When it comes to Asian tennis, many people will give a sigh.
Just like table tennis in Europe and the United States, Asian tennis can only occasionally appear so that one or two people can brush a brush to talk about the presence of nothing.
So far, the Asians who can be named in the world tennis world are Li Na in China and Kei Nishikori in Japan.
Although Kei Nishikori's strength is good, it still has not reached the point of making waves in the world tennis world. However, in the long history of tennis, there is a Chinese who can compete with the top masters in the tennis world at that time, he is Zhang Depei.
Zhang Depei participated in the competition
Born in 1972 in New Jersey, USA, Zhang Depei, a Chinese, showed great talent for tennis as a teenager.
In 1986, at the age of 15, Zhang Depei qualified for the U.S. Open through a wild card and reached the second round.
The fledgling shocked the nation.
The opportunity to shine around the world soon arrived, when the men's tennis scene was the domain of the likes of Sampras, Agassi and Becker, and many athletes could only seek to survive in the cracks.
But Zhang Depei was not among this group, and in 1989, the time to ascend to the top of the French Roland Garros came.
Zhang Depei as a teenager
Clay fields have always been a blessed place for Chinese, and Li Na's first Grand Slam was also in Roland Garros. Before Li Na, Zhang Depei had already conquered this site.
At the age of seventeen, Zhang Depei entered the French Open final as the fifteenth seed of the tournament.
In that men's singles final, Zhang Depei's opponent was Swedish king Edberg, which was a reversal game of the Tianwangshan Battle.
As a generation of ball kings, Edberg's natural strength is superior, and he soon led Zhang Depei 2-0 with a big score. But the yellow-skinned young man showed the toughness of a perfect newborn calf that was not afraid of tigers, completed a super reversal, and surpassed Edberg with a total score of 3-2 and lifted the championship trophy.
Lift the French Open trophy
Zhang Depei was only 17 years old and 110 days old at the time, which made him the youngest Grand Slam champion in history, a record that no one has broken to this day.
Before him, no one in the United States had won the French Open for 34 years, and in this way, the name "genius teenager" spread all over the world.
The nets stand apart
Although Zhang Depei won his first Grand Slam title at the age of 17, he never touched it again in his career.
In Zhang Depei's career, he has won a total of 34 championship trophies, as well as 7 Masters titles and 51 defeats in the world's top ten.
At that time, when he was ruled by "gods", Zhang Depei had a big gap with white athletes in terms of physical condition and strength level, and could only be regarded as a "mortal". It is such a mortal who, in the confrontation with the "gods", did not fall behind at all, and suppressed the vast majority of European and American adepts for a long time.
Focus on serving
Zhang Depei's world ranking came to the second highest place, which is also the highest ranking of yellow males in history.
At that time, Zhang Depei was in a brave state and was the highest level of competition for a period of time. In 1996, he had the opportunity to hit the world number one, but unfortunately it fell short.
Zhang Depei once again fought hard in a Grand Slam tournament, in the SEMIFINALS of the US Open, his opponent was the "King of the United States" Agassi, facing one of the two giants at that time, Zhang Depei unexpectedly defeated Agassi in three straight sets and reached the final.
As long as Zhang Depei wins the championship again, he can become the first yellow person in history to rank first in the world, and the opponent in the final is another "god" - Sampras.
Hit the ball hard
Sampras's tennis skills are amazing, especially the use of serve internet technology, which is simply unbeatable.
Zhang Depei went all out to meet the battle, desperately fighting, but Sampras did not leave him a chance, defeated "Xiao Zhang" and won the championship.
This is the closest Zhang Depei has been to the world's first, and since then, Zhang Depei has never reached such a height. In a later interview, he also said that the 96 US Open final was a regret of a lifetime.
Greetings to the opponent
Beginning in the 1990s, Zhang Depei began to return to China to compete. As a result of taking over a shampoo commercial, he became a household name, and the enthusiasm of fans across the country for him was unprecedented.
At that time, Zhang Depei, with a handsome face and a flexible posture, swept thousands of young boys and girls.
Although Chinese is not fluent, and his nationality does not belong to China, the blood flowing in his body has left all this deeply imprinted on China.
Sensational shampoo ads
Zhang Depei's game in China can be called a crowded alley, even at the end of his career when the results are not very good, you can still feel his unique charm and the support of Chinese fans.
Whether he is leading or lagging behind in the game, Zhang Depei can get the support of all the spectators, and he can often see the waves of people in football matches in his games, which shows that Zhang Depei's popularity is extraordinary. He also said many times in interviews that the Chinese audience's full cheering has given him great motivation, which is why he has been coming to China to participate in the competition for many years.
End of career
After Zhang Depei retired, he changed careers to become a tennis coach.
His most well-known disciple was the famous Japanese player Kei Nishikori, who at that time had good results in Asia, but it was still difficult to compete with others when he looked at the world.
Since Zhang Depei became Kei Nishikori's coach, he found that Kei Nishikori was very similar to his own situation in terms of both body and strength.
Zhang Depei began the transformation of Nishikori Kei, in addition to making some corrections to his technology, the focus is on strengthening his physical strength, under the all-round transformation, Nishikiori Kei also began to sharpen.
Professor Zhang Depei Kei Nishikiori
In the 2014 US Open, Kei Nishikori began his own counterattack, in which he defeated Serbian superstar Djokovic, who was ranked first at the time, to reach the historic Grand Slam final. Although he did not win the championship in the end, it was enough to make Zhang Depei's skills see zhang Depei's skills by allowing Kei Nishikori to enter the world's top ten or even the top five from a second-rate athlete.
In fact, Zhang Depei also coached Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai before coaching Kei Nishikori, and also plans to open his own tennis school in China. Zhang Depei also said:
"For China, my heart has always been open, not because of my responsibility or sense of mission as a Chinese, but because my heart has always been close to China."
Inducted into the Hall of Fame
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Zhang Depei also proposed to coach the Chinese national tennis team, although the trip did not happen in the end, but he still had China in mind. In the same year, Zhang was inducted into the U.S. Tennis Hall of Fame in recognition of his continued contributions to tennis.