If Andy Roddick doesn’t win another match, he’ll still have a spot in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Roddick’s Davis Cup performances this year, and especially last weekend, when the United States defeated Russia 4-1 for its first Cup in 12 years, were that significant. But did anyone else find it odd that much of what was written about Roddick these past few days assumed or implied that this Davis Cup tie will be remembered as the pinnacle of Roddick’s career?
No doubt that Roddick faces increasingly stiff competition at the four majors. Rafael Nadal has adjusted his defensive game for the sport’s faster surfaces and is now the second-best player in the world on grass. Novak Djokovic can play well on anything. Andy Murray has already shown that he knows how to read Roddick’s serve and keep the American off-balance. Of course, there’s always that Federer character to contend with. Do you think Roddick ever lost to a single player, even his older brother, 11 times in a row before he met Federer?
No question, the challenges are many. But there are a lot of reasons to believe Roddick can win at least one more major, and perhaps two or three. Here are the three biggest:
1) Big serves age well (see Sampras, Pete and Ivanisevic, Goran)
2) He’s only 25 years old
3) Roddick is an underrated fighter.
Roddick is often derided for his racquet skills off the ground and at the net: “Without that serve…” are the words often spoken before someone tears Roddick’s game to shreds. People tend to look at serving like they do singing—a natural talent, something you can do or can’t do, practice aside. Certainly Roddick has an incredible serving talent, but he’s worked hard to maximize it, too. There’s no need for him to apologize for having the best single shot in tennis, especially when that shot is the most important stroke in the game.
Perhaps Sampras and Ivanisevic had slightly more deceptive serves, but once you consider all their statistics—and the fact that both Sampras and Ivanisevic, a terrific athlete, had better secondary weapons—it’s hard to argue that men’s tennis has ever known a more effective server than Roddick. He maintains a ridiculously high first-serve percentage (64% or thereabouts year in and year out), routinely holds 90% of his service games, and usually leads the tour in break points saved.
When Roddick first came on the tour, his violent motion fooled a lot of observers into thinking he would suffer a serious shoulder injury. Further study, with the aid of high-speed video, has shown Roddick to have sound, if unique, technique. I don’t see his serve, and the free points that come with it, slowing down anytime in the near future.
And that future is long, at least another five or six years, and maybe seven or eight. Ask yourself, who has been the steadiest player on the tour since 2003, after Roger Federer? Probably Roddick. If Federer were not as dominant—and no one has ever won as consistently or easily over such a long period—Roddick might have six major titles to his name: two at the U.S. Open (he won in 2003 and lost to Federer in the 2006 final); three at Wimbledon (he lost to Federer twice in the final and once in the semifinal); and one at the Australian Open (he lost to Federer in the semifinal last year). He’s always in contention and he’s point-for-point as feisty as Nadal, just not nearly as fast afoot. If someone else could take care of Federer along the way, or Federer had to miss a slam, which is bound to happen sometime, Roddick should be in position to challenge for the title, unless it’s at Roland Garros.
There’s little chance that Roddick will ever match Andre Agassi (eight majors) or regain the No. 1 ranking that he held briefly in 2003. But if Sampras could serve his way to a U.S. Open title in 2002 and Ivanisevic could win Wimbledon at age 29 when Sampras was in his prime (he had won the previous four), Roddick can win another major. The timing and draw has to be right, but the good thing about Roddick is you can count on him to be around when good fortune comes his way. The Davis Cup is a perfect example of that—after plugging away for seven years, Roddick performed when the draw (no match against Argentina on the road and a home final) broke in his favor. There’s no reason why it couldn’t happen for him a major, too.
Tom Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine.