level would probably face many difficulties.

I see!

Tobias immediately understood that the key lies in the "technical players".

As mentioned before, racket technology continues to improve, and players' strength can be transferred to the tennis ball more fully and completely through the racket. As a result, the entire tennis world has slowly changed, with strength occupying an increasingly larger proportion, while the lightness and agility of technology have gradually been squeezed out of their living space.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the technical style of play represented by Martina Hingis was really pleasing to the eye. The entire style of play was very diverse, with many tactical routines. Players rarely stayed at the baseline all the time, and the light and agile strokes were very enjoyable to watch.

However, at the turn of the century, a power-based style of play represented by Serena Williams emerged. She suppressed technical players in an unreasonable manner. The absolute suppression at the power level cut off the space for flexible use of technology. "One force defeats ten skills." The entire tennis world changed dynasties.

In 2002, just five years after entering the professional tennis world, Hingis was forced to retire for the first time.

Times have changed. With the development of tennis, we can still see technical players like Radwanska active in women's tennis and enriching different playing styles, but it is very difficult for them to find a living space in men's tennis.

(End of this chapter)