Andy Roddick: The Making of a Champ

It is the fifth set in the Australian Open quarter finals with Andy Roddick taking on the crafty Moroccan Younes El Ayouni. Both men are at it as if their lives depend on it, Roddick ended up winning the set 21-19 and the match. Watching Roddick it would have been impossible to say if this were the first set or a record breaking fifth set. He however went on to lose the semi-finals. This set was symbolic the way Roddick plays his tennis – passion, charisma and intensity.

If the 1990’s belonged to Sampras, Agassi and to a certain extent Rafter, the next decade definitely belongs to Roddick, Hewitt, Federer and to a certain extent Agassi. The Australian Leyton Hewitt is known for his amazing ground coverage and killer ambition, while Switzerland’s Roger Federer is more of a thinking man’s champ who never loses his cool, it is Roddick who is the devastating combination of both these individuals along with a serve that reminds you of a certain Croatian called Goran Ivanesevic. At the tender age of 21, he has become the new face of tennis and symbolizes the power game perfectly. No record seems too distant or unbreakable to him.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Andy Roddick was born on August 30th, 1982. His father Jerry, an investor and mother Blanche, director of the Andy Roddick foundation had already given birth to a highly athletic family: Andy's brother John was an All-American tennis player at the University of Georgia, and oldest sibling Lawrence excelled in springboard diving. In 1986 the entire family moved to Austin, Texas and then to Boca Raton, Florida in 1992 with a view to provide better tennis facilities to John. Andy, who was ten and the star basketball at the Boca Raton Preparatory School, began to hit the tennis courts every day for practice. He soon began to participate in state tournaments. Wins in the U.S. junior system made his parents sit up and take notice of his incredible talent and soon the famous French coach Tarik Benhabiles took him as a ward. Andy was now on his way to take on the world.

Roddick’s phenomenal rise can be gauged from the fact that in 1999, he entered three U.S. events, where the top juniors compete and lost in the first round of each. In 2000, he won the junior Wimbledon and U.S. Open, and reached the quarterfinals at The French Open becoming the top-ranked junior in the world. He turned pro in 2000 and by the year 2002 he had already won two major events and was ranked as one of the Top ten players in the world. In the year 2003 he reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon semi-finals before he won the U.S. Open.

Roddick was criticized in the past of having a one-dimensional game that was centered around his monster serve but after he teamed up with Andre Agassi’s former coach Brad Gilbert he has managed to channelize his natural aggression into a multidimensional game. Various injuries and stomach viruses caused Roddick to reevaluate his fitness regime, this has not only made him injury resistant but has also improved his lateral movement on court.

For a moment there was a real fear that what would happen to tennis once Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi quit, these two individuals not only accounted for most of the major trophies but also for the majority of the cash that sponsors were willing to shell out for tennis tournaments. The non-Americans – Ferrereo, Hewitt, Federer, Henman and Coria were great tennis players but they seemed to lack in star power, which is very often the differentiator when it comes to allocation of sponsorship money. Then comes Roddick, a perfect combination of a great game, good looks and a clean image. He has been a marketers dream. He has been feature in a score of non-sports magazines from Rolling Stone to Vogue. Sir Elton John did a write-up on him for Interview Magazine and he was chosen Sexiest Athlete by People Magazine. Andy became only the second tennis player after Chris Evert to host Saturday Night Live. He opened the NASDAQ Stock Market in October 2003 and has thrown the first pitch at several Major League Baseball games including the Oakland-Boston playoff series.

In the year 2001, Andy’s declaration at a family gathering that he would one day be dating the famous and extremely beautiful singer Mandy Moore was laughed off by family members. Two years down the line he was going steady with her.