As memories of Andy Roddick’s ‘03 U.S. Open triumph faded, the Texan increasingly became the focus (make that the punching bag) for every critic in town. His game, his ‘tude, even his clothes were subject of scrutiny. Mary Carillo suggested that his game was a little bit like his outfits: “It’s big and it’s loose and sometimes it’s a little awkward.” Another voice knocked Roddick’s fans saying, “You’ve got all those pretty little kitty girls in tennis skirts and they are going to come and ogle and ogle you and give you a little winky.”
His former coach Dean Goldfine put Andy’s career in historical perspective, saying, “The thing that happened to Andy…that hurt him and has been a bit of a curse was winning the U.S. Open as young as he did when he wasn’t a complete player.”
Mats Wilander suggested before Andy’s Wimbledon run that he had “gone from being a really great, talented player to not a great player anymore.”
Even Roddick seemed to indulge in the sport of “Roddick-bashing,” noting, “There’s just that intangible quality [missing] right now — that edge that’s not there. That’s what I’m searching [for]. Where do you look to try and get your edge back? Probably under my dresser.”
Plus, he liked to chuckle about his family gene pool, saying that his “father was a farmer and my mother was a bowler who scored about 93.” Other times, Andy bristled at criticism. When a brutally unfair fan said, ‘You suck and you will never win a major again, so what do you have to say about that,’ Roddick bristled: “Neither will you.”
Of course, Roddick’s career has always been plagued by one detail. He’s been laboring in the Roger and Rafa Era, where the Swiss and the Spaniard have combined to win 21 Slams since ‘03.
One of harshest critiques of Andy came from Filip Bondy, who wrote Roddick a Dear John letter: “We decided to break up with you… You’ve done your best, always have. You’ve grunted and smacked the ball very hard and appeared on many TV commercials, some without a shirt. You’ve had solid results. You hold funny press conferences. You hired the Jimbo-nator…But we can’t endure your tennis anymore, that snappy first serve and those artless groundstrokes…We waited for you to find your inspiration. You captured no major trophies.”
Roddick is quick to note that the media has cast him in more than a few roles, including “the new eager guy. They tried to turn me into Zac Efron. Then you’re the punk. Then you’re the has-been. Then you’re the guy who’s just somewhere in the middle and blends in. Then you’re — after Wimbledon — the Andy-every-guy who people are cheering for all the sudden…[But] all the meat and potatoes of who I am hasn’t really changed much. But I’ll take the good coverage when it’s there because I know it’s fleeting.”
While that’s a bit of an exaggeration (he’s certainly had his media supporters), there’s no doubt that Roddick has been under the microscope. Once it was clear that he was the sole heir apparent to the America’s greatest generation of Sampras, Agassi, Courier and Chang, his progress was closely watched. At times he’s gone forward and there were also occasions when he went backwards. Had he been a boring guy with little to say, his career might have not been so well chronicled, but he’s an outspoken man who was bold enough never to completely count himself out. “People maybe early on in my career had an idea of what I was about,” Roddick said. “But I certainly didn’t do myself any favors at the time with the way I was on court. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say [that] any 26-year-old is probably more mature than they were when they were 19. I’ve just had an audience.”
Roddick’s audience has now expanded, not just because he launches humorous quips on Twitter, but also because he’s vastly expanded his on-court repertoire. For a few years, it appeared that he was hitting his head against the wall trying to add a sizable backhand, return game and net attack to his huge serve and forehand, but this year in particular, he’s become much more comfortable and efficient around the cords, better understands the transition game, and with a couple of key mechanical tips from his coach, Larry Stefanki, the quicker Roddick can now occasionally launch backhands winners from the backcourt, something he was unable to do even two years ago.
Now, the winds of tennis are behind A-Rod. Many want him to succeed, (especially at the U.S. Open) as a very new kind of pressure has descended upon Austin Andy’s broad Texas shoulders.
Roddick somewhat proved post Wimbledon, where he fell in tough contests to Juan Martin Del Potro in Washington and Montreal and to Sam Querrey in Cincy, that he’s emotionally recovered from his loss to Federer, but no one will really know whether he can pull the trigger again until New York, when he faces the Swiss or another great competitor in the final. He could face Federer in the semis. But first, he has to get there. “I’m on the right path and trying to see it through. The U.S. Open is the only Slam left, so that’s the goal for the rest of the year,” he said.
