Wimbledon preview – Novak Djokovic v Yen-Hsun Lu
This was the quarter-final that all and sundry would have pencilled in as a clash between top 10 players Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick, before last year’s beaten Wimbledon finalist was upstaged by a certain Taiwanese player in his fourth round match.
That player was Yen-Hsun Lu, whose 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 9-7 victory over Roddick propelled him into the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
It’s a victory that not even the player himself thought was possible after the American had levelled the match at two sets apiece, telling reporters afterwards, “I tell you, fifth set, I don't believe I can win because he's better server than me... But I just tell myself, even [if] I don't believe, I have to fight.”
Fight he did, and that shock victory has now earned the world No. 82 a quarter-final berth against the third seeded Djokovic. Win that and Lu earns himself a semi-final match-up against either 2008 champion Rafael Nadal or the big-hitting Robin Soderling.
Make no mistake about it: Lu is mixing with the big boys now.
While Djokovic, who overcame Lleyton Hewitt in four sets in his fourth round match, will not be unhappy to avoid a quarter-final against Roddick, Lu must now command respect by virtue of his most recent victory. After all, it took Roger Federer even longer in the final set to snuff out Roddick’s title hopes in the final last year.
“I thought he [Lu] did a good job of controlling the middle of the court all day,” a disappointed Roddick said after making an early exit from the All England Club. “His ball was coming in with a lot more behind it than mine. He was switching directions, you know, keeping me off balance, not letting me get set.
“He's very good on surfaces that bounce low... I think the thing that he did very well better than times that we played in the past was serve. I thought he served a lot better than normal,” Roddick said.
If that victory hasn’t taken too much out of Lu – and the effort it took to overcome a player as comfortable on grass as Roddick cannot be underestimated – Djokovic will find himself facing a staunch challenge as he bids to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon for just the second time in his career.
And with the ladies’ quarter-finals throwing up two of the biggest upsets of the tournament – with Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters losing to lower ranked opponents – Lu cannot be discounted here.
Prediction: Djokovic to succeed where Roddick failed.
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