District Preliminary Finals
A week later, the Semifinals of the Tokyo Josai district preliminary rounds were held at Kakinoki Sports Park.
The four teams— Fudomine, Kuri, Kakigi Junior High, Seigaku— will compete in the Semifinals.
The Semifinals match was the first to start, with Fudomine facing off against Kakigi Junior High, the second seed from the Josai district.
Apart from Saeki Muneyoshi, the entire Fudomine team has shown great interest in the long-standing seeded team from the western region.
In this match, Muneyoshi still did not plan to play, leaving the entire match to the first-year students, Tachibana, and Keith.
With consecutive victories, the first-year students of Fudomine began to gain confidence.
At the same time, due to the continuous competitions, and coach Hanamura Aoi's targeted intensive training to address the problems exposed by the players during the competitions.
This caused the strength of Kamio Akira, Ibu Shinji, Ishida Tetsu, and the others to gradually increase.
Everything is changing for the better.
Just as Muneyoshi was lost in thought, the match on the field had already reached a fever pitch.
The first doubles pair, Mori Tatsunori and Uchimura Kyosuke, won their first match 6-4 after ten games.
The doubles pair that followed, Kamio Akira and Ishida Tetsu, were even faster, securing the victory in just eight games.
Finally, it was a singles match between three players: Ibu Shinji versus Kaki Junior High's ace and captain, Kuki Kiichi.
After receiving guidance from Muneyoshi, Ibu Shinji's strength improved by leaps and bounds.
Under Muneyoshi's targeted guidance, Ibu Shinji did indeed develop a talent for the Mental Power Path.
Although he's only a first-year student, his current strength isn't much weaker than when he first appeared in the original work.
Kuki Kiichi is only a second-year student and his strength is not particularly high.
Ibu Shinji completely controlled the rhythm of their match. With Ibu Shinji sidespin serves and his constant use of topspin and backspin, Kuki Kiichi was temporarily paralyzed.
After eight games, Ibu Shinji won the singles match 3 with a score of 6-2.
Fudomine also successfully advanced to the regional preliminary finals, along with Seigaku.
It could be because it was just a regional preliminaries, or it could be because Seigaku set a high bar for them last year.
The news of Fudomine's "rise" did not generate much of a reaction in the Tokyo Metropolis area.
It's just Fudomine, how could it possibly turn the tide?
This was a school that couldn't even get past the regional preliminaries before.
This year's results are probably just due to good luck.
After all, there is always a delay in the transmission of information.
Many schools console themselves with this idea.
However, to certain individuals, this is a very clear signal.
Schools that knew some of the inside information felt a sense of urgency and quickly dispatched their own personnel to gather intelligence for the finals.
Hyotei Academy and Rikkai Dai the best, followed by Yamabuki.
Although Yamabuki has lost Akutsu, making the team less complete, Akutsu was only invited to start tennis in Banrō third year in the original work.
Moreover, under the guidance of the Banrō, the doubles team of Yamabuki Middle School can be said to be the strongest doubles team in the Tokyo Metropolis area.
When Muneyoshi toured the country for the first time, Yamabuki also visited him, so it's perfectly normal for Banrō to know about and pay attention to him.
Of course, none of these teams can compare to Seigaku's focus on Fudomine.
They were on their way back to school, discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's competition.
"Tezuka, the data has already shown us that Fudomine's current lineup is similar to ours last year. Their singles are very strong, but their doubles are very weak..."
Fuji broke the silence by looking at Tezuka, who was deep in thought.
"Although Fudomine has used different doubles combinations in previous matches, as long as our doubles team stays consistent, then winning just one singles match will put us in the game..."
Upon hearing this, Tezuka slowly stopped in his tracks.
"Fuji, I know..." Tezuka raised his head, glanced at Fuji, and then his expression seemed to fluctuate slightly.
"We really should trust Oishi and Kikumaru!"
"However, we cannot assume that Fudomine in the previous matches represents their entirety. It's important to remember that they had three players who didn't even play throughout the entire tournament."
"Furthermore, Tachibana Kippei played doubles in Shishigaku."
Tezuka's voice was very cold, but the problem he saw was indeed very tricky. Just from the data provided by Miki, it was clear that Fudomine hadn't shown his full strength in the previous matches.
Just like they were training newcomers Momoshiro Takeshi and Kaidou Kaoru, Fudomine was also training all newcomers.
Fuji smiled slightly and took over the conversation, "Tezuka, you're overthinking it. This is just the regional preliminaries. Our goals shouldn't be limited to this. Don't forget what our goals are this year!"
Fuji's words were like a thunderclap, reminding Tezuka, who had entered a dead end, of his Tezuka.
"Phew! Fuji, you're right, this is just the regional preliminaries. Coach Ryuzaki is right, if we want to go further, we can't limit ourselves to this match against Fudomine."
"Then let's follow Coach Ryuzaki's plan for tomorrow's match, sticking to the established strategy for any eventuality."
Hearing that Tezuka had finally come to his senses, Fuji smiled happily, and the two continued walking forward.
Seigaku has now moved beyond the stage of becoming a challenger.
Compared to them, Fudomine is the real challenger.
Meanwhile, at the Fudomine Tennis Club, Hanamura Aoi had also gathered the Fudomine Regular together.
We're preparing to discuss tomorrow's lineup allocation.
"Seigaku is another school that rose to prominence last year. They made it to the top eight in the National Tournament, which is a good test for us right now..."
Hanamura Aoi gave the team members a general overview of Seigaku. Seeing that no one showed any fear, her tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.
He then threw out a stack of documents for everyone to read.
These materials were collected by her and Tachibana An together during this period.
"To defeat Seigaku, we need to be wary of their singles matches: Akutsu Jin, Fuji Shusuke, and their captain Tezuka Kunimitsu..."
"Tezuka Kunimitsu..."
As he browsed through Seigaku's materials, Tachibana Kippei seemed to return to the stage of last year's National Tournament, seeing that radiant and powerful figure.
His gaze faltered slightly at that moment.
"Hmm? Orange, you're not scared, are you? I hope you don't drag me down in tomorrow's match."
With his exceptionally keen mental abilities, Muneyoshi instantly sensed Tachibana Kippei's emotional fluctuations and, seemingly jokingly, inadvertently pointed out Tachibana Kippei's concerns.
"Hmph, Muneyoshi, Seigaku is nothing to me!"
The hesitation and apprehension lasted only a moment. After Muneyoshi called him out, Tachibana Kippei once again became the Lion King.
Meanwhile, Keith and Lin Xiu were even less concerned. They had no idea of the other's strength, and they weren't interested in extrapolating based on the matches they had been playing recently.
Hanamura Aoi glanced at the expressions of her club members, nodded, and saw no fear in their expressions, which was exactly what she hoped for.
"Muneyoshi, you'll be playing singles match three tomorrow!"
Hanamura Aoi looked at the boy surrounded in the middle, who seemed indifferent to everything, and made arrangements directly.
To be honest, Hanamura Aoi originally didn't plan to arrange it this way.
She still wanted Muneyoshi to be the Singles 1 anchor, but their doubles shouldn't be exposed too much right now. She wanted to find the most suitable opportunity to use the Keith and Lin Xiu combination.
Furthermore, Seigaku's singles players are also very strong, but they haven't been able to completely overwhelm Fudomine in doubles.
Therefore, placing Muneyoshi in singles third is the safest approach, as she doesn't believe anyone in the current junior high school class can pose a threat to Saeki Muneyoshi.
"Yes, Coach."
Muneyoshi didn't ask Hanamura Aoi for the reason for this arrangement and simply agreed. Moreover, he was quite certain that he would encounter that guy in the singles match.
He hasn't played with him in a long time, I wonder how he's grown up now...
"Alright, so the lineup for this time is: Doubles, number two Ishida Tetsu and Kamio Akira;"
Doubles: Lin Xiu and Ibu Shinji); Singles 2: Tachibana Kippei); Singles 1: Keith No. 1).
"That concludes the regional preliminary finals. Let's leave no stone unturned and secure a decisive victory against Fudomine!"
"Yes, Coach!"
Everyone stood up and responded in unison.
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