Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun saw an early season slump continue Sunday when he lost to world No. 14 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-0, 6-1 in the second round of the Miami Masters tennis tournament.
Ranked No. 43 in the world, Lu has never made it past the second round in any ATP Tour tournament he has played this year.
Lu last played Youzhny in January in a highly publicized exhibition series in Taiwan that also featured tennis great Andre Agassi of the United States and Marat Safin of Russia.
However, he was no match for his familiar foe in Miami, having trouble with both his return and his service game. Lu had five double faults and managed to win only eight points on his returns. He is now 0-2 in career head-to-head matchups against Youzhny.
After making an impressive run to the final eight at Wimbledon last year, Lu has managed to win only three singles matches this season -- over Lleyton Hewitt of Australia at India Wells, a first-round win over Pere Riba of Spain in Miami and a Davis Cup win over Gong Maoxin of China in Shanghai.
The 27-year-old will next pair up with German partner Florian Mayer to go up against Xavier Malisse of Belgium and Britain's Jamie Murray in the men's doubles first round.
In women's doubles, meanwhile, Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan and Zheng Jie of China lost to India's Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 in the first round.
With compatriot Chuang Chia-jung and Anatasia Rodionova of Australia also bowing out in the women's doubles first round, Hsieh Su-wei, who teamed up with Romanian Monica Niculescu for a 6-3, 7-6(4) opening round victory, is the only female Taiwanese player left in the tournament. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J