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TENNIS: Lu pulls off shock victory in Beijing

Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun secured perhaps the most significant victory of his career yesterday, stunning sixth-seeded Andy Murray of Great Britain in the first round of the Olympic men’s singles tennis tournament 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Lu, ranked 77th in the latest ATP rankings, earned his first victory against a top-20 player since he beat the third-ranked Guillermo Coria at a Wimbledon warm-up event in June 2004.

The 25-year-old, who has battled injuries throughout his career, fought back from two breaks in the first set to win it in a tiebreaker when Murray double-faulted on set point.

After a rain delay early in the second set, Lu held off four break points in the pivotal ninth game before breaking the Scot to clinch the match.

Murray was seen as one of the hottest players on the ATP Tour after winning the ATP Masters Series event in Cincinnati last week, but made too many unforced errors and was kept on the run by an inspired Lu.

“Before the match I didn’t think I had a good chance. Andy had won in Cincinnati last week,” said Lu, who will be 25 on Thursday and whose previous big scalp was Jim Courier when the American was at his peak.

“But I fought him from the first point to the end. I’m proud of my country and of myself,” he said.

Lu joked that he almost wanted not to come to Beijing when he was informed he had been drawn against Murray in the first round.

“I was at Taipei airport when I heard the draw and I thought maybe I should take my luggage and go home. But I am happy to be here. I thought I’d try to do my best and learn something from Andy. And here I am now.”

Lu said the turning point had been his resilience at 4-4 in the second set and facing three break points.

“I was really lucky to hold that game and when I did I thought I had a chance,” he said.

“Andy was missing a lot of forehands and the next game I tried to play everything to his forehand and he began to miss,” he said.

The surprise victory sent Lu into the second round of the tournament against clay-court specialist Agustin Calleri of Argentina.

To the regret of Taiwan’s tennis fans, the match was not televised live by any of the television stations with broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games.

Two networks, China Television System and China Television Co, broadcast images from the last few games of the match on small screens that left the players barely visible during their nightly newscast, but completely missed Lu’s match point while reporting other news stories.

In a match that concluded just minutes before Lu’s victory, and was also not broadcast, Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan lost in the first round of the women’s singles to eighth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 7-6 (6).

In other matches yesterday Rafael Nadal made a successful debut in the men’s singles by beating Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Top-seeded Roger Federer had an easier time. He began a bid for his first Olympic medal by beating Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2.

Venus and Serena Williams also advanced to the second round in the women’s tournament, as did Novak Djokovic in the men’s.

Seventh-seeded Venus Williams, playing her first match since winning Wimbledon for the fifth time, beat Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2.

Williams, who swept the gold medals in singles and doubles in 2000, showed no sign of the knee injury that sidelined her in recent weeks.

Her sister, seeded fourth, won all four games when her match resumed after an overnight rain interruption to beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1.

The third-seeded Djokovic beat Robby Ginepri of the US 6-4, 6-4, and Igor Andreev of Russia defeated Sam Querrey of the US 6-4, 6-4.

Nicolas Massu of Chile opened his bid to retain his Olympic title by beating Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-4, 7-5.

But Massu and Fernando Gonzalez, who won the gold medal in doubles at Athens, were beaten by Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (5), 6-4.
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