You know, I wasn't always the biggest Andy Roddick fan. When he was younger, he seemed too "frat boy" to me. When I saw him through that lens, the press conferences, the outbursts, the snippy comebacks, all that rubbed me the wrong way. Plus, at the time, it seemed like he was just another American who was going to roll in and dominate tennis. As has been noted other places, an American won at least one major (usually multiple majors) every year in the 90's. And here came Roddick, winning the US Open in 2003, it looked like things were continuing that direction. And, as I'm sure most people know, Roddick never won another major. He was the top American player for over a decade, and that's saying something. And he has many smaller tournament wins to show for it.* But he's much more renown for losing in majors, usually in heartbreaking fashion. Sometimes it broke your heart because of how far over his head he looked. Other times it was about how heart-wrenchingly close he came to getting over the insurmountable mountain that was (is?) Federer-Nadal-Djokovic. *As well as over $20 million in prize money. Oh, and Brooklyn Decker. Not too shabby. And, well, it's pretty well-known I've got a soft-spot for underdogs. Over time, I came to appreciate that Andy Roddick was a huge underdog in an era dominated by all-time greats. First it was Roger Federer doing his thing. And before his time could really wane, here was Rafa Nadal. Time will tell if Novak Djokovic is an all-time great, but we can already see that he had maybe the greatest year anybody has ever had last year. There was no soft spot for Roddick to break through when these guys came around.* *This is also a problem for Andy Murray, somebody else I have a big soft spot for. I do think that, at their respective peaks, Murray is far and away a better tennis player, though. But, truth be told, Andy Roddick was never that great of a tennis player. In things you could measure, he had an incredibly hard serve* that comes out of an unorthodox-style, to say the least. He also had a crushing forehand that was world-class by any stretch. Beyond that, it gets sketchy. He wasn't overly fast or quick. And yes, those are two totally different things. His backhand was atrocious, which seems to be a trend with American tennis these days. Roddick did have all the intangibles you could ask for, though. He had grit, heart, and hustle out the wazoo. Say whatever else you want, but nobody played harder than Roddick. Some might have played as hard, but nobody played harder. And when you play that hard, that usually means some emotion is going to come out when things don't go your way. *At one time he held the world-record for fastest serve. He may still hold that record, it wouldn't surprise me at all. And now, that's gone. I do feel like tennis players tend to be more honest than other athletes. Maybe that has to do with the international flavor of the sport, or being generally smaller than other sports. I think there are other tennis players who are very honest, sometimes brutally so. But Roddick did have a certain flair about him. A certain, I know, forwardness? Directness? Others hide behind a bit of a smirk or a sense of humor, which is great. But Roddick was nothing but mind-to-mouth. It would be wonderful if he worked TV now, I think he would be better than 90% of commentators in any sport. I don't know if he had any interest in it, though. I don't know if anybody outside those closest to him know his next plans. I'm not totally convinced Andy Roddick really knows his next plans. But, hey, he's got $20 million plus to ride it out until he figures it out. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
March 2022
|