8C80473D-B5AC-4328-B0B0-46721A66FE0F
By Richard Pagliaro
© Fred Mullane and Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA
(June 28, 2010) While the crocodile on his cap was swimming in a pool of perspiration, Andy Roddick was drowning in self doubt and a whirl pool of winners streaming from Yen-Hsun Lu's racquet.
In the end, the typically resourceful Roddick found a life line in his strong serve, but could not reel in his return with sustained aggression and exited the Wimbledon fourth round in a stunning upset.
The World No. 82 from Chinese Taipei let his shots fly while Roddick retreated into a conservative shell at times as Lu scored a shocking 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 9-7 conquest of the three-time runner-up in four hours, 36 minutes.
Knowing he was facing the fastest serve in tennis history, Lu wasn't exactly brimming with confidence at the start of the fifth set. In fact, he didn't believe he could beat one of the game's best servers.
"But I tell you, fifth set, I don't believe I can win because he's better server than me," said Lu, who hit 22 aces. "No, I mean, for chance, I don't believe. But I just tell myself, 'Even I don't believe, I have to fight, yeah'."
Roddick kept fighting, but could not overcome the early deficit or his tendency to adopt a defensive posture on return.
"Through three sets I was playing horrendously, I mean really, really badly. I mean, to the point where I was trying to think of how to put balls in the court," Roddick said. "Actually, I mean, I think the fifth set was probably the best set that I played as far as hitting the ball, you know, making him struggle to actually get through service games sometimes.But when you dig yourself a hole, it's tough to get out, when you've given someone confidence, when they have their feet under them a little bit more."
While Roddick continued to fight, he couldn't quite summon the bold shotmaking Lu showed at critical stages and walked off Court 2 confronting another disappointing defeat.
"Of course I'm gonna be pissed off tomorrow. If you got fired from your job you probably wouldn't wake up the next day in a great mood," a frustrated Roddick said after the match.
Serving to stay in the match at 7-8, Roddick hit a serve down the middle that was initially called good. Lu challenged and Hawk-Eye showed the serve was slightly wide. Instead of game point, Roddick had to hit a second serve. He floated a forehand long and Lu had a match point. Roddick attacked net behind a forehand down the line, but Lu scrambled to the shot and drove a backhand pass cross court. Roddick scooped up a half volley only to watch helplessly as Lu swooped forward and ripped a forehand winner down the line to conclude the most monumental moment of his career.
Lu lifted his gaze toward the sky and said in his moment of euphoria he thought about his father, who passed away a decade ago, the same year that Lu turned pro.
"I really thankful for my family. Also because I'm really upset because my father's already pass away," Lu said. "I make this result. I'm really proud myself to share this victory with him in the sky. I hope he see this match. So in that moment, I just sit and tell myself, I done it. I done for my father. I done for myself also. I done for all the people support me, yeah."
Lu is the first Asian man to reach a major quarterfinal since Shuzo Matsuoka of Japan did it at Wimbledon in 1995 and spoke like a man in a state of disbelief after scoring the biggest win of his career.
"I was fighting all the time and in the end even though I was thinking it was a dream or something," Lu said. "I could not imagine this moment. (I) probably need time to calm down and see what happens."
It was the second top-10 victory for Lu, who upset then World No. 6 Andy Murray at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Lu will take on third-ranked Novak Djokovic for a spot in the Wimbledon semifinals. Djokovic defeated 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt to reach the quarterfinals for the third time in the last four years.
It was an improbable victory for Lu, wo hhad suffered four straight Wimbledon first-round setbacks prior to this fortnight. When it mattered most, Lu turned his shoulders into his shots and competed with more ambition and aggression, while a cautious Roddick pulled back as if waiting for Lu to lose the match rather than step up and take charge himself.
A year ago, Roddick held serve for 37 consecutive games and did not drop serve until the final game of the match in suffering a gut-wrenching 5-7, 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 3-6, 16-14 loss to Roger Federer in a final for the ages.
Today, Roddick's serve again carried him deep into the fifth set as he ripped 38 aces, faced just two break points and did not drop serve until the last game. But Roddick's passive play on the return cost him. He converted just one of eight break points and was unable or unwilling to consistently step inside the baseline and crack penetrating returns, preferring instead to play conservative returns to start rallies.
"It wasn't my serve, it was my returning. It was crap," said Roddick, who won three more points in the match, 199-196, but could not convert pivotal break points.
Lu stands only 5-foot-11 and is listed at 163 pounds. He gives up at least 30 points in weight to the 195-pound Roddick, but compensated for the size and strength disparity by standing closer to the baseline, taking the ball earlier and hitting flatter shots that forced Roddick to dig low bouncing balls off the Court 2 lawn.
Roddick earned break point at 4-all in the final set that would have enabled him to serve for the match if he converted.
Lu, who had not serve and volleyed for virtually the entire match, attacked net and erased the break point with a courageous and creative low backhand volley winner that he lifted into the corner. It was a sensational shot under pressure.
"I hit a decent return — cold cocked one — and he hit an inside-out stick volley that was an impressive volley at that point," Roddick said.
Two points later, Roddick pushed a backhand volley wide and Lu held for 5-4.
"Credit to him, because I got into some games," Roddick said. "I make him hit a good pass on breakpoint. He stuck a volley. He hadn't taken a first ball and came in all day and he did it down breakpoint. He played high‑risk, but he executed very well. You know, he had a game plan, he stuck to it, and he deserved to win more than I did. That's for sure."
Reading Roddick's serve on grass can be as easy as deciphering hieroglyphics scrawled across the surface of a lake during a rain storm. But Roddick, who backed up that serve by blasting his forehand authoritatively when he defeated Rafael Nadal en route to the Sony Ericsson Open title on Key Biscayne in April, did not drive the ball as effectively as Lu, who hits flatter and was more ambitious in going after his ground strokes. Roddick said Lu's low-bouncing strokes made attacking net a difficult proposition.
"Get him on the surface conducive to his swings (and) it's tough charging on a ball that is not coming off the ground too much," Roddick said. "He did a good job controlling the middle of the court. He was getting length and driving the ball."
If Lu looks quick to the ball there's good reason: he improved his quickness not only on the tennis court but on a chicken farm chasing after the chickens his father sold.
"My father he (was) selling the chicken, not the meat, but the live chicken. So they sell the chicken, send it to the farm or something," Lu said. "After, they kill and become the meat. So I can catch a chicken. I can show you. Yeah, serious. I can catch a chicken."
On a late afternoon in London, the boy who grew up chasing chickens ran down a tennis dream that seemed beyond his imagination.