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СообщениеДобавлено: Сб Июл 31, 2004 1:07 am
СообщениеЗаголовок сообщения: Andy Roddick
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First things first: don't mention the 'S' word. Should you have the good fortune to speak to Andy Roddick, try not to mention Pete Sampras. It is not that Roddick has anything against Pistol Pete - indeed, he shows nothing but respect and admiration for the great man - it is just that he has spent most of his life being mentioned in comparison with, in relation to or simply in the same sentence as, Sampras. And it is getting a little tiresome. It is the price a chap has to pay for being the extremely promising junior who grew up to become a Grand Slam champion and the world No. 1 by the age of 21.

Roddick's rise to greatness happened almost overnight. After his first round loss at the French Open last year, he joined forces with Brad Gilbert and suddenly started winning. And winning. For a remarkable six months spell, Roddick could do no wrong as he won at Queen's and Indianapolis, took the Masters Series trophies in Montreal and Cincinnati and then topped it all off with victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero in the US Open final. From there on, it was only a matter of time before he took over pole position in the rankings. As honeymoon periods with a new coach went, it took some beating.

"We were lucky that we clicked so fast," he said. "I wasn't expecting that, I was expecting almost like a rebuilding process and then things started happening right away and we just kind of went with it. Brad's thought was let's not focus so much on your deficiencies as opposed to what you can do with your game now and take it into your opponent's weaknesses. And so that kind of made things fresh in my mind and really excited me."

The problem is that Roddick now has to match everything he did last year to protect his place in the pecking order and then go one better to improve. And playing better than he did against Roger Federer in the Wimbledon semi-final last year would take a superhuman effort. Sure enough, he lost the match but the crowd gave both men a standing ovation after three sets of guts and bravado from Roddick and sheer brilliance from Federer.

One year on, Roddick is an older and wiser competitor. Although he retained his Stella Artois title at Queen’s Club and won the Masters Series title in Miami, two titles so far this year is not great by his standards - but it does not matter. That is what winning a grand slam title can do for a chap's confidence.

"I felt that I was playing really good tennis last year," he said. "Now I feel that it's not surprising if I'm playing that well whereas, last year at Wimbledon, I was kind of like: OK, I'm playing great, let's keep going. This year I might go in and I could be playing badly but still think that I could pull it together."
The US Open is, for any American player, the tournament to win but Roddick has always had a soft spot for SW19. He grew up watching The Championships on TV which, thanks to the five hour time difference between London and east coast of America, is billed as "Breakfast at Wimbledon". The business of playing on grass took some getting used to - although he reckons that he is getting the hang of it now - but it was the tradition, the history and the atmosphere of the place, and Centre Court in particular, that could have been his downfall. Luckily, he had someone to guide him as he prepared to make his debut on the most famous court in the world.

"Actually," Roddick remembered, "Doug Spreen, the guy who is my trainer now but who worked for the ATP before, he said: when you get out there, look around in the warm up and when you are on your way out there because you don't want to be in awe of it during the match. That's pretty good advice."
Roddick learned his lesson quickly and has never looked back since. The thought that he is one of the favourites for the title this year brings a smile to his face - "I like the way you're talking," he said - but even though he won at Queen’s this year, he doesn’t feel he is at his best.

"I felt like early on in the year I was knocking on the door of playing really well," he said. "Then with winning Miami and playing the Davis Cup, I feel like I got over that hurdle. So I feel like I maybe took it up another level there.

His success at Queen’s suggests everything is clicking into place at the right time for Roddick to make a serious assault on the Wimbledon title. The omens are good: this year, the Men’s Final is scheduled to take place on 4th July – American Independence Day. The last three times that the Men’s Final had been played on this date an American has won the title: Connors in 1982 and Sampras in 1993 and 1999 (the 1988 final between Becker and Edberg had to be completed on Monday 4th July after rain interrupted play on the Sunday). Perhaps more importantly, he has a thundering serve and muscular game (he recently broke his own world record with a 153mph serve), and he looks comfortable on grass. Roddick will be a very difficult man to stop at this year’s Championships and could well go all the way to claiming the Men’s Singles trophy.
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