Re: The "VAMOS MANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Spring HC Thread
Good effort from Taylor today. It's nice to have him back playing. I didn't realize how much I missed watching him.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4031827
Roddick in control of on-court fate
By Greg Garber
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
With newfound discipline, the game is slowing down for Andy Roddick.
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Technically speaking, Andy Roddick is on the downside of his career.
He is 26 years old, and has been playing professional tennis for a decade now. His finest moments in professional tennis came nearly six years ago, when he won the U.S. Open and ascended, for a total of 13 weeks, to the world's No. 1 ranking. Roddick was supplanted by Roger Federer, who stayed on top for 237 weeks, and now Rafael Nadal is beginning to look like he might be there for awhile.
In the 20 majors since he broke through in 2003, Roddick has reached the finals three others times, at Wimbledon in 2004 and 2005 and the U.S. Open in 2006 -- losing to Federer all three times.
This has not sent Roddick curling into the fetal position and cursing his fate at the hands of the cruel gods. Rather, it has moved him, like Sisyphus, to try yet again, rolling a great stone painstakingly up toward the top of the mountain.
"I feel good and I feel confident," Roddick said Tuesday at the Sony Ericsson Open. "The big difference is you get to those 30-all points, and I just feel calm and like I'm going to play my point the way I want to."
There's a reason, of course.
Children, we are told, crave discipline and perhaps Roddick sensed that he wasn't getting that kind of supreme authority from his brother John and Jimmy Connors, his most recent coach. As a result, Roddick turned to Larry Stefanki -- who guided former No. 1 players John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios and Yevgeny Kafelnikov and, more recently, Tim Henman and Fernando Gonzalez.
"I hired Larry and told him that I would, you know, `I'm not here to run it. This is your show. I'm here to follow,'" Roddick said last week. "He promptly said, 'OK, lose 15 pounds,' and I regretted saying what I said.
"He recognized that there is a change in the game, seems like everything is slowing down a little bit as far as surface and balls and whatnot. Therefore, you see a lot more guys dependent upon their running ability and legs. We're just trying to keep up.
"Obviously, it's helped."
Roddick's game is leaner -- yes, he shed those 15 pounds after a series of hellish offseason workouts -- and it is cleaner, too. Even in winning the U.S. Open, he was something of a mechanical player who relied almost entirely on his enormous serve and forehand.
He is moving appreciably better and his footwork looks tidier. Roddick may never have an aesthetically pleasing game, but he's playing more artistic points and seems to have more confidence in his volleying. He has actually discovered a nasty little backhand slice. Oh, and the serve still kills.
It is all on display here amid the swaying palm trees. Roddick just happens to be enjoying the best start of his career. After dispatching No. 10-ranked Gael Monfils 7-6 (2), 6-4 on Tuesday, he has crafted a record of 26-4 and leads the ATP World Tour in wins. :dance:
Everything feeds off his newfound on-court liquidity.
"I go into matches knowing I can play the long points and not really have to worry about it, and maybe force it too much," Roddick said. "It just helps that I'm there on every ball. I feel like I'm in control.
"I think the biggest difference is after I hit the return, that first ball, if they become aggressive on it I can get it back to neutral quicker, because I'm able to scramble after that first one."
Perhaps the most important point in his victory over the sometimes-incandescent Frenchman was the second point of the first-set tiebreaker. Roddick drew Monfils forward and to his left with a wicked backhand slice, which opened the court nicely for a forehand cross-court winner.
Roddick, who was once allergic to the net, won 22 of 37 points up front (59 percent) and his serve -- he won 38 of 42 points on first serves -- was typically solid.
In short, he is winning the matches he is supposed to win, and losing them as well. Monfils was his sixth match this year against a player ranked in the top 10 and he's 3-3. Roddick beat No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Indian Wells, but lost to No. 1 Nadal in the Indian Wells final, No. 2 Federer in the Australian Open semifinals and No. 4 Andy Murray in finals at Doha.
On Wednesday night, Roddick will meet Federer in an intriguing quarterfinal match. He has lost 16 of 18 matches to the stylish Swiss player, but will try to channel last year's quarterfinal with Federer, when he erased an 0-for-11 streak and prevailed in three sets.
"I'd love to be able to sit here and center my chi and focus all those good vibes and do all that," Roddick said. "At the end of the day, it's about executing. You know what's done is done. If I can channel that one match, then he'll be able to channel 15 or 17, whatever the hell it is.
"He's got more channeling."
In 41 years of the Open Era, there have been 20 men who won a lone Grand Slam title, including Pat Cash, Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic and Thomas Muster. Roddick, like five other active players, is a one-hit, Grand Slam wonder. Thomas Johansson, Gaston Gaudio, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya and Djokovic all managed to sneak under the radar once in their lifetime. While Djokovic, at 21, seems destined to leave this peloton behind, Roddick has accomplished more than his other peers, in terms of major finals, and Davis Cup excellence.
Roddick seems genuinely happy and relaxed, not terribly worried about his legacy at the moment; he's too busy living The Life.
Headlines were made when he was forced to cancel a game of H-O-R-S-E that he and Mardy Fish had lined up with Dwyane Wade after a Sunday Miami Heat practice. Roddick had to pass in order to send Dmitry Tursunov out of the tournament. He got plaudits for essentially boycotting the Dubai tournament after Israel's Shahar Peer was denied a visa by the United Arab Emirates. Later in May, he will marry Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.
On the court and in his press conferences, Roddick is a portrait of perseverance and affects a genuinely likeable self-deprecating manner.
After beating Monfils, he talked about the excited state of men's tennis. One match shy of the quarterfinals (Nadal played the late match against Stanislas Warinka), seven of the top nine-ranked men remain alive.
"You've probably had Roger and Rafa there, then Djokovic kind of had his go where he was playing really well at the beginning of last year," Roddick said. "Now you have Murray who's playing well, and kind of a couple of us who are trying to get into that mix a little bit."
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http://www.tennis.com/features/general/features.aspx?id=169294
No Quit: In spite of obstacles, Roddick fights on
By Peter Bodo
MIAMI, Fla.—Sometimes, a weakness is a blessing in disguise, and a flaw can bear surprisingly sweet fruit. When Andy Roddick ventured forth on the pro tour, he toted a massive serve, a bone-crushing forehand, and a sanguine love of competition. They were enough to earn him a Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open in 2003 and a world No. 1 ranking—but not enough to secure a steady perch at the top of the game.
A lot has happened since then. Roger Federer happened. Rafael Nadal happened. Tennis changed, and Roddick could have been forgiven for taking a realistic approach to the altered landscape, humming “to everything, turn, turn, turn . . .” as he plugged away, shortcomings and all, and settled for capitalizing on his celebrity as the lone Grand Slam champion of his struggling, once-great nation.
Roddick defeated Federer in the Key Biscayne quarterfinals last season, but Federer won their most recent match at this year's Australian Open.Roddick didn’t do that, though. He chose, instead, to work on those weaknesses, even though some said they were critical and career-defining. The backhand was a shot meant only to keep him alive in rallies long enough to load up and fire the forehand. The footwork was sketchy. His overall sense of strategy, pace and shot selection—even when the shot was that howitzer serve—were superficial. Roddick came onto the tour leading with his chin, and it paid off; since then, he’s taken it on the chin but he isn’t punch-drunk yet.
Over the years, through crushing defeats (including the emblematic three consecutive losses to Federer at Wimbledon, two of which were finals), a succession of coaches, criticism that the game had passed by his “type” (the meat-and-potatoes power-player whose game is built around the serve), Roddick kept the faith. More importantly, he worked. He worked like a dog trying to keep pace with the fire truck barreling down his street, tongue hanging out, nails clicking and worn and bleeding on the pavement, chest heaving, but always keeping that vehicle in sight.
Yesterday here at the Sony Ericsson Open, the fruits of all his labor were manifest, as he eliminated Gael Monfils, 7-6, 6-4, to earn a quarterfinal berth opposite . . . Federer. Roddick has a tough row to hoe, but then he’s playing with house money. What’s he going to do, go ballistic if his record falls to 2-17?
In Monfils, Roddick faced a player much like himself—or at least the Andy Roddick of yore. Monfils can really bring the big serve, and he can smack the forehand. He even lines up to serve just like Roddick, poised with his ankles practically touching before he arches his back and goes up for the ball, like a salmon leaping clear of the water.
But the contrast between the two men in one key area was stark. Roddick has modulated his power, sharpened his focus, and radiates the discipline and patience of a craftsman hard at work doing something he loves. Monfils, by contrast, looks like he’s mostly interested in setting himself up for the spectacular counter-punch. Rope-a-dope of the kind Monfils plays is a risky strategy at best, and allowing an opponent to dictate the tone and pace of a match can be borderline suicidal.
But what the hay—Monfils is still a pup at 22, and he’s also born and bred on clay, where counter-punching your way to glory on the strength of your quads and your ability to pull a forehand rabbit out of your hat pays better dividends than on hard courts. Monfils broke Roddick and served for the set at 6-5, but Roddick won that game and the momentum carried him through the tiebreaker. It was, for all practical purposes, over.
“I think he gives you ample opportunity,” Roddick said later of Monfils. “He likes to do the rope-a-dope thing a little bit. He likes to invite you in, then if you don’t come in, he beats you with length on the next ball. He’s quick enough to be able to pass a lot, so I just tried to at least make my approach shots firm if I did it.”
“Firm” was a good choice of word; “crisp” might have been even better. There was a time when Roddick may have hit his forehand harder, but he’s rarely used it better, or to more deadly effect. All of which is the culmination of —and payoff for—the work he’s put into his game. This week—nay, this year (he is 24-4 in singles, with one title) —Roddick has been playing perhaps the most dialed-in, calm, masterful tennis of his life.
“I feel good and I feel confident,” he said. “I think the big difference is that you get to those 30-all points and I just feel. . . calm. . and like I’m going to play the point the way I want to. I feel like I’m able to plan out more what I’m gonna do. I have maybe some more options now. Yeah. I just feel calm on the court. It’s nice, but I think it can still be improved. It’s only been a couple of months, that I’ve been playing a little better, so. . . “
So how does he feel, going up against Federer tomorrow?
“It is what it is,” he said. “This press conference hasn’t changed for years.