Top Spin Blog » Roddick

U.S. versus Spain: 0-9

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:11:55 +0000

Zero to nine. The number says it all. That is the record of American men versus Spanish men in singles during Wimbledon and the recent Davis Cup meeting.

For some well-chosen but dismal descriptions of the state of the American team, check out Jonathan Scott on Tennis.com who concludes his article “U.S. Davis Cup Team Walks the Plank” this way: “Down for the count. Dead in the water. Another sad metaphor for those matches.”

Perhaps we should have seen this coming when Patrick McEnroe decided to step down.

See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American...
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See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:13:25 +0000

With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American men completed a dismal 0-6 record in singles on the grass against Spanish players over the Wimbledon fortnight (fortnight being one of those words you only hear once a year when Wimbledon rolls around). Not exactly the confidence boost captain Jim Courier wanted going into the U.S. versus Spain Davis Cup quarterfinal starting July 8. But the American team has four things going for it:

The match is indoors, on a hard, fast court where the ball takes an honest bounce. No more of this muddled European soil.

Doubles is a critical point, and we have the number one team in the world, the Bryan brothers. By they way, they are in the semis and going for the win. (Someone should point this out to ESPN’s resident airhead Chris Fowler who endlessly recites the inaccuracy that there is only “one American man left in the draw.” )

The U.S. has never lost to Spain in the states, and holds a 5-4 record dating back to 1965. Roddick’s hometown crowd will give the U.S. team a boost. Texans know how to whoop it up.

And the big one — Rafael Nadal is taking the week off. However, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez (who beat Roddick in the third round of Wimbledon), and Fernando Verdasco (whom Roddick beat in a Wimledon warmup) are coming and will make for tough competition. Roddick and Fish, fresh off some big wins, will make up the U.S. team with the Bryans. Lineups were announced earlier this week. It’s too bad that Nadal won’t be there, but that’s par for the course in Davis Cup, where the real superstars often sit out.

U.S. versus Spain: 0-9 Zero to nine. The number says it all. That is...
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Davis Cup in Roddick’s Hometown: Austin

Joe Samuel Starnes — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:25:30 +0000

The U.S. Davis Cup match against Spain has been set for Austin, Texas, hometown of Andy Roddick, running from July 8-10.

Let’s hope that Nadal will make the trip, but I’m betting the hard, indoor court will not be that appealing to him, especially if he goes deep in Wimbledon where the men’s final is set for Sunday, July 3 — only five days before the Davis Cup play begins.

A Nadal no-show would put most likely Verdasco and Ferrer in the singles slots. Ferrer’s a tough competitor, but we know how Verdasco feels about hard, fast courts.

U.S. Davis Cup: Roddick, Isner, Bryan & Bryan In his first official order of business, U.S. Davis Cup...
See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American...
Roddick Finishes the Job in Chile; Where to next, Andy? Big-time comeback for Roddick on the red clay in Chile...

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Roddick Finishes the Job in Chile; Where to next, Andy?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:43:34 +0000

Big-time comeback for Roddick on the red clay in Chile today — now on to Austin, San Antonio or Albany for the next round this summer.

With the top dog Texas-resident back on the team, it’s got to be Austin or San Antonio when the Spaniards come calling in July. (The USTA wouldn’t snub Andy and his brother a second time around, would they?)

Here’s an idea: let the player who has carried the singles lines on his back for the past decade pick the next location. He deserves it. Where to, Andy?

Davis Cup in Roddick’s Hometown: Austin The U.S. Davis Cup match against Spain has been set...
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Americans Up and Down on the ATP Tour

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:58:24 +0000

As soon as I write a post about Americans hoisting trophies in the summer hardcourt tournaments, the news all turns bad. Roddick, Querrey, Isner and Fish all lose early in Washington. Roddick falls to 11 in the rankings, marking the first time since the ATP rankings began that there are no American men in the world’s top ten. Querrey, despite winning the Los Angeles tournament two weeks ago, falls out of the top 20 to 21. Then Roddick pulls out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto with a yet-to-be-determined illness (the symptoms of which are lethargy), and no other American reaches the third round of the Masters 1000 event.

If anything, this shows how tough it is on the ATP Tour. In the spring, Roddick won the Masters 1000 event in Miami and finished second at Indian Wells, but his poor showings in Grand Slams over the last year have hurt him, and it’s not surprising he dropped once the points he earned for the 2009 Wimbledon final dropped away (ranking points expire after 12 months). And Querrey falls one point despite winning a tournament?

A rankings decline is precipitous on a bad streak. Remember James Blake? He’s 10-12 for 2009 and has fallen all the way down to 108 in the world, from No. 10 only two years ago. But as fast as it falls, you can recover. Some big wins in New York at the U.S. Open can propel one of these Americans back up the charts. I’m betting that either Roddick, Querrey, Isner or Fish will reach the U.S. Open final, and I’d love to see Blake make a last, big run and see a nice guy finish first. The big show gets started on Aug. 30.

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Is this Roddick’s Year to Win Wimbledon?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:10:11 +0000

Peter Bodo of Tennis magazine thinks so. “I believe he’s going to do it, if not this year, then the next. If not then, then sometime,” Bodo writes on his blog. Roddick is coming off one of his best months ever, winning the Sony Ericsson and finishing second in Indian Wells. He had not reached a Masters final since 2006. I hope we’ll see him avenge last year’s grueling loss in the Wimbledon finals. I think he may have a better shot in New York later this summer. Speed up the surface, USTA, speed it up. In the meantime, however, the slow red clay court season has begun.

See You in Texas — U.S. Will Try to Avenge 0-6 Wimbledon Singles Record Against Spanish in Davis Cup With Mardy Fish’s quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal, the American...
Davis Cup in Roddick’s Hometown: Austin The U.S. Davis Cup match against Spain has been set...
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Roddick Fights Back, Isner Cut Down

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:13:01 +0000

Andy Roddick fought back deep in the fourth set and dominated the fifth to overcome Fernando Gonzalez and his rowdy Chilean fans in Melbourne. The biggest point of the match was a Roddick shot at set point that was called out but the review overruled and deemed it good, much to Gonzalez’s dismay, who had let the ball go without reaching for it. Gonzalez insisted he had a play on the ball, but the umpire did not agree. It gave Roddick the set and the momentum to close it out. This was a reversal of the situation that set Roddick off after his win over Tomaz Belluci into a cursing tirade, even after he won the match. The lesson here for both playerrs, as pointed out by Patrick McEnroe, is play the ball. Roddick’s chance look good for a semi, with a date against Marin Cilic in the quarters, against whom he has a 1-1 career record.

The other American in the round of 16, big John Isner, fought Andy Murray tough, holding a set point in the first, but ultimately being overcome by the crafty Scotsman. For some British sports writing hyperbole of the highest order, check out the Guardian’s coverage of the match, with lines like these: Murray “reduced the 6ft 9inJohn Isner to a drained and dispirited wreck”; or “This was a match made in tennis heaven, given the perfectly meshed and contrasting styles of the combatants. Isner charged in on stilt-like legs behind his booming serve.”

Although Murray ran him ragged, look for Isner to have a big year, though, especially on the fast courts. How about a Wimbledon win for Isner to give the Brits more fodder for alliteration and metaphor?

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What Will the New Decade Hold for American Tennis?

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:48:32 +0000

From Pete Sampras’ win in the 1990 U.S. Open to Andre Agassi’s win in New York in 1999, American men won 21 of the 40 Grand Slams of the decade. The following ten-year stretch started strong, with Sampras, Aggasi and Andy Roddick combining for six more through September 2003. However, since Roddick’s U.S. Open win seven years ago, only Andy has come close, but has not been able to seal one of the big four trophies. He’ll have more chances, but he turns 28 this year, and the game keeps getting tougher. I expect him to win one more before he retires, either in London or New York.

The two Americans on the rise are John Isner and Sam Querrey, and Isner is fresh off a hot streak with his first ATP win in Auckland and then a run to the fourth round of Australia where he held a set point against No. 5 seed Andy Murray, although he lost it and all three sets. In the offing, America’s top young players, including Ryan Harrison, Devin Britton, and Jordan Cox, could be the future of American tennis. But it’s way too early to tell.

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Red Hot Americans Roll on in Australian Open

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:31:21 +0000

The big servers with the big streaks came through on Friday in Australia. John Isner started strong and finished well in the tiebreakers to beat Gael Monfils in four sets, and Andy Roddick survived a tough four-setter against Feliciano Lopez, placing each in the round of 16.

Roddick has been here many times before, but this is only Isner’s second time this far in a Grand Slam, following up on his fourth-round appearance in the 2009 U.S. Open (where he beat Roddick in five sets). The big Bulldog is hot, having won his first ATP tournament in Auckland preceding his run this week in Melbourne. Roddick also came in on a winning streak, having won the tourney in Brisbane.

Isner, my fellow Georgia alumnus who anchored a NCAA championship team for UGA, played so well last night I can forgive him for wearing Georgia Tech colors, certainly forced on him by Nike. For some reason the trend in tennis this year is for blue courts and shirts the color of tennis balls.

His next test is a tough one in No. 5 seed Andy Murray. Roddick plays Fernando Gonzalez, the Chilean who won a fantastic five-set match of high-powered ball bashing against Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any two players hit the ball so hard as they did, particularly Korolev. It undoubtedly is the greatest Kazakhstan-Chile sports competitions of all times.

Isner is going to have to serve impeccably to beat Murray. It’s great to have another American this far in the tourney with Roddick, especially one who played four years of college tennis. It’s been a long time since a top American star who played even a year of college tennis — back to John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors, I believe — much less four.

Roddick and Isner with two more wins each could meet in the semifinals. Here’s hoping it happens. We are long overdue for another American star to join Roddick in the top 10. I just hope he can do it in red. But whatever color he wears, I’ll be cheering for him.

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Americans in Australia: And Then There Were Two

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:13:13 +0000

Donald Young started strong but finished weak against Lleyton Hewitt (who I think is a dark-horse to go deep — he’s a feisty Aussie who knows his time is running out), but this tournament was a good showng for Young, who won four matches counting the qualies. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rolled over Taylor Dent.

Tonight, Roddick goes up against Feliciano Lopez, while the giant Georgia Bulldog John Isner goes up against Gael Monfils. Roddick is the second match in the Laver Arena, and Isner-Monfils is the third match on Margaret Court, so it’s a night that will be worth staying up late. Check the Australian Open match schedule here.

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