Wimbledon 2011: Did Andy Roddick’s Window of Opportunity Just Close?

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at Internationaled.org

Published: June 24, 2011

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In my formative years as a tennis fan, I loved watching Andy Roddick play. His aggressive, all-or-nothing playing style was attractive to a teenager like me. Literally nothing was more fun as a young American tennis fan than watching Roddick blow serve after serve past his powerless opponent.

I also admired the way he went about playing. With a style like his, he won matches in grandiose fashion and lost them in the same manner. There was very little middle ground with him. Win or lose, Roddick came out with guns blazing.

I understood even at that relatively young age that Roddick was a fantastically talented young man, but he was inherently flawed as a player. If his opponent could force long rallies or simply keep the powerful serve in front of him, it might be a long day for Andy.

There was something almost honorable about his style. He had holes in his game. Everyone knew it. He knew it. And yet, Andy just kept firing away as he always had.

As tennis fans, I think we all thought he had broken through to the prime time with his first Grand Slam victory in 2003. It was the US Open, no less.

Little did we know that he would still be looking for that elusive second Grand Slam title almost eight years later.

Granted, some of it has been bad luck. His prime years corresponded almost perfectly with the prime years of Roger Federer. No one was beating Federer during his prime.

Now that Federer is beatable, Rafael Nadal has emerged as another foil in Roddick's hopes for another Grand Slam.

There have been close misses littered throughout his career. In 2004, less than a year after his US Open win, he was the runner-up at Wimbledon. He came up one match short at Wimbledon the very next year as well.

In 2006, he fell short in his quest to win his second US Open, losing in the finals there.

Then there was the big one in 2009. The stage was again Wimbledon. Roddick l...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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