Chapter 47 Oranges in a Bowl
In mid-December, heavy snow began to fall in the northern part of the United States, but Florida was still warm enough to doze comfortably in the sun outdoors. However, at this time, a large number of teenagers wearing sportswear and tennis bags gathered together in Cranden Park Stadium in Biscayne Bay, Los Angeles.
Some of the young girls had a young face and a smile, while others were nervous and taking deep breaths. They came here for the same goal, the oranges placed in the bowl on the highest podium.
"Is there really an orange?" Fan Ju said in surprise when he saw the "trophy" on the high podium. He thought the orange bowl was a name, but when he saw the trophy, he found that he was wrong. This was a glass bowl containing a few oranges!
The group of young men and girls behind Fan Ju looked like they didn't know him. Fan Ju was good at everything, generous enough, and never got angry about trivial matters. Although many people challenged him, and even some people would speak rudely before the game, Fan Ju would not cause trouble for these people except in the practice field. This made the teenagers in the entire online school very convinced and recognized this "big brother" with good skills and mature temperament.
However, this big brother is good at everything, but he has too little knowledge and doesn't even know the orange bowl. As one of the highest-level orange bowls in the United States, the U.S. Open Grand Slam teenagers almost all watched and participated in this game.
"Okay, we should go to the competition, Maria, just watch it carefully, and leave it to us for bullying the little kids." Fan Ju was actually quite surprised. Sharapova did not plan to participate in the orange bowl. According to Nick, it was no longer helpful to her, so she didn't have to grab oranges with the children to eat.
Not much about Fan Ju, but Orange Bowl is an opportunity. Of course, Fan Ju didn't care about this opportunity at first, but after getting to know it more and more, he found that if he wanted to continue to develop smoothly in the tennis world, he now needed to find an agency or when the agent would help him manage things other than the competition.
"Boss, old Nick said, IMG has come to contact you, right?" After getting the news from his gossip girlfriend, he was even more excited than Fan Ju. That is IMG, a world-renowned agency, and even Nick Polyteli Online School is actually just one of the branches of IMG Academy.
Signing IMG means your future. You don’t have to worry about your schedule, you don’t have to worry about not being able to participate in important competitions without wild cards, and you don’t even have to worry about scandals and packaging. This world’s top sports agency will help you manage it throughout the process, allowing players to have more energy to invest in the competition and achieve results.
Fan Ju had no idea at first, so he wanted to hire an assistant or something to help him arrange the game. He didn't even plan to help him. If he had to let Coach Li do it for his ordinary game after returning to China, he would do it for himself.
But in the end, he found it unrealistic. The workload required for a professional tennis player is not very large. I won’t talk about the application of information and preparation for the game. I arrange training, book flights and hotels, and even after becoming famous, I have to consider the negotiation and publicity of endorsement activities. Do you let the player do it alone? Or find an unprofessional one? Those trap contracts can trick you into the point where you can’t afford to sell your kidneys in minutes, so a professional brokerage company is very necessary, and IMG is of course a very good choice.
From the acquisition of Nickelodeon Online School, we can see that IMG has invested a lot in tennis. At the same time, they are looking for potential players around the world. A genius like Sharapova has been signed by IMG before he even entered the profession, and they are now focusing on Fan Ju.
Fan Ju remembers very clearly what the IMG representative said to him: "Nick and Fest both highly respect you, and I also believe in their vision. At the same time, there is a very excellent market behind you, so we really hope to sign you. There are two contracts here that you can choose. Of course, no matter which contract we will help you achieve higher achievements, this is the persistence of our IMG brokerage company."
Fan Ju has read the two contracts. The main terms of the brokerage contracts are also 4%. This number is very reasonable and is the mainstream commission ratio in the sports industry in Europe and the United States. Compared with other terms, Fan Ju feels that this 4% commission is nothing.
"The first contract is easy and has little binding force, but the brokerage company only provides basic services, and the proportion of commercial commissions with it is much lower than 5%. It takes 5 years. If you rely on yourself to become famous, this contract is naturally the best. However, IMG will never use all commercial resources to pursue it. The same commercial contract could have received 1 million, but it may only be 800,000 in the end. The difference is too big." Fan Ju is not stupid. Those two contracts provide the same help, so I believe it.
The commission for another commercial contract is 4% lower than the previous one. The contract period is 7 years and has very strict anti-job change clauses. It can be said that as long as Fan Ju turns to another brokerage company during the contract period, those lawyers will definitely make Fan Ju pay high compensation according to the contract.
Of course, such a contract also means that IMG company has invested all its efforts. Fan Ju is already 25 years old in 7 years. If he is a high-level tennis player, he has won many dazzling results at this time. Moreover, judging from the situation in the Chinese market, Fan Ju only needs to get the top 10 in the world, and IMG will have confidence to use Fan Ju as the brand to create a peak brand image representing Asian tennis.
However, the requirements for signing this contract are very strict. Fan Ju must achieve certain results in the Orange Bowl. Maybe it may not be the champion, but the top four must be guaranteed.
"These guys really look down on me, but I do have this strength. I have not been fooled in the past 5 months." Fan Ju was very confident that unless there was a young strongman who could win the Grand Slam at the age of 17, he would still have great hope of winning the championship.
A group of lively teenagers, full of energy, they are here to participate in the qualifying round like Fan Ju. Of course, many teenagers already have good ITF teenagers rankings, which are completely different from players like Fan Ju who get wild cards.
The Orange Bowl Qualification Competition is not like the official professional competition, and the 64 players will decide the final promotion quota in three days. In other words, Fan Ju will have to play 2 games a day within three days, which is very unfavorable for the subsequent main competitions, especially the lack of physical strength for young people. Usually, they will play in the qualifying competition, and there are almost no players who can pass the first three rounds of the main competition.
However, this is exactly not under pressure for Fan Ju. Fan Ju's strength has now been completely converted by 90%. The 10 fast 400-meter running training that had troubled him at the beginning can now complete 14 round trips. In the professional arena, he is definitely a small strongman with super-physical strength.
"Little guys, don't cry when you lose, don't blame the big brother for bullying you!" Fan Ju stood confidently on the serving line. His height had reached 184, but his bone age had stopped growing. This height was basically the final height.
The little guy opposite the serving line is not shorter than Fan Ju, but in Fan Ju's eyes, the little guy opposite is not threatened at all. His loose position and concentrated force are obviously dispersed. His right foot, which is constantly moving to the outside, obviously thinks that his first serve must be the outside.
I was deceived by my own position. Such an opponent was too immature and even Fan Ju felt embarrassed to start.
"15:0" A serve on the inside, and the misjudged little guy lost the ball without any response. This was just a normal 205-kilometer shot from Fan Ju, without spinning, no illusion of disappearance, and no supernatural assistance. He relied entirely on his own strength to hit a beautiful ACE ball.
Without resistance, even resistance seemed a little weak. Although Fan Ju thought it was a bit bullying, he still gave his opponent two zero eggs very happily to end his first round of qualifying match in the morning. He knew very well that he had to save his physical strength at this time, and at least he should not suffer too much in the main competition.
If you want to achieve this effect, you cannot waste too much time in the qualifying match. The simplest method is the best way to defeat your opponent. Two 6:0, spend less than an hour on time, and the intensity is like a practice match. This is a good weight for Fan Ju, who has to perform two practice matches on average every day, in addition to normal practice, and it is a good deal. It is not much or too much. Before the main game, you can move your body and exert your best strength.
Perhaps the only thing that bothered Fan Ju was that IMG's notification came too late. He just played with the attitude of registering for the Orange Bowl. He signed up for doubles and singles, and used wild cards to doubles. If the doubles were eliminated in the first round, he would certainly be able to save his energy better, but it would be too unfair to Wayne who accompanied him.
"Forget it, doubles depends on the situation. I finally know why those players who want to participate in doubles and singles usually have poor grades on one side, and even the grades on both sides are not very good. It is too distracting. My future focus is still on singles, and it's fine if you play doubles occasionally." Fan Ju made a secret decision in his heart.
Chapter completed!