Wimbledon: Lu Yen-hsun- Accidentally in Headlines
A game is a collective play where the effort is put by a lot of contestants who try to get their hands on the final prize. In this endeavour of getting to the top spot, only a few become successful and rest remain under the cover. However, they are also important for the game and as essential as any other winning champion in the series of events. Every now and then, such un-known players with a relatively low popularity graph make a difference with their good performance and the underdogs win against world’s renowned players. They shine on the horizon by their brilliant act and become the beauty of news for quite some time.
One such player is Lu Yen-hsun. The 26 year old player from Taiwan, with no big career records falls into the category of underdog achievers. He really marked his presence by defeating the former world number 1 Andy Roddick in Wimbledon 2010 and made his way to the quarter final match. It seemed like Lu Yen-hsun’s was quite fond of doing such a thing because he had the similar achievement in Australian Open 2009, when he defeated former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt. At that time, he was holding the number 82 in world rankings.
It was pretty shocking for the world that a player like Lu Yen-hsun would be a trouble-maker for the speed rocket, Andy Roddick. Lu was all set to stun the world and become a public photo by crushing Roddick’s dream. Andy Roddick, the American tennis player who had many records to his name and known for his exceptionally powerful serves. He is the one who holds the record of the fastest serve in the history of tennis, which is 155 miles per hour. The world knows him as a champion and he needs no introduction in this regard. He has stayed in news flash many a time but it was quite an exception for his counter-part from the land of Taipie, Taiwan.
Lu not only represents Taiwan but he is the only one from Asia to reach quarter finals of a Grand Slam in fifteen years. He has been playing tennis since 2001. He started as a junior player in the ITF and climbed the higher stages gradually. In 2004, Lu was the first player from Asia to break into ATP top 100 ranking. He skipped 2005 matches due to injuries but he was not afraid of growing slowly and climbing up the horizon. In the coming years, he worked really hard on improving his game. He reached the third round of Grand Slam tournament in 2009. In the current Wimbledon season, Lu defeated the world number 5 and fifth seeded player in the game comprising of five rounds.
Lu Yen-hsun has an interesting story regarding his nickname which he got from his English teacher. The coach had a difficulty to pronounce Lu’s name and started calling him with the title Randy.
Lu has exhibited a solid performance in the Wimbledon and he has built up a good reputation for him and for his country as well. He has shown the world that Taiwan is not only capable of making good apparels and shoes but it can produce some quality tennis players.
Although, Lu’s dream of reaching to even higher position in the charts was crashed by world number 3 Novak Djokovic. The quarter final match was held on Wednesday, 30th June 2010 in All England Club; Lu Yen-hsun couldn’t save the points against Djokovic and lost the match. Lu’s highest achievement was to reach the quarter final of a Grand Slam match but his job was done, as it proved to be the biggest triumph of his career so far. Reviewing his last few performances, it is easy to judge that his game has improved a lot with the passage of time and he has the potential to go higher in the world ranking.
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