Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) believes his deceased father will be watching over him when he attempts to keep his Wimbledon dream alive in the quarter-finals today.
Lu will face Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals after stunning Andy Roddick in a five-set four-and-a-half hour epic in the fourth round on Monday.
Lu Hui-yen, who inspired his son to take up tennis, passed away in 2000, but Asia’s top player was inspired by his memory as he dumped Roddick — last year’s beaten finalist — out of the tournament and in the process became the first Taiwanese player to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.
PHOTO: AFP
“I was upset because my father passed away already. I am really proud to share the victory with him in the sky and I hope he saw the match,” Lu said. “I did it for my father, myself and all the people who have supported me. We learned tennis together. He was not a real coach, but he spent a lot of time driving me to the coach and to the tennis school — he took care of everything.”
“I was upset that he wasn’t with me after what I did, but I think he is here and he is very happy for me,” he said.
Lu has vowed to fight to the finish against Djokovic — just as he did against Roddick.
“Djokovic is also a great player,” he said. “I don’t know how far I can go in this, but I can tell you when I step on the court, I will fight to the end.”
Roddick said Lu’s serve had improved vastly since the last of their two encounters this year and Lu has put his new found strength down to a new conditioning program that should stand him in good stead against Djokovic.
“Having a good serve is physical and I have hired a conditioning coach,” Lu said. “We trained really hard for three and a half weeks to prepare for this tournament. He used a different training program that makes my legs stronger. So I can jump higher and I can serve better.”
Lu has also been taking advice from former Australian professional Mark Woodforde, who has given him some valuable tips ahead of this tournament.
“I had a very good experience with him last year,” Lu said. “He gave me a lot of advice, about coming to the net and about strategy. He also told me about experiences he had, how to play in a match and what you think.”
In beating Roddick, the 26-year-old, ranked 82nd in the world, became the first Asian man to make the last eight at Wimbledon since Japan’s Shuzo Masuoka in 1995.
This is Lu’s best Grand Slam performance — his previous best effort was a third-round spot in the Australian Open last year and he had never been beyond the second round at Wimbledon.
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