Andy Roddick, who retired from tennis after his loss to Juan Martin Del Potro at the U.S. Open on Thursday, says it wasn’t a burden to be face of American tennis after the retirements of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, and Michael Chang, who combined to win 26 Grand Slam titles between 1989 and 2002.
“I wasn't going to shy away from it, for sure," said former No. 1 Roddick, who won his sole Grand Slam title at the 2003 U.S. Open. You get knocked down. You know the burden. I understand the fact that we come from, a place which probably had more success than any other tennis country where there are certain expectations. I fell right on the back end of the golden generation, and so that was just the cards that were dealt. But as tough a situation as it is, in the grand scheme of things it's a dream. It's something you want. That's not hard. Someone who's got however many kids and is working two jobs to buy food, that's hard. What I had to deal with wasn't hard.”