82nd-ranked player sends Roddick packing
WIMBLEDON, England — Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are there. So are Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling.
But there's one name among the list of Wimbledon quarterfinals that may not be quite so familiar — Yen-hsun Lu.
He's the 82nd-ranked player from Taiwan who shocked three-time runner-up Andy Roddick to become the first Asian player to reach the men's quarters of a Grand Slam tournament in 15 years.
The 26-year-old from Taipei pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far Monday when he outlasted fifth-seeded Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7 in a match that stretched over 4Z\x hours.
After Lu ripped a running forehand passing shot on match point to break Roddick for the first time, he looked and pointed to the sky. He said he had bittersweet feelings in memory of his father, a chicken farmer who passed away in 2000.
"I'm really proud to share this victory with him in the sky," Lu said. "In that moment, I just told myself, I've done it. I've done it for my father. I've done it for myself also. I've done it for all the people who supported me."
It was a stunning turnaround for Lu, who had lost in the first round at Wimbledon the past four years and failed to win a match at the last five Grand Slams.
Before Monday, Lu was 9-18 in Grand Slam matches, 11-17 on grass and 2-10 overall against top-10 ranked players. It was his first win over a top-10 player since he beat Murray in the first round of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
It was a crushing defeat for Roddick, who was hoping to finally win his first Wimbledon title after losing three times to Federer in the finals, including last year's epic match that went to 16-14 in the fifth set. He had beaten Lu in straight sets in three previous meetings.
Roddick served 38 aces but converted only one of eight breakpoint chances. Lu had 22 aces.
Roddick said he played "horrendously" the first three sets, got better after that but Lu served better than ever before.
"When you dig yourself a hole, it's tough to get out," he said. "He played high risk, but he executed very well. He had a game plan, he stuck to it, and he deserved to win more than I did, that's for sure."
Lu earned a quarterfinal meeting with third-seeded Djokovic, who beat 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the last eight for the second year in a row.
Federer, chasing a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title, swept past 16th-seeded Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 and will meet Tomas Berdych.
Nadal, forced into five sets the previous two rounds, needed only three Monday to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, and showed no sign of the right knee trouble which bothered him. The Spaniard now faces sixth-seeded Robin Soderling.
