Lu Yen-hsun (; born 14 August 1983) is a Taiwanese retired professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player, who goes by the nickname Rendy Lu.
He won the most titles on the
ATP Challenger Tour
The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...
in tennis history. His favorite surface is hardcourt, though several of his
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...
career highlights came on grass, including reaching the quarterfinals of the
2010 Wimbledon Championships.
Juniors
Lu was an accomplished junior player, reaching as high as No. 3 in the
ITF junior world singles rankings in February 2001 (and No. 9 in doubles). In his junior career, he compiled a singles win–loss record of 80–37 (63–34 in doubles) and defeated a handful of future
ATP stars, including
Robin Söderling
Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...
,
Mario Ančić
Mario Ančić (; born 30 March 1984) is a Croatian former professional tennis player who currently works as a private equity vice president in New York City. He won three singles titles and five doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking ...
, and
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
.
His result in the Junior Slam are as follows:
* Australian Open: 1R (
2001)
* French Open: 1R (
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
)
* Wimbledon: 1R (
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
)
* US Open: 2R (
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
)
Tennis career
In 2004, Lu became the first player from Taiwan to break into
ATP top 100, thanks to a solid performance in the Challenger Tour in the first half of 2004. He started to participate in many tour-level events. Although he suffered many defeats, his effort yielded some good wins. The most notable win came on the grass court in the
Queen's Club Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
, where he gained his first top-10 win by defeating then world No. 3,
Guillermo Coria
Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed ''El Mago'' (''The Magician'' in Spanish), is an Argentine retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 3 singles ranking in May 2004. Coria achieved hi ...
.
A series of injuries caused his ranking to fall rapidly in 2005. He did not participate in any tournaments after withdrawing in the second round in Ho Chi Minh City.
2006–2007
Returning to the circuit, Lu enjoyed a solid performance throughout the season, and a late surge at the end of the season, advancing to semifinals or better in four consecutive Challengers (Rimouski, Busan, Caloundra, and Kawana). He lost in the final of Rimouski to his friend
Kristian Pless. Two weeks later, Lu won the Caloundra Challenger, beating
Peter Luczak
Peter Luczak ( pl, Łuczak, ; born 31 August 1979) is a retired professional tennis player for Australia. His career-high ATP singles ranking was World No. 64, achieved in October 2009.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi, Luczak won ...
. The following week, he lost in the final to
Julien Jeanpierre
Julien Jeanpierre (born 10 March 1980) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Junior career
Jeanpierre was a world number one ranked junior and had wins over Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian during his junior year ...
. Lu's hot streak moved him from No. 140 in the ATP in October to No. 89 at year-end.
In winter 2006, Lu was training with
Rainer Schüttler
Rainer Schüttler (; born 25 April 1976) is a German former professional tennis player. Schüttler was the runner-up at the 2003 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. He won an Olympic silver medal in doubles ...
and
Janko Tipsarević
Janko Tipsarević ( sr-cyr, Јанко Типсаревић, ; born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one AT ...
in Dubai, under Dirk Hordorff. The training seems to yield good results, as Lu reached second round at Australian Open and his first ATP level quarterfinal in Memphis in 2007. By defeating
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Geral ...
in second round, Lu entered his first ATP level quarterfinal, but lost to eventual finalist
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...
. With the strong performance in Memphis, Lu broke into top 80 in February.
2008
![Yen-hsun-lu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Yen-hsun-lu.png)
In 2008, Lu did well on the Challenger Iour, taking home titles in Waikoloa, New Delhi and Tashkent, while reaching the finals of three other Challenger events. On the ATP Tour, Lu booked a spot in the quarterfinals in
San Jose by defeating Max Mirnyi in the first round and Wayne Odesnik in straight sets in the second round. He then lost to Radek Štěpánek in the quarterfinals in two sets.
Perhaps Lu's best performance during the season came at the
Beijing Olympics, representing
Chinese Taipei. Lu shocked audiences by defeating then sixth ranked player in the world,
Andy Murray, in straight sets in the first round. Lu continued his winning streak at the Olympics by defeating
Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is ''Gordo'' which means ''Fat'' in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay.
Calleri served as ...
of Argentina to advance to the third round (round of 16), but eventually lost to Jürgen Melzer of Austria.
2009
At the
2009 Australian Open, Lu advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, defeating 10th seeded
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...
in five sets in the second round. He lost to
Tommy Robredo
Tomás Robredo Garcés, known as Tommy Robredo (, ; born 1 May 1982), is a Spanish former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 5, which he reached in August 2006 as a result of winning the Hamburg Masters ea ...
in the third round.
Lu, ranked 82, defeated former world No. 1,
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...
, in the first round of
Delray Beach International Tennis Championships. He then lost to
Stefan Koubek.
In May 2009, Lu won the $100k Israel Open at
Ramat HaSharon
Ramat HaSharon ( he, רָמַת הַשָּׁרוֹן, ''lit.'' '' Sharon Heights'', ar, رمات هشارون) is a city located on Israel's central coastal strip in the south of the Sharon region, bordering Tel Aviv to the south, Hod HaSharon t ...
, beating German
Benjamin Becker
Benjamin Becker (born 16 June 1981) is a German retired professional tennis player who is known for defeating former world No. 1 Andre Agassi in the third round at the 2006 US Open in what was Agassi's last match as a professional player.
Bec ...
, who was forced to retire.
Lu retired in his first-round match against
Mathieu Montcourt
Mathieu Montcourt (4 March 1985 – 6 July 2009) was a professional French tennis player. At the 2006, 2007, and 2009 French Opens, he lost in the second round, to Lleyton Hewitt, Jarkko Nieminen, and Radek Štěpánek respectively.
Career ...
at
Roland Garros, trailing 2–6.
He was defeated by
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the first round of
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
in three sets.
In November 2009, Lu won the $100k Flea Market Cup at Chuncheon, beating Dutch player
Igor Sijsling
Igor Sijsling (; born 18 August 1987) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Sijsling reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 52 on 17 February 2014. His biggest accomplishment is reaching the final of Australian Open Do ...
.
2010
At Wimbledon, Lu became the first Taiwanese player to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam championship, and the first man from Asia to reach the quarterfinals at a major in 15 years. He made it to the fourth round without dropping a set defeating
Horacio Zeballos
Horacio Zeballos Jr. (; born 27 April 1985) is an Argentine professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 39 achieved in March 2013 and his career-high doubles ranking is world No. 3 achieved in September 2019. In dou ...
,
Michał Przysiężny, and
Florian Mayer
Florian Mayer (; born 5 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player.
Mayer reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in June 2011. Also in 2011, Mayer won his first ATP title after four previous defeats in ATP fin ...
, with Mayer withdrawing in the third set. The unseeded Lu achieved the biggest of the upsets on "Manic Monday" by beating world No. 5,
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...
(who was ranked 77 places higher than Lu), in 4 hours and 36 mins with the fifth set going to 9–7. He lost to No. 3 seed
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
but moved up 40 places to 42nd in the ATP after Wimbledon. The
ATP named Lu's fourth-round Wimbledon upset against Roddick as the biggest upset of 2010. At the beginning of November, Lu reached a career-high ATP ranking of 33.
2011–2013
![Flickr - Carine06 - Yen-Hsun Lu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Flickr_-_Carine06_-_Yen-Hsun_Lu.jpg)
At the
2011 Farmers Classic, Lu defeated
Robby Ginepri
Robert Louis Ginepri ( ; born October 7, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player. He won three ATP singles titles in his career and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 15 in December 2005. Ginepri's best Grand Slam result ...
in the first round. He then defeated
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimbledo ...
before losing to
Ryan Harrison
Ryan Harrison (born May 7, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. Harrison has won one career ATP title in singles at the 2017 Memphis Open to go along with four in doubles, including the 2017 French Open.
Before turning 16, Harriso ...
in the quarterfinals. At the
Odlum Brown Vancouver Open
The VanOpen, currently sponsored as Odlum Brown VanOpen, is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts. It is part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour, and of the ITF Women's Circuit. It is h ...
as the number one seeded player, defeating
George Bastl
George Edward Bastl (born 1 April 1975) is a former professional tennis player from Switzerland.
Tennis career
Bastl was an All-American at the University of Southern California.
He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 71 in ...
in the first round before losing to
Alex Bogdanovic
Aleksa Bogdanovic ( sr, Алекса Богдановић, Aleksa Bogdanović; born 22 May 1984) is a retired Serbian-born English tennis player and former UK no 2. On the professional tour, he won 9 Challenger titles and 4 Futures events, but ...
. At the
Rogers Cup
The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...
, Lu lost to
Bernard Tomic
Bernard Tomic (; hr, Bernard Tomić, ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player whose career-high ranking was world No. 17. As a junior, Tomic enjoyed a successful career in which he won an Orange Bowl title and two ju ...
in the first round.
On 15 June 2012, Lu clinched a huge maiden victory with a third set tiebreak triumph over third seed
Janko Tipsarević
Janko Tipsarević ( sr-cyr, Јанко Типсаревић, ; born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one AT ...
to reach the quarterfinals at Queen's Club.
Lu lost in the second round in all Grand Slam events held in 2013.
2014
On 10 January 2014, Lu made his maiden ATP final in Auckland against
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Considered one of the best servers ...
by defeating
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour ( ATP 250, ATP 500, Masters 1000) except at a major, ...
in the semifinals. He lost in the final 6–7, 6–7. During the
2014 Asian Games
The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...
, the ATP threatened to fine and ban Lu for three years if he did not report to the
China Open on September 29. He had signed up to participate in both events, but the final for the Asian Games did not take place until September 30, a schedule conflict the ATP would not accommodate. In response, Lu dropped out of the China Open. The ATP then announced that Lu would be fined, but not banned.
2015
In 2015, Lu won his third doubles tournament with
Jonathan Marray
Jonathan Marray (born 10 March 1981) is a former British tennis player and a Wimbledon Men's Doubles champion. Marray is a former top 20 doubles player, reaching a career high of world no. 15 in January 2013, mainly due to more regular appearan ...
, at the
Chennai Open
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
. Lu also reached a career milestone by becoming only the second player in history to reach 300 career Challenger wins behind
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo
Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob.
Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugues ...
.
2016–2020
In 2016, Lu reached the finals of six more challenger events winning four. His best ATP Tour performance of the year was a quarterfinal appearance at the
2016 Winston-Salem Open.
On August 12, 2017, Lu won his 37th and last challenger singles title against
Ričardas Berankis
Ričardas Berankis (; born June 21, 1990) is a Lithuanian professional tennis player. He is the first and only Lithuanian citizen (not counting Lithuanian American Vitas Gerulaitis) to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ran ...
. Lu would end his career with a combined 56 Challenger titles between the singles and doubles. He holds the record for the most singles Challenger titles and the most combined singles and doubles Challenger titles.
In 2018, Lu underwent shoulder surgery which kept him out of play for most of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season. Lu officially came back at the
2020 Australian Open where he gained a protected ranking in the main draw. He lost to
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
in the first round in straight sets.
2021
At the
Miami Open, Lu recorded his last ATP match win against
Sam Querrey
Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...
. He would then lose in the next round to world No. 2,
Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Sergeyevich Medvedev (russian: Даниил Сергеевич Медведев; born 11 February 1996) is a Russian professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 7 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and was ...
.
In June 2021, after playing a few more ATP matches, Lu announced that he would retire from tennis and that the
2021 Wimbledon Championships
The 2021 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title to cla ...
and the
2021 Tokyo Olympics would be his last tournaments on the tour.
At the
Tokyo Olympics, he was one of the two official flag bearers for
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
(
Chinese Taipei) at the
opening ceremony.
On July 25, 2021, Lu played his last career tennis match at the Olympics against
Alexander Zverev where he lost in straight sets. With this appearance, he became one of 6 male tennis players with 5 or more appearances at the Olympics, and is the only male tennis player to compete in Singles at 5 Olympics.
ATP career finals
Singles: 1 (0–1)
Doubles: 6 (3–3)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 56 (37–19)
Doubles: 31 (19–12)
Performance timelines
Singles
1 At the 2013 French Open, Lu withdrew prior to the second round.
2 Held as Hamburg Masters
The Hamburg European Open (formerly ''German Open Tennis Championships'') is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a mal ...
until 2008, Madrid Masters (clay) 2009 – present.
Doubles
Wins over top 10 players
Yen-hsun has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played,
ranked
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
in the top 10.
Equipment
Lu was sponsored by
adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...
(apparel and shoes),
Head (rackets),
Chunghwa Telecom
Chunghwa Telecom Company, Ltd. () (, ) is the largest integrated telecom service provider in Taiwan, and the incumbent local exchange carrier of PSTN, Mobile, and broadband services in the country.
History
Chunghwa Telecom was founded as ...
and
CPC Corporation. On court, Lu used a Head IG Extreme Pro racket, Signum Poly Pro strings, and a Tournagrip overgrip.
See also
*
Sport in Taiwan
In Taiwan (Republic of China), some of the most prominent sports include badminton, baseball, basketball, football, softball, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball. Martial arts such as t'ai chi ch'uan and taekwondo are also practiced by many peop ...
*
List of flag bearers for Chinese Taipei at the Olympics
References
External links
*
*
*
Official websiteYen-hsun recent match resultsYen-hsun world ranking history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Yen-hsun
1983 births
Living people
Olympic tennis players of Taiwan
Sportspeople from Taoyuan City
Taiwanese male tennis players
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2002 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2010 Asian Games
Tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games
Asian Games medalists in tennis
Asian Games gold medalists for Chinese Taipei
Asian Games silver medalists for Chinese Taipei
Asian Games bronze medalists for Chinese Taipei
Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games
Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games
Universiade medalists in tennis
Universiade gold medalists for Chinese Taipei
Universiade bronze medalists for Chinese Taipei
Medalists at the 2001 Summer Universiade
Medalists at the 2003 Summer Universiade
Hopman Cup competitors