Andy Roddick's greatest hits & misses

"I'm the most successful bad player ever."

America's favorite star/punching bag Andy Roddick quite ceremoniously announced his retirement from tennis ahead of his Friday night second-round match against Australia's Bernard Tomic. He did so in poetic fashion on Thursday, on the occasion of his 30th birthday. It was remindful to me of my grandfather passing from this mortal coil a few years ago on his birthday, somehow a seamless, fitting bookend to a life. And now Roddick has done the same, but this in the matter of his career. May he find every happiness in his post-career goings-on, and no doubt he will be busy.

Without further ado (as that was quite enough), here is a rundown of the first Raggedy Andy's greatest hits, misses—and Mrs.—in his life to date. Drop a line if you think something is glaringly missing.

• "Stay in school, kids, or you'll end up being an umpire." Long before Caroline Wozniacki and Julia Goerges questioned the education levels of chair umpires in their early-2012 matches, Roddick spoke out forcefully and yet with an amused wink about his various mishaps with tournament match officials. Even so, this leads to a true miss ...

• He went from irked to irksome at the 2010 U.S. Open after a lineswoman called a foot fault on him. The truth is that line judges aren't to speak back to players, really, in the midst of a match. This one made the mistake of answering Andy's cloying query in such a way that he just latched onto the implausibility of her.

• That **2009 Wimbledon final finish**, 16-14 in the fifth set. If not for a botched volley in the second-set tiebreak, he might have not just eeked out the win to snag his second Slam title but rather flat-out seized it.

• Here's Roger Federer, the one who time and again made Roddick his whipping boy, on his colleague's retirement:

It certainly sends the right message about a person to be spoken well of by his larger-than-life peer. Curiously, Roddick actually beat Federer in three sets in March of this year in Miami, improving his record against the sport's all-time greatest to 3-21.

+And of course, a list of Roddick's best and worst moments would entail more space and time and clips than this column intends. Suffice it to say, he has had a full 12-year career, one brimming with ace public relations and caustic unforced errors and all in between.

All of this begs a question: Spin readers, what do you think Roddick will focus on after his playing days? His foundation or entertainment? A radio show or TV commentary?

What's more, will you miss him?

—Jonathan Scott (**@jonscott9**)

For more on Roddick's retirement, check out TENNIS.com's A-Rod coverage from the U.S. Open.