UPDATED:  July 25, 2010 11:57 PM
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Four Top Asian Tennis Players in Legg Mason Classic

Top Asian star Yen-Hsun Lu will play in main draw single at the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic presented by GEICO in Washington, DC. The tournament started on July 31and winds down on August 8. Three other Asian players, Somdev Devvarman of India and Japanese Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda, are also playing in the tournament.

Lu made waves at the Wimbledon last month when he became the first Asian since Shuzuo Matsuoka (1995-Wimbledon) to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in 15 years. He reached his highest career ranking following Wimbledon, moving up to No. 41 on the strength of his performance.

Lu hit 83 winners to upset Andy Roddick in five sets, ending the American’s dream of a second straight trip to the Wimbledon final. The performance marked Lu’s first win over a Top 10 player since he upset Andy Murray in the first round at the Beijing Olympics. Lu will again face off here with Roddick, the three-time (2001-2005-2007) Legg Mason champion.

Lu is the first player from Chinese Taipei to break the Top 100. His goal is to become the first Chinese player in the ATP World Tour Top 10. Lu won the Athens Challenger last April, and was the runner-up at Busan. Last year, Lu won his first round match here, but fell in the 2nd round.

Devvarman has advanced through qualifying the past three years, reaching the Round of 16 at last year’s Legg Mason Tennis Classic (upsetting Marin Cilic), and the quarterfinals in 2008. The Indian star has enjoyed hometown support here, as a product of the University of Virginia. He is a two-time NCAA Singles Champion (2007 & 2008).

Nishikori won his first ATP title as a teenager in 2008. He moved up over 200 ranking spots to finish as the youngest player in the year-end Top 100–as well as the first Japanese player to finish in the Top 100 since Matsuoka in 1995. He moved from Shimane, Japan at age 14, to train at the Bollettieri Academy in Florida, as a member of the Masaaki Morita Tennis Fund group, which consists of a select few Japanese players sponsored by Mr. Morita, former CEO of Sony.

He was forced out from the tour by an injury that required elbow surgery. He came back in late February, and captured back-to-back ATP Challenger Tour titles at Savannah and Sarasota in May.

Soeda has won a couple of Futures events in Japan this year, as well as a Challenger event in Ecuador. After reaching the finals of the Challenger at Nottingham, he qualified at Wimbledon, and reached the 2nd round at Newport in July.

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