Adored Roddick continues to evolve
MONTREAL -- Shortly after losing this summer's classic Wimbledon final 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 to Roger Federer, Andy Roddick said: "There's two options: You lay down or you keep going. The second option sounded better to me."
He was referring to a blown opportunity to take a two-set lead, but could just as easily have been talking about the aftermath of the match itself.
The American's gutsy performance instantly turned him into a folk hero at home, but Roddick's own reaction remained to be seen. Would he respond positively or negatively?
As it turns out, the public's response had an impact on Roddick. "It was kind of the story for a couple days or a week, which is rare, especially in the States," he said at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Roddick claims he's finding even greater support now, whether it's at a tennis match or simply walking to put cream in his coffee at the local café.
"I think it definitely helped a lot as far as the recovery process and getting excited to get back out here again, and especially seeing the excitement it caused for tennis," Roddick said.
In 2003, Roddick came out on the winning end of another of the sport's classic overtime encounters, defeating Younes El Aynaoui 4-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, 21-19 in the Australian Open quarterfinals. "I am humbled by this victory," he said at the time.
Now, he finds himself honored in defeat.
Returning to competition at the Legg Mason Classic at Washington, D.C., last week, Roddick showed no ill-effects. He reached the final before -- once again -- losing a tight contest to Juan Martin del Potro 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6).
Ironically, though Roddick is the most successful tiebreak player on tour this season with a 28-8 record, three of those eight tiebreakers lost have come in finals during the past two months.
Stefanki on Wimbledon final
On the missed volley at set point in the second set:
"Roddick wasn't going to hit that ball," Stefanki said. "He said, 'When I hit that approach so well, I didn't plan on hitting the ball.' [Then] it was going about a foot inside the line, and at the last second he just snatched at it 'cause he didn't want to get embarrassed.
"Roddick said, 'I wasn't mentally prepared to hit that ball and it was a mistake on my part.' But it wasn't because of any flaw of technique.
"Even if he did decide to play it -- in his mind, 'I'm playing this no matter what' -- it's still not going to be an easy one. Because it was a dead ball."
On Roddick's mishits in the final game:
"The shadows started playing havoc with him. And Roddick told me after, 'I couldn't see even one of those balls coming out of there.'
"He was in the shadow, coming out of the light. And he hadn't mishit any forehands all day, and he mishit two up in that game. I think it was more visual than fatigue or hip or any other thing."
The match as a whole:
"I thought Andy played better than Roger off the ground. I thought [Federer] played pretty defensively but his serving was phenomenal. Maybe the best I've ever seen him serve.
"Usually Roger beats him up on the return side. But he did not beat him up on the return side at all."
Some badly timed lapses aside, Roddick showed the same solid form he has during most of this season, having also reached the semifinals in Indian Wells and the Australian Open, and he won an ATP 500 event in Memphis. But the level of tennis the 26-year-old showed in the final two rounds of Wimbledon was altogether different than most weeks this season, and it's that form he'll be looking to capture at the U.S. Open.
"I'm glad he played well last week because now he's moved on," said Larry Stefanki, who came on board as Roddick's coach at the end of last year and has served as the architect of the 2003 U.S. Open champion's revival.
After a post-Wimbledon break, the two trained at Roddick's home in Austin, Texas, last month.
"We talked quite a bit on the phone before I went to Austin the week before Washington. And I was very impressed by his attitude," Stefanki said. "He said, 'I'm ready to play, I'm ready to work, I'm ready to move on.'"
Stefanki feels optimistic that Wimbledon may turn out to be the "tip of the iceberg."
"For him to perform like that, I just know he has a Slam inside of him," he said.
Both player and coach firmly believe the key to sustaining or replicating Roddick's Wimbledon form is to stick with the process that produced it.
"The things that allow me to play well in those matches are things that started in December, not at Wimbledon," Roddick said. "It's about preparation, it's about getting through matches."
During the offseason, Roddick lost 15 pounds in a bid to improve his speed and mobility around the court. Coupled with his famously booming serve, this sleeker, more explosive version of the No. 1 American has managed to swing some vital extra points and matches his way.
"I think his return of serve now is not a liability. I think his movement is a lot more flowing. [He's] taking balls more on the rise and moving forward and ending it a little quicker, which is not natural for him," Stefanki said. "Those are three things for me that I've seen him absorb into his game."
The evolution is not finished, he added. "I'm a big believer in forcing your style of play. That's a work in progress. … He has a tendency to fall back to play defense."
The competition also remains formidable. Now ranked No. 5, Roddick is looking up at the Big Four of Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, though he can count wins over each of the quartet in the past two years. Federer has been a particularly potent nemesis, leading 18-2 in their head-to-head encounters.
Still, after showing he hasn't been undone by the Wimbledon defeat, Roddick will head into his home Grand Slam at the U.S. Open as both the people's choice and some analysts' contender.
"I still don't know if I have a complete grasp of what changed it," Roddick said of suddenly being seen in a whole new light by many sports commentators and fans. "It's tough being objective about something, especially when, I saw it from 'here' and you guys kind of saw it from 'there.'
"I think during my career I've been portrayed as every single type of person: good, bad, ugly, rude, nice. This is kind of the first time it's been presented in a light that's hard-working, everyday-Joe type tennis player trying to make good.
"I think people maybe realized it's not easy and it does take work."
The U.S. Open buildup is likely to resemble 2005, though an ad campaign that year asking "Where's Andy's mojo?" became inadvertently apt when he was upset in the first round by Gilles Muller. There was far less fanfare in 2006 when he did reach the final, again losing to Federer.
Roddick has expunged the m-word from his vocabulary, but spoken or unspoken, it may once again be a tangible presence at New York in two weeks' time.
Kamakshi Tandon is a freelance tennis writer for ESPN.com.
