Lu Yen-hsun

Lu was an accomplished junior player, reaching as high as No. 3 in the ITF junior 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, Mario Ančić, and Philipp Kohlschreiber.^[2]

His result in Junior Grand Slam events are as follows:

• Australian Open: 1R (2001)
• French Open: 1R (2000)
• Wimbledon: 1R (2000)
• US Open: 2R (2000)

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.

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. 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.

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 Tour, 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 (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 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.^[3]

Lu retired in his first-round match against Mathieu Montcourt at Roland Garros, trailing 2–6.^[4]

He was defeated by Roger Federer in the first round of Wimbledon in three sets.^[5]

In November 2009, Lu won the $100k Flea Market Cup at Chuncheon, beating Dutch player Igor Sijsling.

2010

At 2010 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.^[6] 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.^[7][8][9] The unseeded Lu achieved the biggest of the upsets on "Manic Monday" by beating world No. 5, Andy Roddick (who was ranked 77 places higher than Lu), in 4 hours and 36 mins with the fifth set going to 9–7.^[10] He lost to No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic^[11] 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.^[12] At the beginning of November, Lu reached a career-high ATP ranking of 33.

2011–2013

At the 2011 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.

On 15 June 2012, Lu clinched a huge maiden victory with a third set tiebreak triumph over third seed Janko Tipsarević to reach the quarterfinals at Queen's Club.^[13]

Lu lost in the second round in all Grand Slam events held in 2013.

2014–2015

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.^[14] In response, Lu dropped out of the China Open. The ATP then announced that Lu would be fined, but not banned.^[15]

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 behind Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo.^[16]

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. 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 in the first round in straight sets.

2021

At the Miami Open, Lu recorded his last ATP match win against Sam Querrey. He would then lose in the next round to world No. 2, Daniil Medvedev.

In June 2021, after playing a few more ATP matches, Lu announced that he would retire from tennis and that the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics would be his last tournaments on the tour.^[17]

At the Tokyo Olympics, he was one of the two official flag bearers for Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) at the opening ceremony.^[18]

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.^[19]

Singles: 1 (runner-up)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	0–1	Jan 2014	Auckland Open, New Zealand	Hard	John Isner	6–7(4–7), 6–7(7–9)

Doubles: 6 (3–3)

Outcome	W–L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1–0	Jan 2005	Chennai Open, India	Hard	Rainer Schüttler	Jonas Björkman Mahesh Bhupathi	7–5, 4–6, 7–6 (7–4)
Runner-up	1–1	Sep 2007	China Open	Hard	Chris Haggard	Rik de Voest Ashley Fisher	7–6(7–3), 0–6, [6–10]
Runner-up	1–2	Jan 2010	Chennai Open, India	Hard	Janko Tipsarević	Marcel Granollers Santiago Ventura	5–7, 2–6
Winner	2–2	Sep 2012	Thailand Open	Hard (i)	Danai Udomchoke	Eric Butorac Paul Hanley	6–3, 6–4
Winner	3–2	Jan 2015	Chennai Open, India	Hard	Jonathan Marray	Raven Klaasen Leander Paes	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Runner-up	3–3	May 2015	Geneva Open, Switzerland	Clay	Raven Klaasen	Juan Sebastián Cabal Robert Farah	5–7, 6–4, [7–10]

Singles: 56 (37–19)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 2001	Hong Kong F1, Hong Kong	Futures	Hard	Peter Handoyo	6–3, 6–4
Loss	1–1	Nov 2001	Vietnam F1, Hanoi	Futures	Hard	Aisam Qureshi	4–6, 3–4 ret.
Win	2–1	Feb 2002	Israel F1, Ramat HaSharon	Futures	Hard	Nir Welgreen	6–4, 6–4
Win	3–1	Apr 2002	China F1, Kunming City	Futures	Hard	Benjamin Cassaigne	6–4, 3–6, 7–6(7–5)
Win	4–1	Apr 2002	China F2, Kunming City	Futures	Hard	Benjamin Cassaigne	2–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–3
Win	5–1	Sep 2002	Japan F7, Saitama	Futures	Hard	Takahiro Terachi	6–2, 6–2
Win	6–1	Apr 2003	China F1, Taizhou	Futures	Hard	Zhu Benqiang	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Win	7–1	Sep 2003	Japan F6, Kashiwa	Futures	Hard	Tasuku Iwami	6–1, 3–6, 6–1
Loss	7–2	Sep 2003	Japan F7, Saitama	Futures	Hard	Takahiro Terachi	2–6, ret.
Win	8–2	Nov 2003	USA F30, Hammond	Futures	Hard	Lesley Joseph	6–2, 6–2
Win	9–2	Feb 2004	Joplin, United States	Challenger	Hard	Glenn Weiner	6–4, 6–2
Loss	9–3	Feb 2004	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Challenger	Hard	Arvind Parmar	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 3–6
Loss	9–4	Mar 2004	Kyoto, Japan	Challenger	Carpet	Michal Tabara	6–7(5–7), 3–4 ret.
Win	10–4	Mar 2004	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Robert Lindstedt	6–3, 6–0
Loss	10–5	Apr 2004	Busan, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Alexander Peya	3–6, 7–5, 3–6
Loss	10–6	Apr 2004	Mexico City, Mexico	Challenger	Hard	Jeff Morrison	6–4, 6–7(3–7), 2–6
Win	11–6	Nov 2004	Caloundra, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Takahiro Terachi	6–0, 7–5
Win	12–6	May 2005	Fergana, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	6–1, 7–6(7–2)
Loss	12–7	Jan 2006	Waikoloa, United States	Challenger	Hard	Frank Dancevic	7–6(17–15), 2–6, 2–6
Loss	12–8	Mar 2006	Kyoto, Japan	Challenger	Carpet	Nicolas Mahut	4–6, 1–6
Loss	12–9	Nov 2006	Rimouski, Canada	Challenger	Carpet	Kristian Pless	4–6, 6–7(5–7)
Win	13–9	Nov 2006	Caloundra, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Peter Luczak	6–3, 6–1
Loss	13–10	Nov 2006	Kawana, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Julien Jeanpierre	3–6, 6–1, 4–6
Loss	13–11	Jul 2007	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Takao Suzuki	4–6, 4–6
Loss	13–12	Oct 2007	Sacramento, United States	Challenger	Hard	Wayne Odesnik	2–6, 3–6
Win	14–12	Nov 2007	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Challenger	Hard	Dudi Sela	6–3, 6–3
Win	15–12	Jan 2008	Waikoloa, United States	Challenger	Hard	Vince Spadea	6–2, 6–0
Loss	15–13	Apr 2008	Busan, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Go Soeda	2–6, ret.
Loss	15–14	May 2008	Lanzarote, Spain	Challenger	Hard	Stéphane Bohli	3–6, 4–6
Win	16–14	May 2008	New Delhi, India	Challenger	Hard	Brendan Evans	5–7, 7–6(7–5), 6–3
Loss	16–15	May 2008	New Delhi, India	Challenger	Hard	Go Soeda	3–6, 6–3, 4–6
Win	17–15	Oct 2008	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Mathieu Montcourt	6–3, 6–2
Win	18–15	May 2009	Ramat HaSharon, Israel	Challenger	Hard	Benjamin Becker	6–3, 3–1 ret.
Win	19–15	Nov 2009	Chuncheon, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Igor Sijsling	6–2, 6–3
Win	20–15	Apr 2010	Athens, Greece	Challenger	Hard	Rainer Schüttler	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–4
Loss	20–16	May 2010	Busan, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Lim Yong-kyu	1–6, 4–6
Win	21–16	Oct 2010	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Kevin Anderson	6–3, 6–4
Win	22–16	Sep 2011	Ningbo, China	Challenger	Hard	Jürgen Zopp	6–2, 3–6, 6–1
Win	23–16	Oct 2011	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Jimmy Wang	7–5, 6–3
Win	24–16	Mar 2012	Singapore, Singapore	Challenger	Hard	Go Soeda	6–3, 6–4
Win	25–16	Sep 2012	Shanghai, China	Challenger	Hard	Peter Gojowczyk	7–5, 6–0
Win	26–16	Oct 2012	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Yūichi Sugita	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Win	27–16	Jul 2013	Beijing, China	Challenger	Hard	Go Soeda	6–2, 6–4
Win	28–16	Sep 2013	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Challenger	Hard	Yuki Bhambri	6–4, 6–3
Win	29–16	Jul 2014	Kaohsiung, Taiwan	Challenger	Hard	Luca Vanni	6–7(7–9), 6–4, 6–4
Win	30–16	Oct 2015	Ningbo, China	Challenger	Hard	Jürgen Zopp	7–6(7–3), 6–1
Loss	30–17	May 2016	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Sergiy Stakhovsky	6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9)
Loss	30–18	Jun 2016	Manchester, Great Britain	Challenger	Grass	Dustin Brown	6–7(5–7), 1–6
Win	31–18	Jun 2016	Surbiton, Great Britain	Challenger	Grass	Marius Copil	7–5, 7–6(13-11)
Win	32–18	Jun 2016	Ilkley, Great Britain	Challenger	Grass	Vincent Millot	7–6(7–4), 6–2
Win	33–18	Oct 2016	Ningbo, China	Challenger	Hard	Hiroki Moriya	6–3, 6–1
Win	34–18	Oct 2016	Suzhou, China	Challenger	Hard	Stefan Kozlov	6–0, 6–1
Win	35–18	Apr 2017	Taipei, Taiwan	Challenger	Carpet	Tatsuma Ito	6–1, 7–6(7–4)
Win	36–18	Aug 2017	Chengdu, China	Challenger	Hard	Evgeny Donskoy	6–3, 6–4
Win	37–18	Aug 2017	Jinan, China	Challenger	Hard	Ričardas Berankis	6–3, 6–1
Loss	37–19	Sep 2017	Shanghai, China	Challenger	Hard	Wu Yibing	6–7(6–8), ret.

Doubles: 31 (19–12)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 2001	Thailand F1, Pattaya	Futures	Hard	Frank Moser	Peter Handoyo Raven Klaasen	3–6, 2–6
Win	1–1	Nov 2001	Thailand F2, Nonthaburi	Futures	Hard	Frank Moser	Rik de Voest Johan Du Randt	6–2, 6–4
Loss	1–2	Nov 2001	Vietnam F1, Hanoi	Futures	Hard	Frank Moser	Lior Dahan Rik de Voest	walkover
Win	2–2	Feb 2002	United Arab Emirates F2, Abu Dhabi	Futures	Hard	Rohan Bopanna	Tomas Janci Roman Kukal	7–5, 7–5
Win	3–2	Feb 2002	Israel F1, Ramat HaSharon	Futures	Hard	Lior Dahan	Josef Neštický Nir Welgreen	7–5, 6–4
Loss	3–3	Apr 2002	China F2, Kunming City	Futures	Hard	John Hui	Yang Jing-Zhu Zhu Benqiang	6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–5), 4–6
Win	4–3	May 2002	Japan F4, Fukuoka	Futures	Hard	John Hui	Niko Karagiannis Wesley Moodie	6–3, 5–7, 6–4
Win	5–3	Jun 2002	Japan F5, Fukuoka	Futures	Hard	Hiroki Kondo	Michihisa Onoda Masahide Sakamoto	6–2, 6–1
Loss	5–4	Jul 2002	Campos do Jordão, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	Alejandro Hernández Daniel Melo	walkover
Loss	5–5	Sep 2002	Japan F6, Kashiwa	Futures	Hard	Toshihide Matsui	Peter Handoyo Suwandi Suwandi	3–6, 2–6
Loss	5–6	Nov 2002	Hong Kong F2, Hong Kong	Futures	Hard	John Hui	Fred Hemmes Jun Kato	3–6, 6–7(2–7)
Win	6–6	Dec 2002	Yokohama, Japan	Challenger	Carpet	Danai Udomchoke	Ivo Karlović Mark Nielsen	7–6(7–5), 6–3
Win	7–6	Jul 2003	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	Josh Goffi Ryan Sachire	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 7–6(7–0)
Loss	7–7	Sep 2003	Japan F7, Saitama	Futures	Hard	Mark Nielsen	Kentaro Masuda Takahiro Terachi	6–4, 3–3 ret.
Win	8–7	Nov 2003	USA F30, Hammond	Futures	Hard	Bruno Soares	Amer Delić Bobby Reynolds	6–4, 6–4
Win	9–7	Nov 2003	Austin, United States	Challenger	Hard	Jason Marshall	Josh Goffi Tripp Phillips	6–2, 2–6, 6–3
Win	10–7	Feb 2004	Joplin, United States	Challenger	Hard	Bruno Soares	Rajeev Ram Brian Baker	3–6, 6–1, 6–1
Loss	10–8	Mar 2004	Kyoto, Japan	Challenger	Carpet	Jason Marshall	Fred Hemmes Rik de Voest	3–6, 7–6(10–8), 4–6
Win	11–8	Mar 2004	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Rik de Voest	Leonardo Azzaro Oliver Marach	6–3, 1–6, 7–5
Loss	11–9	Apr 2004	Mexico City, Mexico	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	Nathan Healey Tuomas Ketola	5–7, 6–7(6–8)
Win	12–9	Nov 2004	Caloundra, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Luke Bourgeois	Mark Hlawaty Shannon Nettle	7–6(7–2), 7–5
Win	13–9	Nov 2004	Helsinki, Finland	Challenger	Hard	Robert Lindstedt	Gianluca Bazzica Massimo Dell'Acqua	6–2, 6–2
Loss	13–10	May 2005	Fergana, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	Murad Inoyatov Denis Istomin	1–6, 3–6
Win	14–10	Jul 2005	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Johan Landsberg	Philip Bester Frank Dancevic	4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–5
Win	15–10	Feb 2006	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Luke Bourgeois	Raphael Durek Alun Jones	6–3, 6–2
Loss	15–11	Apr 2006	Chikmagalur, India	Challenger	Hard	Danai Udomchoke	Sonchat Ratiwatana Sanchai Ratiwatana	3–6, 2–6
Loss	15–12	Jul 2006	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Frank Moser	Alessandro Gravina Gary Lugassy	2–6, 6–7(2–7)
Win	16–12	Oct 2007	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Rik de Voest	Sonchat Ratiwatana Sanchai Ratiwatana	6–3, 7–5
Win	17–12	Nov 2009	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Rik de Voest	Sonchat Ratiwatana Sanchai Ratiwatana	7–6(7–5), 3–6, [10–6]
Win	18–12	Apr 2010	Athens, Greece	Challenger	Hard	Rik de Voest	Robin Haase Igor Sijsling	6–3, 6–4
Win	19–12	Nov 2015	Hua Hin, Thailand	Challenger	Hard	Lee Hsin-han	Andre Begemann Purav Raja	walkover

Singles

¹ At the 2013 French Open, Lu withdrew prior to the second round.
² Held as Hamburg Masters until 2008, Madrid Masters (clay) 2009 – present.

Doubles

Yen-hsun has a 7–29 (19.4%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.^[20]

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Round	Score
2004
1.	Guillermo Coria	3	London, England	Grass	2R	6–2, 6–4
2008
2.	Andy Murray	6	Beijing, China	Hard	1R	7–6(7–5), 6–4
2010
3.	Andy Roddick	7	Wimbledon, England	Grass	4R	4–6, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–4), 6–7(5–7), 9–7
2012
4.	Janko Tipsarević	8	London, England	Grass	3R	6–3, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
5.	David Ferrer	5	Beijing, China	Hard	1R	5–4 ret.
2014
6.	David Ferrer	3	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	SF	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
7.	Tomáš Berdych	5	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	2R	3–6, 6–3, 6–4

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

• Sport in Taiwan
• List of flag bearers for Chinese Taipei at the Olympics

• Lu Yen-hsun at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Lu Yen-hsun at the International Tennis Federation
• Lu Yen-hsun at the Davis Cup
• Official website
• Yen-hsun recent match results
• Yen-hsun world ranking history

Olympic Games
Preceded by Wong I-sheau	Flagbearer for  Chinese Taipei (with Kuo Hsing-chun) Tokyo 2020	Succeeded by Incumbent