This is Yen-Hsun’s resume heading into Wimbledon.  First round loss in Chennai.  First round loss in the Australian Open.  Reached the quarterfinals of Johannesburg (losing to Monfils).  First round loss in San Jose.  Second round loss in Memphis (to Andy Roddick).  Second round loss to Indian Wells (to Andy Roddick).  Second round loss in Miami.  First round loss at the French Open.  First round loss in Queen’s (to Nicolas Mahut).  Second round loss at Eastbourne.

In 6 trips to Wimbledon, he’s only ever reached the second round twice.  The last 4 years, he’s exited in the first round.

Meanwhile, Andy Roddick must have felt this match was deja vu all over again.  Except instead of Federer on the other side of the court, it was 82nd ranked, Yen-Hsun Lu.  Throughout the entire match, Roddick had not lost serve.  He broke Lu’s serve once, and they each held serve throughout the last four sets.

Lu took control of the second set tiebreak and won it 7 points to 3.  The third set tiebreak look to be headed Roddick’s way, but again Lu took control and won it 7 points to 4.  The fourth set tiebreak ultimately went Roddick’s way, and it seemed like Roddick might have a good shot in the fifth set because he had yet to be broken.

But the resilient Lu kept holding serves.  Roddick had three chances to break Lu and secure the match, but converted none.  Lu didn’t get his first break opportunity in the set until he was up 8-7, 30-40 on Roddick’s serve.  Roddick must have seemed uncertain whether he could win a baseline rally and chose to come to net and put the pressure on Lu’s shoulder to pass.  Lu hit one passing shot that elicited a weakish volley from Roddick.  Lu then hit the shot up the line with his forehand, and engineered his first and only break in the match.

The last man from Asia to reach the quarterfinals of any Slam was Shuzo Matsuoka of Japan who reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1995.  (Technically, Michael Chang is Asian-American–he reached the finals of the Australian Open in 1996).

Roddick didn’t exactly have his best game.  He struggled returning Lu’s serve, and did not always do that well in baseline exchanges especially on Lu’s serve.  He tried a few strategies including coming to net, trying to hit harder, and tried to find something that worked, but Lu kept hanging in there, and eventually got the win.

So, the biggest upset at Wimbledon so far goes to Lu, who beat the fifth seed, Andy Roddick.  He’ll face Novak Djokovic next, which will perhaps make Djokovic happy, but Lu’s had a good run so far, so maybe Djokovic needs to worry!

Nadal looks en route to an easy 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.  He would face Robin Soderling next.