The Prince of Tennis Episode 12 Recap
> The Prince of Tennis Recap
The match between Lu Xia and Zhuo Yu intensified. Zhuo Yu, confident in his ability to counter all of Lu Xia's variations, soon found himself struggling against Lu Xia's growing power. Lu Xia, after testing Zhuo Yu, began to increase his ball speed to suppress him. Zhuo Yu, constantly overshadowed by his brother Zhuo Zhi, was determined to make a name for himself. He recalled how everyone only remembered him as Zhuo Zhi's brother, never by his own name.
To break free, he resorted to the "Sky Clear Kill Shot," a secret technique taught by Guan Yue. This powerful move, however, caused immense pain and stress to his arm. Seeing Zhuo Yu's struggle, Lu Xia subtly advised him to reduce the use of the Sky Clear Kill Shot, but Zhuo Yu misinterpreted this as Lu Xia being unable to break the shot and thus wanting him to stop. Lu Xia, too, was deep in thought.
He realized his initial drive to defeat his father, much like Zhuo Yu's desire to overcome his brother's shadow, had become a restrictive obsession. Once this realization dawned upon him, Lu Xia experienced a sudden insight, grasping how to play and immediately turning the tide. He unveiled a new technique, which initially went out of bounds due to a miscalculation, but he quickly mastered it, successfully executing his "B-ball" to take a temporary lead. Zhuo Yu's condition deteriorated.
He questioned his chances of winning, especially after transferring schools solely for tennis. During a break, Guan Yue suggested exploiting Lu Xia's recent left eye injury, believing it would create a psychological barrier and increase Zhuo Yu's chances of winning. However, Zhuo Yu found such a tactic too dishonorable and refused to act on it. Ultimately, Zhuo Yu lost to Lu Xia, much to Guan Yue's displeasure.
Following the match, Coach Qi Na confronted Guan Yue, condemning his teaching methods as detrimental to developing players like Zhuo Yu. She expressed her disappointment when Guan Yue showed no concern for Zhuo Yu potentially suffering permanent injury from the "Sky Clear Kill Shot." Zhuo Zhi, who had watched the match intently, could no longer stand by.
Filled with anticipation to thoroughly defeat Guan Yue for his harmful influence on Zhuo Yu, he stepped onto the court himself, preventing Mu Siyang, who was eager to play, from taking his place. Guan Yue, targeting Zhuo Zhi's perceived weaknesses, started strong, leading 1-0 and then winning two consecutive games. He smugly glanced at Yan Zhiming, confident that his analysis and tailored training were superior, signaling his intent to easily defeat the "genius" tennis player, Zhuo Zhi.
Zhuo Zhi allowed Guan Yue to win five consecutive games, causing widespread concern among the Yuqing team. Qi Na even urged Mu Siyang to warm up, but Mu Siyang remained steadfast, trusting in Zhuo Zhi's ability to prevail. After losing five games, Zhuo Zhi questioned Guan Yue about his insistence on Zhuo Yu practicing the harmful "Sky Clear Kill Shot."
He then exchanged his racket for the one he had bought with Zhuo Yu, aiming to symbolically reclaim Zhuo Yu's spirit through this match. Guan Yue, however, merely saw it as an attempt by Zhuo Zhi to turn the tide. Unaware of Zhuo Zhi's true intentions, Guan Yue continued to exploit what he believed were Zhuo Zhi's weak points. He deliberately hit several balls that he thought Zhuo Zhi was bad at, confident of a swift victory.
To his shock, Zhuo Zhi expertly returned every shot, revealing them to be his strengths, not his weaknesses. Zhuo Zhi had deliberately lost the initial games to lull Guan Yue into a false sense of security, planning to unleash his real power at the opportune moment to catch Guan Yue completely off guard. Guan Yue finally realized his prior assessments were entirely wrong.
Zhuo Zhi, having intentionally conceded five games to humiliate Guan Yue and exact revenge for Zhuo Yu, ultimately defeated him with a score of 7-5, securing victory for Yuqing. Guan Yue left the court dejectedly, treating Zhuo Yu coldly in his defeat. While Yan Zhiming could momentarily revel in Guan Yue's loss, Guan Yue retorted by mocking Yan Zhiming's "data tennis" for being useless and not even serving as a proper support for Yuqing.
The Yuqing and Guozi match concluded, making way for the next one: Star Yao versus Yufeng. Xu Ziping of Yufeng was the first to play, facing Star Yao's main player, Hu Liangliang. Before the match, Hu Liangliang arrogantly claimed he had never heard of Xu Ziping and that their captain, Ji Jingwu (who had yet to appear), was unnecessary for such an opponent.
However, Hu Liangliang was swiftly defeated by Xu Ziping within fifteen minutes, leading to him being immediately stripped of his official team member status by the strict Captain Ji Jingwu. In the aftermath, Zhuo Yu sought out Guan Yue to apologize and express his desire to play future matches based purely on his own abilities.
