Wimbledon 2010: Andy Roddick defeated by Yen Hsun-Lu
A heartbreaking scene was witnessed last year at the centre court of the All England Club. A teary eyed Andy Roddick picked up his silver runners-up cup amid chants of “Roddick” from the crowd. A marathon five set final loss to Roger Federer was the main motivation behind Roddick training fiercely for Wimbledon 2010. Pundits had predicted 2010 to be Roddick’s year at SW19. However, the fairytale for Roddick ended earlier than he had hoped for. He had little trouble during the first three rounds and did not worry too much about his fourth round encounter against unknown Yen Hsun-Lu from Chinese Taipei. But little did he know about the surprise that awaited Roddick was going to face. The man whose serve was not broken until the final set was surprisingly the eventual loser of the match. Court two saw Andy Roddick being dumped out of Wimbledon by a twenty-six-year old shining light.
Court two has been known as the Graveyard of Champions. Many seeds have perished here in the past like Ilie Nastase, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and the Williams sisters among others. This afternoon Court Two lived up to its name. Before Roddick walked out onto the court, women’s third seed Caroline Wozniacki had been eliminated and an ominous shadow loomed over Court Two. Roddick started his match in his usual fashion, taking the first set 6-4 without facing even one break point. At this point everything was going according to plan. The man from Chinese Taipei, before the match told his coach he did not care whether he won the match but wanted to put up a good fight. And that is exactly what he did. He kept hitting ferocious ground strokes and a few grave errors from the Roddick forehand and double faults at crucial times gave Lu the second set, 7-6. That is when Lu’s game reached fever pitch.
For a man who has lost in the first round during the last three Wimbledon Championships and only won two matches against top seeds, he was not lacking in confidence at any point during the match. By the third set Lu was matching up to Roddick’s game. It was an encounter alien to the grass court lovers as most points were being played several feet behind the baseline. Roddick’s serve did not disappoint but his returns did. Every ball that Roddick hit as a winner was given its due treatment by Lu. The third set too went to a tie break and an untimely double fault gave Lu a 6-4 lead in the tie break and then an unforced error by Roddick on the next point gave Lu a two sets to one lead.
Roddick was stunned that he was two sets down even though he had not faced a single break point. However, the reason could possibly have been that he was not happy with his usual aggressive game. He allowed Lu to generate eighty-three winners and his career best aces at twenty-two.
The fourth set too was evenly poised, with Roddick facing his first break point chance of the match in the fifth game, but Lu could not convert it. Similarly, Lu faced a break point in the next game as well but Roddick could not convert. The fourth set too reached a tie break and in the end it was Roddick who prevailed taking advantage of Lu’s nerves.
Lu was playing the best tennis of his career and knew that he had to be physically and mentally strong to take the former champion down. The fifth set was crucial and Lu stepped up his game. It was neck to neck till the sixteenth game, when Roddick’s serve was broken for the first time. This was the turning point of the match which Lu took full advantage off. Roddick had his fair share of chances in the fifth set but could not manage to convert even one. Thus, after years of perseverance, the eighty second ranked Lu pulled the biggest upset of the men’s draw, beating fifth seed Andy Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7.
This was the second longest match in Wimbledon 2010 lasting four hours and thirty six minutes. What is ironic is that the longest match too featured an American, but now after Roddick’s exit, there is no American player left in the men’s draw. Roddick was gracious in his post match speech; however the scars of this loss will remain with him for a long time to come.
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