WIMBLEDON, England — Three-time finalist Andy Roddick has been stunned in the fourth round at Wimbledon by an 82nd-ranked Taiwanese player who hadn’t won a match at the All England Club the past four years.
The fifth-seeded Roddick was ousted 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 9-7 by Yen-hsun Lu yesterday in a match that lasted over 4½ hours.
Lu sealed the victory in the 16th game of the fifth set with his only service break of the match.
The 26-year-old Lu had lost in the first round at Wimbledon four straight times.
He’s the first Asian man to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam since Shuzo Matsuoka of Japan at Wimbledon in 1995.
“I thought he served better than he has against me before,” Roddick said. “That being said, I had shots. I didn’t take advantage of them.”
Lu’s win overshadowed victories by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray on the men’s side, and the Williams sisters and Kim Clijsters among the women.
Before yesterday, 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.
Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, has lost three times to Federer in Wimbledon 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 evened yesterday’s match with a 126 mph ace on the final point of the fourth-set tiebreaker and had a chance for a decisive break in the fifth. But, on break point at 4-4, Lu came up with a perfect backhand volley and held serve.
Serving with Lu ahead 8-7, Roddick hit a forehand long at 30-all to set up match point. Lu converted by hitting a running forehand passing shot down the line.
“Through three sets I was playing horrendously, I mean really, really badly,” Roddick said. “I was trying to think of how to put balls in the court. I think the fifth set was probably the best set that I played … but when you dig yourself a hole, it’s tough to get out.”
Lu said he didn’t believe he could win but told himself to keep fighting.
“I just told myself, ‘If I can stay longer, longer, longer, then probably something happens’,” he said. “And finally then I waited for the last chance to close the match.”
Lu, who held up a finger to the sky, dedicated the win to his father, a chicken farmer who died in 2000.