The Other (Under)A-Rod

Andy Roddick met Juan Martín del Potro in the championship match of the Legg Mason Classic yesterday. I caught most of the 2nd set and, as usual, I was rooting for the supercharged Roddick to beat the effete foreigner in the muggy Mid-Atlantic afternoon. The heat typically works to Roddick’s advantage and the announcers were quick to recall del Potro’s complete withering in the oven-like haze of the Australian Open earlier this year. Things looked good for a while; Roddick won the first set and then came back to tie the second at 5-5 before eventually dropping it 7-5 and ultimately succumbing to del Potro in a tightly contested third. Despite this loss Roddick is playing great tennis right now and must have high hopes for the upcoming U.S. Open.

Roddick’s career has been an atypical one. Usually by the time tennis players hit their late twenties (Roddick turns 27 at the end of the month) they’re transitioning their way out of the game, or trying to hang on by re-inventing their game to adjust for diminished athleticism or a few lost MPH on their serve. Not in Roddick’s case, though. He is literally getting better with age.

He burst onto the tennis scene 9 years ago and won the U.S. Open in 2003. The press, with its love for hyperbole, quickly dubbed the hard-serving 21 year-old the heir apparent to Pete Sampras and forecast multiple Grand Slam titles in the coming years. Things didn’t play out that way, and American men’s tennis has languished in general.

In 2008 Roddick made the decision to re-commit himself to his fitness and develop more variety in his game. After some tinkering he settled into a groove and started improving his results. He shed 15 pounds and has worked on his volleying as well as his game at the net. It has paid dividends in 2009, as evidenced by trips to at least the semifinals in 8 of the 11 tournaments he’s played and a career-best 4th round finish at the French Open.

But there remains one hurdle that Roddick appears destined to never overcome…one giant, cuckoo clock and hot chocolate loving hurdle named Roger Federer. The Sports Guy Bill Simmons and author Malcolm Gladwell had an online debate a while back about how the boxer Larry Holmes had the misfortune of coming along at the same time as Ali, Frazier and Foreman. He had no say in being overshadowed by these icons of the sport and it altered how his career unfolded.

The same can be said for Andy Roddick. Federer and Rafael Nadal have altered the course of Roddick’s career. Roddick is a combined 4-24 against these two juggernauts, but the lionshare of his futility is attributable to Federer, against whom Roddick is a frustrating 2-19. Their epic match at this year’s Wimbledon was demonstrative of Federer’s dominance. Roddick played about as well as he possibly could have – his downfall being the inability to break Federer’s serve and put him away.

Roddick’s relentlessly aggressive style and vicious serve alone can be enough to defeat most of his opponents (given the surplus of softie Euros on the tour). Federer just simply seems to have his number. He is the complete package: adaptive, other worldly talented, agile, versatile, smart. It is Nadal who has emerged as Federer’s foil – the one player who can seemingly get under Federer’s skin and gain a mental advantage in big matches. Nadal is the evolution of Andy Roddick – same relentless style and tireless approach, along with a monster serve of his own, but coupled with a Federer-like knack for shotmaking and strategic nuance that Roddick oftentimes still seems to lack. Roddick thrives off his ability to impose his will on his opponent and break him mentally, forcing him into making mistakes. He is unable to do this to Federer, and is not versatile enough to outplay him.

Nevertheless, Roddick seems to be improving in his 9th year in spite of the number of miles he’s put on his body. His favorite tournament on his favorite surface is approaching. The U.S. Open looms as an opportunity for Roddick to prove his meddle and show off the newfound flexibility in his game. I will be rooting for him to make the finals and to meet his arch-nemesis Roger Federer there. And I will be rooting for Andy to win, as always, as a reward for his hard work and dedication to greatness, which he could have easily foreswore long ago. He is a role model for American tennis players, and I hope his work ethic and sense of pride will inspire more young American boys to pick up rackets.