Andy Roddick has no answers in loss to Yen-Hsun Lu

Reporting from Wimbledon, England — Andy Roddick never did figure it out.

The big serve that kept kicking up chalk dust, the cruelly low-bouncing groundstrokes, the slippery volleys that would skid past a lunging Roddick -- all of it just too perplexing until the three-time Wimbledon finalist who was seeded fifth here trudged off Court 2 with a soggy towel draped around his slumped shoulders.

Yen-Hsun Lu, a 26-year-old son of a chicken salesman from Taiwan who said he had no family in the crowd and who gave himself little hope after the fourth set, achieved a career best, beating Roddick, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7, Monday in the fourth round.

With the exit also of 18th-seeded Sam Querrey, who lost more predictably to fourth-seeded Andy Murray of Scotland, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, there are, for the fourth time in the last 10 years, no American men in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

For the women, it’s a different story.

Top-seeded and defending champion Serena Williams prevailed in a compelling first-set tiebreak and overpowered 16th-seeded Maria Sharapova, 7-6 (9), 6-4, while Venus Williams, five-time Wimbledon champion and seeded No. 2, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Jarmila Groth.

Also into the quarterfinals is eighth-seeded Kim Clijsters, who beat 17th-seeded Justine Henin, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

In the other major upset of the day, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic steamrolled third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 6-2, 6-0.

But it was the emotional Lu who may have made the biggest impact on a busy day in which all 16 men and 16 women still in the tournament played fourth-round matches.

“I couldn’t imagine this moment,” Lu said. “And from when I lost the fourth set, I thought it was a better chance for him. Right now, I didn’t think this could happen.”

The 27-year-old Roddick hadn’t lost to Lu in three previous meetings. In his life, Roddick is 115-37 in Grand Slam matches; Lu is 10-18. On grass Roddick is 73-17; Lu is 12-17.

The historical numbers said Roddick would be the one to step up in the fifth set, to conquer whatever it was about Lu’s serve that had kept him befuddled, to put into play his experience, to let himself be fueled by the crowd that kept yelling, “Come on Andy.” But Lu allowed none of that to happen.

And it wasn’t only from Lu that Roddick took a beating.

Acting as a BBC analyst, John McEnroe shook his head and said, “He played so passively, so tentatively. That’s going to be a really tough one to overcome.” Fellow analyst Lindsay Davenport agreed. “It’s so disappointing for Andy,” she said. “He just didn’t play the right way; he needed to be more aggressive. I think it’s going to take him a long time to get over this one.”

Thirty minutes after his victory, Lu still seemed in shock.

“I tell you,” Lu said, “fifth set, I don’t believe I can win because he’s a better server than me. But I just tell myself that even if I don’t believe, I have to fight.”

Roddick called his play “horrendous” in the first three sets and said if he knew why, “I probably would have figured it out, right? It didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel clean.”

Serena Williams had no such complaints about her game, not after 19 aces and 31 winners.

“I served well today,” Williams said. “She returned really well and it forced me to serve well.”

Sharapova agreed. “If it was not for her great serving,” Sharapova said, “I had a real good look at winning the match.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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