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Will 30 Be a Breakthrough or a Breakdown for Andy Roddick?


By Erik Gudris                                        Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve    

(February 28, 2012) This time last year, the sports world was still oohing and aahing over Andy Roddick's amazing diving winner on match point to seal his 30th career title in Memphis over Milos Raonic. Roddick, ranked No. 8 at the time, appeared poised to shake things up among the elite of the game as he headed into Indian Wells where he reached the finals the previous year and then onto Miami where he was defending champion.

Unfortunately for the former No.1, it wasn't meant to be.

After a surprising fourth round loss to Richard Gasquet in the desert, Roddick began to suffer a series of illnesses and injuries that plagued him right through most of the summer. Despite an inspiring run to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, Roddick was too physically drained to put up much of a fight in his next match against Rafael Nadal. A so-so end to 2011 segued into this year's Australian Open that saw Roddick pull a hamstring against Lleyton Hewitt, then tweak his ankle against Denis Kudla in San Jose. A first round loss to Xavier Malisse, a man Roddick had owned a 9-0 record against, in Memphis last week, only continued Roddick's career freefall, something that he hopes to put a stop to when he faces Philipp Petzschner tonight in Delray Beach.

But should Roddick even be playing in Florida this week?

Roddick's physical game style has taken its toll on his body, a toll manifesting itself in the multiple maladies that are now reoccurring on a weekly basis. He admitted in an interview yesterday with the Palm Beach Post that he doesn't have the right answer in whether he should not compete at all, go through rehab or just play through the pain. But where a club player would just take a break for a month or two and let their body heal, Roddick appears to be unable to make that decision, likely for fear that an extended hiatus from the tour would force him so far down the rankings he would never be able to climb back up even if suddenly his body was 100% again.

Unlike his contemporaries Hewitt and James Blake, who, because of injuries that required both players to take extended absences, have now settled into just enjoying being on the tour but unlikely to ever return to the very top, Roddick doesn't appear to have made peace with the growing reality he may likely never return to the top ten or win another Major. It's almost as if a panic has set in with Roddick that he must keep grinding away in order to stay in touch or at least in shouting distance with the "big four" as they are now called, even when his own body is telling him it's time to stop, even if for a little while.

Roddick, who played his first professional match in Delray Beach 12 years ago, will turn 30 later this summer, and  though he knows he's nearing the end of his career, he would like to conclude it on his terms and not based on an injury. But he certainly doesn't seem to be the kind who would relish spending his last days on tour mired near the bottom of the top 100 -- a dismal possibility that could transpire if he doesn't find a way to stay healthy on a consistent basis. Roddick would probably dearly love to go out on a high note at a big event like Pete Sampras did at the U.S. Open, but in order to do that, his body will have to be in shape to do so, which means Roddick may have to sacrifice more opportunities to play now so that he will get that chance in the future. That's a difficult choice to make, even in an Olympic year, but Roddick may be forced to make it sooner rather than later.

As Roddick said, it's hard to decide what to do each week when one never knows how your body will hold up from day to day. Hopefully he will make the right call, especially for the remainder of his career, because if anyone deserves to go out in a blaze of glory, it's the hard-serving American from Nebraska who burst onto the tennis scene 12 years ago on an outside court in Delray Beach.

 

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