Roland Garros rain, fan rowdiness, Rybakina's rant, Iga and Rafa: Andy Roddick and Jon Wertheim discuss it all

Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick and Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim had a lot of topics to discuss after the first week of Roland Garros.

This week’s Served with Andy Roddick begins with the rain delays that players and fans have been dealing with most of the tournament so far.

“It's an absolute mess, and all the while you have to be prepared for the best version of the weather report,” Roddick explained, about the players' mentality. “If there's rain for two hours, if it's 80 percent, 90 percent chance of rain all day, but in 30 minutes there could be a pocket where you could get on for 45 minutes, you're getting warm, you're getting mentally prepared, so it's not as if it just happens when you're on the court for an hour and then you get taken off. You live in this state of stress.”

Rain delays create a separate bubble for players depending on their seed and draw. Lower-ranked players, Roddick noted, often face the unpredictability of the weather given their side-court placement; whereas top-ranked players are more likely to be scheduled on a covered court and know their schedules (for the most part).

Ironically, an episode earlier, Wertheim nearly predicted a rain delay for Rafael Nadal’s first-round match.

Weather, however, is an uncontrollable element of the game—whereas alcohol consumption and stadium rowdiness is not.

“The fans are f*ing losing their minds, booing people, talking about their mothers,” Roddick said. “David Goffin who, again, is like one of the quietest people on tour is pissed, everyone's pissed, Jon. What the hell is going on over there?”

Roddick took the player perspective and Wertheim the journalists', and the two debated the tournament's solution of banning alcohol in stadiums after fans were getting too rowdy.

“We want tennis to be fan friendly, we want fans to be engaged,” Wertheim said. “We don't want people sitting on their hands, we don't want golf claps and boring people with luxury suites with their back to the action, but we have some very rambunctious fans, and the response has been rather interesting.”

“I'm not sure an alcohol ban in the seats is necessarily the way to address this. Look, I don't want to see anyone in physical danger, but what do we love about college tennis? The fans are on top of the action, they're yelling, they're booing, they're saying things about your mother. I mean it's easy for me to say, I'm not the object of this hostility. If there's a physical issue it's a totally different conversation, but if fans are cheering and saying mean things, I kind of like that atmosphere.”

Roddick’s take on the matter was a simple one, that fans far and wide could be inspired by.

“There's a pretty simple workaround,” he said. “Just get loaded before you go in and then go boo everyone.”

From a player’s perspective, Roddick doesn’t mind name-calling or booing, as it happens in every sport, but there is an advantage to calm conditions.

“Our first tell as tennis players is the sound off of the other person's racquet,” Roddick said. “We need to be able to hear the ball off the racquet. When someone unleashes a serve, we have less than half a second to react and cover six feet both ways. We need every single tell, we need to be able to track the ball, and we need to be able to hear how it comes off the racquet.”

While Goffin is now out of the tournament, other players like Iga Swiatek have also been hoping for a quieter atmosphere.

Elena Rybakina, however, has bigger things to worry about, as press conferences have put a lot of attention in her corner—and not in a good way. The former Wimbledon champion griped that the content of press questions just isn't very interesting.

“This is an age-old problem, and the sport has a lot of diversity,” Wertheim said. “What's a good question to player X is a terrible question to player Y, and I would address a 16-year-old much differently than I would address Novak Djokovic. Rybakina, not known for a cork-popping personality…she was just nasty.”

From a journalist’s perspective, Wertheim said he has “a lot of sympathy for the players,” as the press conferences can get repetitive.

“If I wanted to ask you a really good question, I wouldn’t do it in a press conference format where there’s a transcription that everybody reads, I would pull you aside,” he said.

The episode later discussed the second-round match between Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka.

“Her least choice surface against the two-time defending champion,” Wertheim said. “I’m not sure she even knew she was capable of that level of tennis.”

The nearly three-hour between the two leading Slam-title holders in the women’s draw had current world No. 1 fighting from 2-5 down in the deciding set to ultimately winning the match at 7-5.

“It is a much easier emotion to deal with when you feel like you’re building towards something, or gaining on something, or hunting something, as opposed to protecting something and being hunted.” Roddick said. “One is more fun, you feel like she’s in that arch of gaining again, and her mannerisms instantly reflect that. And then to take that loss and go into press, which was your kryptonite for a moment in time, and just do it. She is an absolute adult in the room right now, she will win again.”

The episode couldn’t conclude without a “what’s next” debate for Rafa, following his first round loss.

“I think the issue with Rafa is I think he really questions whether he could have an impact on a surface outside of clay at this point in his career,” Roddick said. “Is he going to go through the paces to kill his body on hard courts, which he said kills his body? Can you be a two-month a year player and expect your body to react the right way?”

There’s plenty of Roland Garros coverage left to dissect from Roddick and Wertheim, as the Slam moves into its second week. Tune in live Sunday nights on T2, Tennis Channel’s second network, and stream on Served Media Channels the following Tuesdays.