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Dandy Andy Roddick loses, but lives up to the hype
By Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- On the wind-swept Stadium Court that's suited him so well in the past, Andy Roddick saw his run through the Ericsson Open draw come to an abrupt end Wednesday afternoon. He had his backwards-facing hat handed to him by a fist-pumping Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3, 6-2. Though Roddick's shoulders were slumped and his face was etched with disappointment as he made the walk to the locker room after the match, on balance it was a darn good tournament for the 18-year-old Floridian. In one week of high-quality tennis, he not only served up a feel-good story to counteract WilliamsGate; he also showed why the USTA wonks have, for years, been salivating like dogs when they discuss his prospects. The Savior of American Men's Tennis is an awfully weighty title to thrust on the shoulders of a teenager who still needs to fill out. But Roddick lent credibility to the hype by playing top-shelf tennis. Roddick's star turn came with his televised straight-set thrashing of Pete Sampras on Sunday. Playing with devil-may-care abandon, Roddick's whipsaw forehand and 135 mph serves confounded the reigning Wimbledon champ. "Definitely the future of American tennis is looking very good," a gracious Sampras said afterwards. "He'll just get better and better." Less heralded but just as significant was Roddick's match on Tuesday. Staving off what would have been an understandable letdown, he took out Romania's Andrei Pavel. He's no Sampras, Pavel. But he is a solid top 30 player with a gorgeous backhand -- precisely the type of opponent one needs to beat between popcorn matches. Roddick did just that, serving well on big points, taking a tense tiebreaker 12-10 and cruising home in the second set. "He doesn't play like he's 18," Pavel told European journalists afterwards. "I'll tell you that." Roddick also showed mature carriage to match his precocious talent this week. He's long past being the awed teenager with the silly grin, starstruck just to be sharing the court and locker room with pros he watched as a child. But he still has abundant respect for his more accomplished elders. After defeating Sampras on Sunday, he reverentially removed his cap before jogging to the net to shake hands. Though Roddick later admitted that he was jumping out his skin with excitement, he was subdued in his celebration, lest he show up the opponent he deemed "the greatest player ever." When a rain delay interrupted his match against Pavel, Roddick wasn't too proud to seek out the counsel of Andre Agassi in the locker room. Agassi encouraged Roddick to hit more kick serves out wide. Roddick heeded the advice and immediately thanked Agassi afterwards. "Andy's such a good kid," said Agassi, who often hits with Roddick when he's in Boca Raton visiting Steffi Graf. "He doesn't think he knows all the answers." The comprehensive loss to Hewitt laid bare Roddick's status as a work in progress. As one would expect from a player two years removed from his learner's permit, he still grows impatient, takes too many risks on his second serve, and needs to work his backhand slice. Next to Roddick, Hewitt -- all of 20 -- looked like a seasoned veteran. Still, the genie is out the bottle. Now in the top 100, Roddick is no longer a prospect. He's a bona fide rookie.
Short volleysAfter polishing off a hobbled Serena Williams, 6-1, 7-6, Jennifer Capriati ran her record to 16-2 over her last 18 matches. ... Speaking of hot streaks: Since his Davis Cup debacle, Jan-Michael Gambill, a winner Wednesday night after saving match point and beating Gaston Gaudio, has won 17 of his last 20 matches. ... Serena's defeat was bad news to scalpers (tennis? scalpers?) who were anticipating as much as $1,000 a seat for a possible Williams-Williams final. ... If tennis had bulletin boards, Venus Williams would be tacking up the following quote from Martina Hingis: "I don't like playing Lindsay [Davenport] , and I don't necessarily like playing Serena. I always have an easier time playing Venus. She gets tighter than the other two girls. She's more emotional on the court. She tends to double fault every now and then and miss the easy ones.'' Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers the tennis beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
Click here to send a question or comment to his mailbag.
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