I was never a huge fan of Andy Roddick during his younger days. I saw him as nothing more than a big forehand and an even bigger serve. He didn’t possess skills like a Federer, Nadal, or for that matter Djokovic or Murray. Over the years however, what he has lacked in terms of skill, he has more than made up for, by putting in the hard work and showing a lot of heart – something a few players in the top 20 – Monfils, Gasquet & Berdych to name a few – could learn from.
His self-depricating sense of humor and funny post match comments have certainly been endearing to me over the years that I’ve been willing to overlook the “failings” in his game, and begun to root for the guy. Who can forget this brilliantly funny 2007 post match interview, after he was annihilated by a Federer who could do no wrong? Not too many people would have shown up for an interview after a beat down, let alone put it in perspective.
Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Federer, Andy could very well have been a six-time grand slam champion, and I’m sure the world would’ve seen him in an entirely different light. Despite being a die-hard Federer fan, I would have been more than happy for Andy if had won last year’s Wimbledon championship. It’s safe to say he made a lot of new fans – I know a few of them myself – after losing yet another gut-wrenching final to his nemisis.
Fast forward to last night’s second rounder against the Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic. Not unlike his famous countryman Novak Djokovic, Tipsy is awfully talented, and had beaten Roddick the last time they played at Wimbledon. So, this was by no means your run of the mill second round match that Andy was just expected to waltz through. To be honest, although Andy won the first set, I didn’t think he was playing well enough. His normally powerful serve wasn’t effective enough, and he was content on simply pushing the ball back, expecting his opponent to make the errors. Instead of obliging Roddick, tied one set a piece, Janko cranked it up a notch, played some brilliant passes that left his opponent stranded at the net, while breaking him.
Down 2-5 in the third, serving to stay in the set, Roddick got called for a foot fault, got rattled and went off on the lines-woman who called it and chair umpire Enric Molina. No, it wasn’t even close to being on the same level as Serena’s tirade last year, but it was enough to get the Bronx cheer from the pro American crowd. Watching it on TV, I tweeted that he was losing the plot, and worse, losing the crowd, as he insisted on continuing the tirade. What’s worse, as he later admitted, it wasn’t that he was called for a foot fault that bothered him more, it was the fact that she didn’t know left from right.
“I wasn’t upset with the call, I just expect my umpires to know their left foot from the right foot,” said the 28-year-old.
“It’s the fact I couldn’t get her to admit it wasn’t the right foot which infuriated me, the lack of common sense was unbelievable to me. We have got to be able to have a test like ‘Point to your right foot, point to your left foot, now call lines.’
It was clear that the match had turned, and was quickly going away from him. IMHO, he was simply looking for a way to fire himself up. To his credit, Andy clearly realized that he said things in the heat of the battle, and was almost apologetic in his post match interview.
“The stubbornness… I let mine get in the way. I got called for two others after that and have no issue with it. In the moment I was just stupefied”
“In hindsight did I let it go too far? Yeah, probably. I think it was a very correctable mistake, and I probably let it get to me more than it should have”
Might Roddick have been a little more sensible on the court and might he have been sensitive to the lines-woman? Sure, but, it’s tough to see reason in the heat of the moment. If this is the worst thing that Roddick does, it simply pales into insignificance when compared to what Serena did at last years open, and it is a far cry from some of the things that other players have done in the past – John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ille Nastase – to name a few. Who can forget Andre Agassi’s deplorable behavior against Karol Kucera?
I am not justifying or defending Andy’s behavior, but, before we go completely nuts, I think the guy deserves some slack, and a break.
