The best American male tennis player of this decade lost again, this time on a night when he played well, just not well enough. His 42 aces (career best for a player known for his serve) and 79 winners were not enough as he lost 8-6 in the fifth set. Even more impressively, he only had 24 unforced errors in a 5 set match that included two tiebreakers and an extended fifth. Meanwhile, Kohlschreiber outplayed him, posting 104 winners to only 33 unforced errors (incredible!) and bombing in 32 aces.
Watching this match was incredible, with both players playing at the top of their game throughout and matched so evenly in talent and style.
Unfortunately for American tennis, Roddick again showed that he is not an elite player. Not only should he not be in such a position, but he was unable to pull it out and was not even threatening Kohlschreiber's serve late in the fifth. Kohlscreiber had numerous match points at 4-5 before breaking him at 6-7. A player known for his dominant serve (and with 42 aces) should not have been in such trouble. Let's face it, Roddick is falling out of the top tier of tennis, clearly behind Nadal and Djokovic as a challenger to Federer. At least he has a hot girlfriend to comfort him, and maybe thoughts of her body were just a touch distracting.
January 18, 2008
Andy Roddick Outplayed, Ousted
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Roddick has two major problems. One, he's got holes in his game. He can't really get to the net, and his return game is weak, so a guy like Federer, serving at 25-35 mph slower than Roddick, manhandles him. Second, Roddick has shown consistently that he doesn't know how to win. I'm not sure that's something you can coach or work on, per se. I think you either have or don't have. Federer has it. It looks like Roddick doesn't.
Is he really the 6th best player? I can't name 5 other male tennis players but I have to believe there are more than 5 out there better than this guy.
A tour player told me a couple years ago that Roddick's parents forced him to take HGH because he was undersized as a pre-teen. I don't know much about the long-term effects of HGH (no one does), but it seems to be like his physical peak was around age 19.
Jeremy and I saw him at the Legg Mason at age 17. He was taking HGH between games like candy.
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