Sweat seeping from his baseball cap after four hours scratching for his game on a dusty baseline, Andy Roddick became Wimbledon’s biggest casualty on Monday when he lost to the son of a Taiwanese chicken farmer.
Just as it seemed the serious contenders for the titles had survived the most hectic day on the grand slam calendar, last year’s runner-up was cut down by Lu Yen-hsun whose previous four Wimbledon appearances ended in first-round defeats.
Lu thoroughly deserved his 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 9-7 fourth-round victory to become the first Asian man to reach a grand slam quarterfinal since Japan’s Shuzo Matsuoka’s run at the All England Club in 1995.
“I’m really proud of myself to share this victory with my dad who is in the sky,” Lu, whose father died 10 years ago, told reporters. “I hope he saw this match. When I won I just sat there and said I did this for my father.”
While Roddick’s tournament came to an abrupt end on a day of withering heat, defending men’s champion Roger Federer was the epitome of cool as the Swiss glided past old pal Juergen Melzer into the quarter-finals.
Rocky ride
“This is not hot,” Federer shrugged after treating a slowly roasting Centre Court crowd to an 84-minute masterclass as temperatures shot up. “This was a one shirt-change kind of match.”
Top seed Rafael Nadal, who like Federer has endured a rocky ride so far, also conserved some energy for his impending battle with Robin Soderling with an easy victory against Paul-Henri Mathieu while Andy Murray gave British sports fans a lift as he outclassed dangerous American Sam Querrey.
Murray, bidding to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight after he beat fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
Nadal will be wary of Soderling’s explosive game in the quarterfinals and may have hoped to be playing compatriot David Ferrer in the last eight instead. Ferrer pushed Soderling to the limit before losing in five sets.
Novak Djokovic beat Lleyton Hewitt in four sets to set up a meeting with Lu while Tomas Berdych is Federer’s quarterfinal obstacle after beating Germany’s Daniel Brands.
Second Monday at Wimbledon is traditionally the day that the big guns move into position.
Women’s favourites Serena and Venus Williams churned on inexorably towards contesting yet another women’s singles final but the third, fourth and seventh seeds in the women’s draw were all heading home after limp exits.
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki was humiliated 6-2, 6-0 by Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic quit, citing back trouble, when trailing 6-1, 3-0 against Russian Vera Zvonareva while Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska managed just five games against China’s Li Na.
‘Hell-cat’
World number one Serena Williams may well have played her toughest match already en route to the final.
She saved three set points and needed the help of 19 aces before subduing Maria Sharapova 7-6, 6-4 in repeat of 2004 final and now faces Li with a possible semifinal against either unseeded Kvitova or Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi who, like both Williams sisters, is yet to drop a set.
Five-times champion Venus scrapped like a “hell-cat” according to her father Richard to resist Australia’s Jarmila Groth in on the bowl-like furnace of Court Two after arriving for the match 10 minutes late.
Williams, who blamed her tardiness on a mix-up with her security escort, broke in the 10th game to take the first set but Groth, the lowest ranked woman to reach the last 16, twice served for the second set before succumbing 6-4, 7-6.
Venus faces a looming danger in the semifinal after Kim Clijsters beat Justine Henin in the 25th Battle of the Belgians.
Eighth seed Clijsters, thriving on her return to the All England Club after a four-year absence in which she gave birth to daughter Jada, was given the run-around early on before the 27-year-old recovered to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and move forward to a quarterfinal against Zvonareva.
Henin, also back at Wimbledon after a retirement U-turn, was troubled by a wrist injury after a fall.
Tenacious resistance
Djokovic overcame typically tenacious resistance from 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt, the third seeded Serb winning 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 despite needing tablets when he began to feel sick mid-match, and will now face Roddick’s conqueror Lu.
Roddick’s previous defeat at Wimbledon was his cliffhanger in last year’s final against Roger Federer when he went down 16-14 in an unforgettable fifth set but on Monday he failed to solve the puzzle provided by the 82nd-ranked Lu.
The fifth seed never looked comfortable on Court Two against th 26-year-old whose previous highlights had been a victory over Murray at the Beijing Olympics and a Centre Court appearance last year against Federer.
After spurning a chance to finish Roddick in the fourth set, Lu held his nerve magnificently in the deciding set and pounced in the 16th game to complete a sensational victory with a forehand winner.
“When you dig yourself a hole, it’s tough to get out,” the 27-year-old Roddick, three-times a runner-up to Federer, told reporters.
“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.”
Federer, who a week ago came within three points of an astonishing first-round defeat by Colombia’s Alejandro Falla and also struggled in round two, has found his A-game just in time and the swagger was back on Monday.
Just a shame for Melzer that he was the victim in his first career meeting with the Swiss.
Apart from a brief moment early in the first set when he replied to having his service broken with a break of his own the surprise French Open semi-finalist was shown no mercy and was completely outclassed.
“He said straight after that he hopes he does not have to wait 10 years to play me again,” said Federer. “He’s a guy I know well, he’s a good friend of mine and I know him too well to play tricks against him.”
Berdych, the 12th seed, beat Brands 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-3 while in the bottom half of the draw Tsonga eased through against Benneteau 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. — Reuters