Chapter 770 Season Prologue
"Dear passengers, I am the captain of this flight. The plane is preparing to descend and we are about to arrive at our destination, Doha. Today is January 2nd. Here, on behalf of the crew members, I would like to say Happy New Year to all passengers. The current local time is..."
The lights in the cabin slowly lit up, and the light blue halo left faint ripples swaying on the pupils. Low voices of conversation surged in the high-pressure air, gently touching the eardrums like waves.
The whole world is wrapped in a hazy restlessness. The body seems to be floating on the surface of the Dead Sea. The back feels damp, the front is bathed in warmth, and the center of gravity rises and falls with the waves. I feel a little confused between half asleep and half awake, as if at the end of a long dream, and it is difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is false.
Yu Jia opened his eyes, feeling a little blurry and confused.
"What's wrong? Are you still not awake?"
A questioning voice came to my ears, but because of the air pressure, it seemed distant and empty, as if it came from the other side of the sky.
Yu Jia was stunned for a moment, turned to look at his colleague sitting next to him, thought about it, and then his focus and attention came back together, and then he started to laugh foolishly.
"Well, I didn't wake up..." He paused and rubbed his cheeks vigorously, trying to regain his sanity, "I had a very long dream and I didn't want to wake up."
Wei Jiang, a photographer and Yu Jia's colleague, also had fatigue from the long flight on his face, but he couldn't hide the excitement and anticipation in his eyes. He adjusted his sitting position and said, "From your tone, it must be a beautiful dream. Tell me about it?"
"Nothing, nothing," Yu Jia waved his hands repeatedly, "It's just a crazy and weird dream..."
Yu Jia stretched out his body and felt that all the bones in his body were protesting, but he couldn't help it in the end, even though Wei Jiang didn't ask any further questions.
"I just dreamed about Gao Wen defending the US Open title."
Wei Jiang was very surprised, but not because of the "defending" action, but because of the US Open. "The US Open is still more than half a year away. Even if I dream, I should dream of the Australian Open, right?"
"Yeah, I find it strange too." Yu Jia shook his head. "But you see, the Australian Open is Djokovic's backyard, the French Open is Nadal's territory, and Wimbledon now basically depends on who is in better form between Federer and Djokovic. Murray is an uncertain factor, and it is still too difficult for other players to break through, so there are more opportunities at the US Open."
Wei Jiang laughed in silence, and after thinking carefully, he could not refute it.
Even in dreams, they still couldn't escape the shadow of the Big Four, and he thought it was natural, which was both sad and funny.
However, "defending the US Open title is also an incredible feat. Judging from the end of the year, the form of the Cow and Djokovic still has no trend of decline."
The Cow is Federer's nickname because in 2003, Federer won the Wimbledon championship for the first time in his career and then went to participate in the Swiss Open. The organizing committee of the tournament prepared a celebration ceremony for Federer and presented him with an 800-kilogram yellow and white dairy cow as a special gift.
After that, "Cow" became Federer's nickname, and fans also called themselves "Milk Powder".
Yu Jia nodded in agreement. "I also know that defending the title is much more difficult than winning it. Even if it is a dream, I still feel it is not real."
From 2004 to 2008, Federer won five consecutive championships in Flushing, but in 2009, Del Potro ended Federer's dream of winning six consecutive championships. Since then, no one has been able to defend the men's singles championship. The championship trophy has changed hands for six consecutive years, and the changes are very frequent.
Wei Jiang did not comment, but shook his head. "The second half of last year was already crazy enough, and the offseason continued this crazy trend."
"So, you still have to have dreams. Who knows? What if they come true?"
Yu Jia laughed happily, "Yes, I didn't expect that Doha would invite Gao Wen to participate. This is already a surprise."
The sunshine of 2015 has spread across the globe, and a new season has officially begun.
Just during the offseason that just passed, a series of major events did occur, so much so that the Chinese media had higher expectations for the new season.
Yesterday, New Year's Day, Nike held a fashion show and press conference in New York, the main purpose of which was to release the new season's jerseys.
This is not surprising. It can be said that it is Nike's practice to continuously update the jersey design every season to match the four-season tennis schedule.
The point is that, according to past practices, Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova's jerseys would have a separate section for promotion. Obviously, the sales of the four superstars' jerseys are an important source of Nike's annual revenue, and this year a fifth section has been added -
Gao Wen.
unprecedented!
The crowd is boiling!
Because everyone knows what this means: Nike, get ready to show off your power.
In comparison, last year Bouchard emerged out of nowhere, so much so that Nike and Adidas fought each other for this new generation of tennis sweetheart. In the end, Nike won the final contract, but Bouchard still did not get the treatment of having her own jersey series, let alone a special section.
And Gawain? Regardless of whether he won the championship or not, at least Gawain had only been in the professional arena for half a year, and Nike had taken such an important step. Was it crazy? What if the jerseys didn't sell well? But the key point is that Nike would never do business at a loss.
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After the press conference, the Associated Press released an official report that perfectly explained the situation:
In the fourth quarter of 2014, Gawain's jersey sales reached 10 million US dollars, surpassing Federer and Nadal, firmly occupying the top spot in the tennis equipment sales rankings.
What's even more exaggerated is that in terms of jersey sales figures, football and basketball have always been far ahead, and other sports can hardly compete with them effectively; however, in the fourth quarter's national jersey sales list, Gao Wen single-handedly made it into the top ten and was surrounded by NBA players.
LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant ranked in the top four respectively.
And the fifth one is Gao Wen.
The overall sales figures are not only stunning, but also astonishing——
Of course, according to statistical charts, the strong purchasing power of Chinese fans is the fundamental reason, which made it possible to achieve the feat of breaking through the sky alone.
In addition, the Associated Press also made a prediction about the sales curve of Koeman's jerseys in 2015. Because Koeman has just started, he should be more powerful in the future. The sales in the four quarters of the year are very likely to exceed 50 million, which is on par with the two kings Federer and Nadal.
Nike is confident about this.
Of course, Nike is not blindly confident. The jersey sales data for the fourth quarter of 2014 is only one of the supporting materials. Their new advertising film “Dream Crazier”, which was officially launched at midnight on New Year’s Eve, is the second supporting material, which kicked off the new season early.
(End of this chapter)