President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Wu Den-yih both sent congratulatory messages to Lu Yen-hsun after he defeated fifth seed Andy Roddick of the US in the fourth round of the men’s singles at Wimbledon on Monday to become the first Taiwanese player to make the last eight at the All England Club.
It was the first time Lu had beaten Roddick, who he had played against three times previously.
In Taipei, Lu’s brother Lu Wei-lu said that “me and my mother both cried while embracing each other.”
He also said the match was very significant to the family following the death of his father in 2000.
“Wimbledon was my father’s favorite sporting event and Lu Yen-hsun took his first grand slam win at Wimbledon in 2004,” Lu Wei-lu said.
After the win he and his mother went to the hill where his father is buried to give him the good news.
Lu Yen-hsun had vocal, at times almost hysterical support, during the match, matched by partisan cheers for Roddick, a perennial favorite at the All England Club.
“Today I just take time, serve regular, and stay with him, try to find a chance and to win the set, set by set, set by set, until the end, I’m shaking hands and I win,” he said.
It is a better job than catching chickens to send off for sale and slaughter as his father did. Lu said he helped his father a few times and still had the knack, but: “I don’t really like it because the smell is really bad. But I know is very tough work.”
Lu’s coach, Dirk Hordorff, said: “Sometimes he’s mentally not strong enough. But today he showed he was strong enough.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS