The last American men in contention for the Wimbledon crown were eliminated from competition Tuesday. Sam Querrey went down in straight sets to Scotland’s Andy Murray, 7–5, 6–3, 6–4. Querrey, coming off a five-set victory over Xavier Malisse, never troubled the Scot.
Murray was serving for the match at 5–2 when he suddenly began double-faulting and missing shots, losing serve and letting Querrey tie the set at 5–5. Querrey was unable to capitalize on Murray’s errors. Instead, he let Murray break back and win the set.
Querrey put up a fight in the early games of the second and thirds sets, but lacked the energy to move around the court, and Murray was never seriously threatened.
The match between the remaining American, Andy Roddick, and Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu, was much different; borderline epic, in fact.
Roddick Falls to Lu
Lu took the second set to a tiebreak, and repeated the feat after the third set. Roddick’s serve worked for him, but Lu matched him in every other aspect. Lu capitalized on every one of Roddick’s errors.
Roddick fought back in the fourth set. Halfway through the set Lu seemed to lose focus. Lu earned a break point, but made a series of errors which let Roddick off the hook. Lu still hung in to force a third tie-break, but Roddick finished it off with a series of big serves, winning 7–6.
Into sudden death, Lu played Roddick evenly up until 8–7 (there are no fifth-set tiebreakers at Wimbledon.) Finally on a volley following a second serve, Roddick gave Lu an easy down the line forehand passing shot. Lu converted and recorded his best finish in a major tournament.
By beating Roddick, Lu became the only player from Taiwan ever to advance into the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
