Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun clinched a shock 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-5) victory over third seed Janko Tipsarevic on Friday to reach the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club for the first time.
Lu, who had never been past the last 16 in six visits to this pre-Wimbledon warm-up event, was frustrated by the weather on Thursday evening when heavy rain forced the third round clash to be postponed with the 28-year-old leading 6-3 1-2.
The world No.57 dropped the second set when play resumed on Friday, but held his nerve in a tense final set tie-break to eliminate world No.8 Tipsarevic, who was the highest remaining seed after the shock exits of Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earlier in the week.
Lu will have little time to savour his success as he is scheduled to face sixth seed Marin Cilic later on Friday in what will be his first quarter-final appearance at an ATP Tour event this year.
After winning the Singapore Challenger earlier this year, and reaching the third round at the Australian Open, Lu has climbed from 82nd in the world at the start of the year to just outside the top 50.
He has been in good form on the grass courts this week, coming from a set down to defeat Igor Kunitsyn in the first round and repeating the feat to knock out 16th seed Ivo Karlovic in the second.
But Lu hadn’t defeated a top 10 player since his surprise win against Andy Roddick in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2010, so seeing off an opponent of Tipsarevic’s class was a real statement of intent.
Initially Tipsarevic seemed revitalised after his overnight rest and he reeled off four games in a row, breaking twice to take the second set in a matter of minutes.
But, just as the Serb looked likely to sweep to the finish line, the rain returned at 1-1 in the final set and once again the players were forced to retreat to the locker room.
When they came back on court an hour later, Lu found himself under pressure and he had to save a break point at 2-3.
That was the last serious chance to break for either player and the final set went to a tie-break.
Tipsarevic took a quick 3-1 lead, only for Lu to hit back with three successive points.
That changed the momentum in Lu’s favour and he produced a superb backhand winner that clipped the line to bring up a match point.
Moments later, Tipsarevic sent a tame forehand long and the Taiwan star had completed a memorable win.
Bulgarian youngster Grigor Dimitrov was the first player through to the semi-finals as he won a rain-interrupted last eight clash against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson.
Dimitrov, a former junior champion at Wimbledon and the US Open, is regarded as one of the rising stars of the ATP Tour and he underlined his credentials by coming from a set down to beat ninth seed Anderson 4-6 6-4 6-3.
The 21-year-old, who is making his Queen’s debut, is so lavishly talented he has occasionally drawn comparisons with Roger Federer, but he is only just beginning to deliver on that promise.
This was his first ATP quarter-final of the season and he seized the moment with a dynamic performance in-between the showers that forced play to be halted twice.
Dimitrov will play either 2002 Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian or Belgium’s Xavier Malisse in the last four.