Lu Yen-hsun


Lu Yen-hsun is a Taiwanese tennis player, who goes by the nickname Rendy Lu.
He won more titles on the ATP Challenger Tour than any other player in tennis history. His favorite surface was hard court, though several of his ATP Tour 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. In his junior career, he compiled a singles win/loss record of 80–37 and defeated a handful of future ATP stars, including Robin Söderling, Mario Ančić, and Philipp Kohlschreiberu
Junior Slam results:
Australian Open: 1R

French Open: 1R

Wimbledon: 1R

US Open: 2R

Tennis career

2004

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, where he gained his first top-10 win by defeating then world No. 3, Guillermo Coria.

2005

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

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. He lost in the final of Rimouski to his friend Kristian Pless. Two weeks later, Lu won the Caloundra Challenger, beating Peter Luczak. The following week, he lost in the final to Julien Jeanpierre. Lu's hot streak moved him from No. 140 in the ATP in October to No. 89 at year-end.

2007

In winter 2006, Lu was training with Rainer Schüttler and Janko Tipsarević 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 in second round, Lu entered his first ATP level quarterfinal, but lost to eventual finalist Andy Roddick. With the strong performance in Memphis, Lu broke into top 80 in February.

2008

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 of Argentina to advance to the third round, 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 in five sets in the second round. He lost to Tommy Robredo in the third round.
Lu, ranked 82, defeated former world No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt, 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, beating German Benjamin Becker, who was forced to retire.
Lu retired in his first-round match against Mathieu Montcourt at Roland Garros, trailing 2–6.
He was defeated by Roger Federer in the first round of Wimbledon in three sets.
In November 2009, Lu won the $100k Flea Market Cup at Chuncheon, beating Dutch player Igor Sijsling.

2010

, 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, Michał Przysiężny, and Florian Mayer, 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, in 4 hours and 36 mins with the fifth set going to 9–7. He lost to No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic 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

At the Farmers Classic, Lu defeated Robby Ginepri in the first round. He then defeated Marcos Baghdatis before losing to Ryan Harrison in the quarterfinals. At the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open as the number one seeded player, defeating George Bastl in the first round before losing to Alex Bogdanovic. At the Rogers Cup, Lu lost to Bernard Tomic in the first round.

2012

On 15 June 2012, Lu clinched a shock maiden victory with a third set tiebreak triumph over third seed Janko Tipsarević to reach the quarterfinals at Queen's Club.

2013

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 by defeating David Ferrer in the semifinals. He lost in the final 6–7, 6–7. During the 2014 Asian Games, 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, at the Chennai Open. Lu also reached a career milestone by becoming only the second player in history to reach 300 career Challenger wins.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

ResultNoDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Runner-up1.January 11, 2014Heineken Open, Auckland, New ZealandHard John Isner6–7, 6–7

Doubles: 6 (3–3)

OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Winner1.January 9, 2005Chennai Open, IndiaHard Rainer Schüttler7–5, 4–6,
Runner-up1.September 10, 2007China Open, BeijingHard Chris Haggard Rik de Voest
Ashley Fisher
7–6 , 0–6,
Runner-up2.January 9, 2010Chennai Open, IndiaHard Janko Tipsarević5–7, 2–6
Winner2.September 30, 2012PTT Thailand Open, BangkokHard Danai Udomchoke Eric Butorac
Paul Hanley
6–3, 6–4
Winner3.January 11, 2015Chennai Open, IndiaHard Jonathan Marray Raven Klaasen
Leander Paes
6–3, 7–6
Runner-up3.23 May 2015Geneva Open, SwitzerlandHard Raven Klaasen Juan Sebastián Cabal
Robert Farah
5–7, 6–4,

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the 2020 Australian Open.
1 At the 2013 French Open, Lu withdrew prior to the second round.
2 Held as Hamburg Masters until 2008, Madrid Masters 2009 – present.

Doubles

Wins over top 10 players

Equipment

Lu was sponsored by adidas, Head, Chunghwa Telecom and CPC Corporation. On court, Lu used a Head IG Extreme Pro racket, Signum Poly Pro strings, and a Tournagrip overgrip.