Chapter 285: Differences in Perspective

Guillermo-Coria, an Argentine player known as the "Magician", was once a representative of the technical style of play.

With a height of 175 cm and a weight of 65 kg, he is thin and small, and does not look like a tennis player at all. Instead, he looks more like a table tennis player. However, he has firmly established a place in the professional tennis world with his agile strokes, wonderful touch and brilliant movements.

In the 2004 season, Coria was ranked fifth in the world. His perfect performance in the clay court season made him the undisputed favorite for the French Open. As expected, he made it all the way to the final to face the biggest dark horse of the tournament, his compatriot Gaston-Gaudio, who made an unexpected advance.

“6:0”, “6:3”.

Coria won two sets in a row, not only leading by a large margin but also having a huge advantage on the field. It seemed that Gaudio could hardly compete with him on the court. It seemed that the magician was about to defeat his opponent without any suspense and win his first Grand Slam trophy, but when he was leading in the third set, he could hardly run because of thigh cramps.

Coria never gave up. Although he lost the first two sets with huge score differences of "4:6" and "1:6", his cramps finally improved in the deciding set.

However, Gaudio, who became more and more courageous as the game went on, had already gone crazy. He saved two match points in the deciding set, broke Coria's two serve games, and completed a major reversal despite being in a desperate situation. In the end, Gaudio won the championship by surprise, while Coria missed the trophy by fate.

After that, Coria was completely devastated. Due to injuries, he basically had not participated in any competitions since 2005. Finally, after struggling until 2009, he had no choice but to announce his retirement.

When he retired, Corea was only 27 years old.

Compared with female players, male players' power confrontation is more intense and more powerful, and technical players have even narrower living space; even technically sophisticated players like Federer and Djokovic must be based on the ability to form a confrontation with strength.

Apparently, Adidas scouts believed that Gao Wen should be a player of the Correa type, with strength and burst as weaknesses, and touch and basketball IQ as strengths. Although Gao Wen's height and weight are far greater than Correa, he was ultimately classified as a technical player and it would be difficult for him to survive in the contemporary professional arena.

Just like Hingis and Coria, no matter how good their touch is, no matter how outstanding their skills are, no matter how smart their minds are, they still cannot form a rivalry in the singles arena of contemporary professional tennis.

After Hingis retired for the first time, she made a second and third comeback and never disappeared from the public eye. But later on, she was more active in the doubles field, and the strong confrontation in the singles arena was another story.

It is precisely because of this that Adidas has always been reserved about Gao Wen. Even two Challenge Championship trophies are not enough to impress their determination.

Compared to the limited value of the Challenge Tournament champion, talent is still an insurmountable chasm.

After knowing the answer, Tobias was not angry. Instead, he relaxed, looked towards Hannett and smiled faintly.

"David, you know what? You always sit in the office and never go to the court to feel the sunshine and sweat. So you can only trust the judgment of the scouts and make calculations based on the data. But you should know better than me that competitive sports is more than just a set of data."

"Scouts should trust, but not completely."

Tobias' words touched Hannett.

In fact, this is also the reason why Hannett hesitated. It was precisely because he knew Tobias well and could make Tobias believe with all his heart that the young man must be special.

But competitive sports are like this, everyone believes that he or she is a good judge, and everyone believes that his or her vision is correct, but no one has the correct answer.

Just like Federer.

Initially, Federer was ranked number one in the world among teenagers and was hailed as a genius by countless people. However, in the first three years after entering the professional tennis world, he did not perform well. It was not until the 2001 Wimbledon Tennis Championships that Federer defeated the then king of tennis, Sampras, and became famous overnight.

As a result, people speculated that Federer would succeed Sampras as the next king of world tennis. However, in the next two years, Federer achieved nothing and never made a big breakthrough, which once again surprised people.

Then? Federer won the 2003 Wimbledon Championships and became the world's number one tennis player that same year, officially launching his career as a tennis king.

From entering professional tennis in 1998 to completing his transformation in 2003, Federer also experienced nearly six years of struggle.

In other words, the only thing that can prove the truth is time. Only after the passage of time will people know whether the so-called genius can be fulfilled and whether the so-called mediocrity is the result of scouts and experts' misjudgment.

Hannett wants to trust Tobias's vision, but his voice within the company is limited and it's difficult to change the situation.

"John, just like you said, we need to trust the scouts but not blindly, so, we need time."

Simply put, Gao Wen's speed of emergence was too fast. From the start of the NCAA spring season to winning two consecutive Challenge Championships, it was actually less than half a year. Major brands including Adidas and Nike all needed more "proof" -

Either it's a championship or it's time.

For now, it's not enough.

This was the case in Hannett's eyes, but in Tobias's eyes it was a sign of lack of decisiveness, and the obvious opportunity was missed due to indecision.

However, this also proves once again that different positions determine different ways of thinking and angles.

Apparently, Adidas and the players' agents have different ideas.

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Tobias also knew that there was no need to continue to pester her, so he smiled at Hannett.

"Believe me, you will regret it."

After a brief pause, Tobias added.

"If you don't want to have any regrets, you still have a chance to make amends."

As he said this, he glanced at the elevator floor buttons, sending a hint signal.

Hannett smiled confidently.

"John, you know we never regret anything, even if we missed Djokovic's contract extension. More importantly, even if we miss it, the opportunity will always come again."

This is Adidas' confidence.

Tobias looked at Hannett and laughed happily. Without saying anything more, today's meeting ended there.

Just then, the elevator door opened, and Tobias patted Hannett's shoulder in a friendly manner, gave her a hug, and then walked out with his head held high.

Hannett remained where he was, and the elevator door slowly closed. Just as it was about to close, Hannett's mind shook a little, and the voice calling Tobias had already reached his throat, but after a slight hesitation, the elevator door had already closed.

(End of this chapter)