Andy Roddick

Andrew Stephen "Andy" Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player and a former rank number 1 player. He became a Grand Slam singles champion when he won the title at the 2003 US Open, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the finals, which currently makes him the last North American male player to win a Grand Slam singles event. Roddick has reached four other Grand Slam finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open in 2006), losing to Roger Federer every time. He is married to Brooklyn Decker, a Sports Illustrated swimwear model and actress.

On August 30, 2012, during the 2012 US Open and on his 30th birthday, Roddick announced he would retire after the tournament. Following a fourth round defeat to Juan Martin del Potro, Roddick retired from the sport with the aim of focusing on his foundation in future years.

Personal life

Roddick was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Jerry and Blanche Roddick. Roddick's father was a businessman, and his mother was a school teacher. She now directs the Andy Roddick Foundation. Roddick has two older brothers, Lawrence and John (All-American tennis player at University of Georgia [1996–98] and head tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma), who were both promising tennis players at a young age.

Roddick lived in Austin, Texas, from age 4 until he was 11, and then moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in the interest of his brother's tennis career, attending Boca Prep International School, and graduating in the Class of 2000. Roddick played varsity basketball in high school alongside his future Davis Cup teammate Mardy Fish, who trained and lived with Roddick in 1999. During that time period, he intermittently trained with Venus and Serena Williams; he later moved back to Austin. His tennis idol growing up was Andre Agassi.

It was while Roddick was flipping through a previous swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated that Roddick first noticed Brooklyn Decker, to whom he is now married. (According to Decker, as she stated in an interview with David Letterman, Roddick had his agent contact her agent to arrange an initial meeting.) The two began dating in 2007, and on March 31, 2008, Roddick announced on his website that he and Decker had become engaged. The couple was married in Austin on April 17, 2009.

Career

Breakthrough

Roddick considered quitting competitive tennis at the age of 17, when he had a losing streak in the juniors. His coach, Tarik Benhabiles, talked him into giving tennis four more months of undivided attention. Roddick finished as the No. 6 junior in the U.S. in 1999, and as the No. 1 junior in the world in 2000. He won six world junior singles titles and seven world junior doubles titles, and won the US Open and Australian Open junior singles titles in 2000. In March, in Miami, in the first round Roddick had his first ATP level victory as he beat world No. 41 Fernando Vicente of Spain, 6–4, 6–0. In August, in Washington, D.C., he beat world No. 30 Fabrice Santoro of France, 4–6, 6–3, 6–3. Roddick played the Banana Bowl in the city of São Paulo and won, beating Joachim Johansson in the final. Roddick also won the Australian Junior Open, defeating Mario Ančić in the final. In 2001, Roddick defeated former French Open champion Michael Chang in 5 sets in the second round of the tournament, despite clay being Roddick's worst surface. During the following Wimbledon, he further showed potential by taking a set from eventual winner Goran Ivanišević. He also defeated 7-time Wimbledon champion, world No. 4, and fellow American Pete Sampras, at the age of 19, at the Miami Masters 7–6, 6–3, and world No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil 6–7, 6–4, 6–2 in August.

Roddick's breakthrough year was in 2003, in which he defeated Younes El Aynaoui in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Australian Open. Roddick and the Moroccan battled for five hours, with the fifth set (21–19 in favor of Roddick) at the time the longest fifth set in a Grand Slam tournament during the open era, at 2 hours and 23 minutes. Despite a lackluster French Open, Roddick enjoyed success in the United Kingdom by winning Queen's Club, beating World No. 2 Andre Agassi 6–1, 6–7, 7–6 along the way, and reaching the Wimbledon semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets. He avenged that loss in August, beating then World Number 3 Federer in Montreal, 6–4, 3–6, 7–6. It is one of three times that Roddick has defeated him in an official ATP tournament as of yet.

World No. 1

Roddick's hardcourt record in 2003 included his first Masters Series titles—coming at Canada and Cincinnati–and his only Grand Slam title. At the US Open, Roddick rallied from two sets down and a match point in the semifinals to beat David Nalbandian of Argentina, 6–7, 3–6, 7–6, 6–1, 6–3. He then defeated world no. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final, 6–3, 7–6, 6–3. At the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, he defeated world no. 7 Carlos Moyá of Spain, 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, and world no. 4 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6–3, 6–7, 6–3, before losing to Roger Federer in the semifinals. By the end of the year, at age 21, he was ranked no. 1, the first American to finish a year at no. 1 since Andre Agassi in 1999. He also became the youngest American to hold this rank since computer rankings were started in 1973.

Roddick's reign at no. 1 ended the following February, when Roger Federer ascended to the top position, after winning his first Australian Open; the 2004 Australian Open would be the only time in Roddick's career where he was the no. 1 seed in a Grand Slam. In April, Roddick again beat world no. 6 Moya, this time 5–7, 6–2, 7–5. In June, Roddick advanced to his first Wimbledon final, and after taking the first set from defending champion Federer, lost in four sets. Roddick was knocked out during the 2004 US Open in a five-set quarterfinal against another big server, Joachim Johansson. Later in September in Bangkok, he beat world no. 9 Marat Safin of Russia, 7–6, 6–7, 7–6. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Roddick lost to Chilean Fernando González, the eventual bronze medal winner, in the third round. In November he beat world no. 7 Tim Henman of Great Britain, 7–5, 7–6, world no. 4 Safin, 7–6, 7–6, and world no. 6 Guillermo Coria, 7–6, 6–3. Later that year, Roddick teamed up with Mardy Fish and Bob and Mike Bryan on the U.S. Davis Cup team that lost to Spain in the final in Seville. Roddick lost his singles match against Rafael Nadal, who would in the following year win the French Open. Towards the end of 2004, Roddick fired his coach of 18 months, Brad Gilbert, and hired assistant Davis Cup coach Dean Goldfine. Roddick finished 2004 ranked as the world no. 2, the U.S. no. 1, and the player with the most aces (2,017). In 2004, Roddick saved fellow tennis player Sjeng Schalken and other guests (including close friends Ben Campezi and Dean Monroe) from a hotel fire.

Roddick's first 2005 tournament victory was the SAP Open in San Jose, California, where he became the first to win the event in consecutive years since Mark Philippoussis in 1999 and 2000. The top-seeded Roddick defeated Cyril Saulnier, 6–0, 6–4, in 50 minutes, the event's first championship shutout set since Arthur Ashe beat Guillermo Vilas in 1975. In March, he defeated world no. 7 Carlos Moyá, 6–7, 6–4, 6–1. In April, Roddick won the U.S. Men's Claycourt Championships, reclaiming the title he won in 2001 and 2002. (He lost in 2003 to Agassi, and in 2004 to Tommy Haas.) In May, Roddick had match point against Spain's Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco was attempting to save the match point on his second serve, when the linesman erroneously called the serve out. If this call had held, Roddick would have won the match. Roddick motioned to the umpire, pointing to the clear ball mark on the clay indicating the ball was in, and the call was consequently changed. Verdasco went on to win the match. At the French Open, Roddick lost to unseeded Argentine José Acasuso in the second round, and at Wimbledon, Roddick lost to Federer in the final for the second consecutive year. In August, he defeated world no. 3 Lleyton Hewitt, 6–4, 7–6, at the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. At the US Open, Roddick was defeated by world no. 70 Gilles Müller in the first round. Roddick's last US Open first-round loss had been in 2000. At the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Roddick defeated Gaël Monfils to wrap up a tournament without losing a set or getting his serve broken.