Match Point

Chapter 1163: Xanadu

Mallorca, located on the east side of Spain's main mainland, is less than an hour's flight from Barcelona.

This small island surrounded by infinite emerald blue has more than 300 days of sunny weather throughout the year, and is known as the "Mediterranean Paradise".

All year round you can see sun-hungry European residents coming here to enjoy a leisurely holiday away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the chilly gloom.

Not only that, Mallorca is also known as the "Honeymoon Island", and the time needs to be traced back to the distant years two centuries ago.

The protagonists of the romantic story, one is the Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk-Chopin (Fryderyk-Chopin), and the other is the French female writer Georges-Sand (-Sand).

In 1837, Chopin and Sang, who was six years older than himself, met at the Paris Salon, and the two immediately fell in love, which also caused numerous controversies.

The reason comes from George Sand.

At that time, the female writer settled in Paris with her two children, surrounded by a large number of suitors, and she also refused to accept the constraints of social morality. Cigars, drinking spirits, riding horses, wearing long trousers, circling among the suitors, and openly admitted that he has four lovers.

Even the pseudonym "George Sand" came from a young lover of hers.

At that time, Chopin and Sang fell in love. In order to stay away from the noise and sight, and Chopin was suffering from tuberculosis at the time, the doctor advised him to rest. So, at the end of 1838, they came to Mallorca, which was still unknown at that time.

It is sparsely populated, with no hotels or apartments. They rented several houses in a monastery in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, and spent a winter in the southern country together. Both artists completed a series of handed down works here. creative work.

Later, Sang created a romantic story entitled "Love in Mallorca Island". In the love life of Chopin and Sang for more than ten years, Mallorca played an important role.

Today, Mallorca still maintains the former residences of the two art masters, attracting tourists to visit in an endless stream.

Later, those young couples and newlyweds who believed in romance and admired romance, followed in the footsteps of Chopin and Sang, and came here together to find their love.

Therefore, Mallorca has also won the reputation of "Honeymoon Island".

In a blink of an eye, two centuries have slipped through the fingertips, and Mallorca has become one of the most prestigious holiday islands in Europe, but the island still retains a large number of pristine beaches and cliffs that have not been eroded by tourists or commercially involved. , waiting for adventurers to explore and dig.

It's like a paradise.

Of course, there are pros and cons to this.

The advantage is that Mallorca still retains a large number of original landscapes, without too much commercial atmosphere.

The disadvantage is that because of the lack of commercial development, tourists are being attracted by other more mature resorts, so that Mallorca's economy has declined, and it is difficult to make a living by relying on the primitive fishery. The young residents on the island are gradually Started to run away and refused to stay behind.

After the new century, a Mallorcan teenager named Rafael Nadal was born and became a giant in the professional tennis world.

Mallorca is the hometown of the "Spanish God of War".

Now, Mallorca is no longer a tourist destination because of Chopin and San, people often come here because of Nadal.

In fact, Nadal and his entire family still live in Mallorca, not only taking root here, but also actively working hard to stimulate the economy of his hometown.

On the one hand, Nadal is actively promoting the tennis career in his hometown. A new ATP and WTA event will be completed in Mallorca, and it is very special that this is not a clay court event, but a grass court event. If all goes well, It will be held for the first time in 2016.

As the hometown of the king of clay, Mallorca hosts tennis events, but not clay?

Obviously, things are not that simple. Nadal has also communicated with ATP and WTA in many ways.

At present, hard-court events are blooming all over the world. It is undoubtedly the easiest to hold hard-court events, but at the same time the competition is also the most intense. It is not easy to invite top players to participate; in stark contrast, grass There are fewer and fewer events and it is facing an existential crisis.

From a commercial point of view, grass should not be the first choice; however, the ATP and WTA have been encouraging and sponsoring grass events in order to ensure the diversity of venues.

If Mallorca holds a grass field event, it will not only get official support and promotion, but also call for more top players to participate. After all, in just one month of grass field events, there are not as many events to choose from as imagined. Adding an option is always positive.

Once the event can be held successfully and attract enough appealing players, then European fans are willing to come by plane.

On the other hand, Nadal also closely connects his career planning with his hometown.

In fact, Nadal is not the first one. To be precise, his start has been considered slow.

Among the Big Four, Federer has been running his own fashion brand, and has acquired a sporting goods company, preparing to develop professional tennis shoes; at the same time, he has created his own brokerage company, began to sign contracts to manage the careers of young tennis players, and opened up his own business territory.

Djokovic is more pyrotechnic, because his parents are restaurant owners, so he started to open a chain restaurant in his hometown in 2012, preparing to expand in an all-round way, focusing on donkey cheese, which is the only one in Europe; later, He also ran a vegetarian restaurant in Monte Carlo and started his own line of nutritious food.

In addition, Djokovic owns a brokerage company specializing in event planning. In 2009, he bought the Dutch Open and transformed it into the Serbian Open.

In comparison, Nadal, who has been focusing on the field, is significantly less active outside the field, and has only started planning in the last two years.

In fact, after leaving the IMG brokerage company, Nadal re-planned his career, then found his goal, and concentrated all his energy on his tennis school—

Nadal is going to use Mallorca as the base to create the "Rafael Nadal Tennis School~lightnovelpub.net~ This idea is more or less inspired by Miami.

The headquarters of Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy is in Miami. It not only attracts countless young players to study every year, but also forms a linkage with the Miami Masters, playing an important role in stimulating the city's economy. , is a new industry.

At the same time, it is also a new hope.

It is precisely because of this that when Tony Nadal learned that Gao Wen was looking for a venue to adapt to clay, he took the initiative to call Sampras and extend an invitation.

Sincerely invite Gao Wen to come to Mallorca to start training for the clay court season with Nadal.

Sampras has no reason to refuse, to be precise, welcome with raised hands and feet.

(end of this chapter)

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