August 18, 2011
Andy Roddick - crybaby
I got really lucky this past Monday night and got to see some pro tennis in Mason, OH - like twenty minutes from home. Sadly the Federer-del Potro match was on Tuesday night, but still, seeing Ana Ivanovic take apart Alexa Glatch and the Andy Roddick take on Phillip Kohlschreiber, isn't a bad evening - especially since I wasn't paying for anything.
Nice, tight first set with Roddick winning in a 7-5 tie-breaker. Good stuff.
Second set went toward another tiebreaker with Roddick serving at 6-5, but Roddick got broken to send things to a third set. That's where things started to go off the rails for Andrew. In frustration after the break of serve, Roddick shattered his racket on the court and then beat it once more when he sat down for the changeover. Apparently that was worth a warning from the chair - even though it wasn't publicly announced in the stadium.
Down 0-1 and serving again, Roddick double faulted away the point to go down 30-40 and hit Kohlschreiber's return into the upper row or two of the stands. This second code violation earned Roddick a point penalty and gave Kohlschreiber the break of serve.
From there things got worse for Roddick as he firmly thrust his head further up his tuches and spent every changeover from there forward (and there weren't many) arguing with the chair umpire and just pushing his head further up his backside. Roddick's final set performance was pathetic as he very quickly stopped moving toward balls just out of reach and showed no effort until he was down 0-5 and rallied to hold serve once in the set before bowing out 6-1 in the final set.
Pathetic and embarrassing.
And then Roddick, in his press conference, talked about how tennis needs some personalities if it wants to become popular again. He's wrong there. If tennis is to be popular in America again, it's going to take somebody stepping up to their potential unlike what Roddick has done throughout his career.
It's time for Roddick to exit the stage and let the next generation of American players lead. Hopefully he can do so with more grace than he showed Monday night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I never was a big Roddick fan overall. He never seemed as focused on the sport. I will be going to the tournament tonight to see Djokovic play. But I am really sad I don't get to see Nadal:(
Roddick has a grand slam victory. That alone puts him among the greatest tennis players ever to swing a racket.
That being said, Roddick has always seemed like a disappointment except that one summer he knuckled down with Connors as his coach. He's always seemed like he could be just a little bit better.
His greatest matches are probably the two Wimbledon finals losses to Federer, and that probably says more about him - that he's best in almost winning - than does the one US Open title.
Post a Comment