What I thought was giong to be a close, if not epic tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, turned out to be a major beat down. Nadal was on fire and Roddick was about as flat a heavily used tennis ball.
Nadal didn’t a bad match, nor did he play a spectacle of a tennis match; he played good. He found the lines, anticipated well, returned better, and was just on fire. Nadal won the match 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 – yeah, you read that right.
Roddick came out with a decent game plan, however; he executed it terribly. Roddick tried some serve and volleys, but since Andy is not the best volleyer on the tour he got passed…a lot. Roddick’s approach shots were even worse than his service games, only winning 12 of 32 approaches; generally approach shots should not be right in your opponents wheelhouse where they have choices for placement.
Andy usually serves big and well, his strength was deflated by a low first serve percentage (59%), lack of second serve points won (32%), and too many double faults. Ground strokes were on the same page, unforced errors piled up (25) and only 1 winner…ONE WINNER?!?!?! You cannot be serious! Just a bad day for Roddick.
In the second and third set, Roddick called for the trainer, saying that his left thigh was bothering him and had it rubbed down a couple of times. I didn’t see how his thigh might have been irritated but it could have been a lingering problem from his match yesterday against David Ferrer.
What does this mean for the American? Who knows, Roddick has a lot to think about when he gets back home. I’m sure Larry Stefanki has a few choice words for Andy, I’m sure it’s something along the lines of, “What the hell were you thinking Andy?”
That was the last hope for the US to have a chance at a major title, oh well, next year right? Roddick will also be missing the World Tour Finals at the end of the year.
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I’m almost at the point to say that Roddick’s days are numbered…he relied on his serve for winning and he got plenty of those! Now, it just can’t be the serve to pull him through. He just isn’t consistent with everything else and seems to give up and just watch the opponent’s shots land as winners. I also am tired of his sarcastic arrogant behavior on court. His tactics and comments with judges and refs over the water issues were flooded with rude arrogance.
I don’t have to wonder why he and Serena are doubles partners.
His days are absolutely numbered…Roddick has not had a great year, he dropped out of the top 20 for the first time in nearly a decade, and his game plan is the same as always – serve, forehand, slice backhand, point over. In his hay day (02-09), he was an amazing player, now he’s just grumpy and confused. Who knows if the young Americans who are coming up can do what Roddick has done but I hope their attitudes are better than Andys’.
That is just too bad…It has been a long time since an American won a Grand Slam title. We have yet to produce a tennis player with the caliber of Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi. At the moment our hopes are on Ryan Harrison and Donald Young.
Besides these two young Americans, I think Alexandr Dolgopolov has a great potential to be the next-to-beat tennis player. I first saw him play last year and noticed his potential to be up there with the current top 5 players. I like his game. He’s still young and if he continues to play well and gain more experience, he could very well be the next-to-beat tennis player.
Have a great weekend!