After pulling out of the Rome doubles final with a shoulder injury, Andy Roddick is furious with ATP tour officials that he and Mardy Fish were only given semifinalists' prize money. The team was scheduled to play fellow Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey.
The Times of London reported that the ATP docked Roddick and Fish $31,400 after pulling out of the final at 5 PM so could catch a flight to Dusseldorf for World Team Cup, where organizers were allegedly threatening sanctions if they did not turn up in time to play.
"We’re going to have to beg for the money we’ve earned,” Roddick said. "Why should Mardy be punished when I can’t play? Mardy has played the [semifinal] match, he won the match, he earned the money, you can’t take away something he has already done. This is embarrassing for the tour. The ATP people said they could not make a unilateral decision so I either take a chance with the appeal process or I played with a shoulder that didn’t give us much chance of winning and had a risk for the future. I would have had to play the full match. I asked if I played a point and then withdrew what would happen and they said the same thing, so it would have been an hour mockery as opposed to a five-minute mockery. The ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals; it should be the Association of Tie People."
The ATP put the rule in place to deter players from abandoning doubles matches without good cause.