Following Rafael Nadal's lead, Andy Roddick's season came to an abrupt end today due to an injury at the Masters Cup.
The American baller withdrew from his round robin match against Roger Federer after spraining his ankle during practice:
I came out here and tried to warm up 45 minutes or so ago, and it was pretty apparent that my movement was probably 30 percent or 40 percent.A-Rod also discussed the prospects of a new coach after parting ways with brother John in the summer:
Unfortunately that's just not good enough to get it done at a tournament like this. I didn't feel like I could go out and try to compete and win a tennis match. It's definitely a tough prospect trying to beat Roger with no serve and not being able to move much.
The risk/reward wasn't there. You're risking further injury where it might cut into preparation for next year.
There's a short list. I didn't want to start going through the process of talking to people either over the phone or in person until my season was finished. That's something that I'd definitely like to get taken care of in the next couple weeks.I'm really curious to know which potential coaches are on the list since he's been through a few already. I suppose we'll find out sooner than later.
Any guesses out there?
(image via Getty)
Andy could use some help establishing some aspects of his game that leave a bit to be desired. His power game is obvious and he is capable at the net but really lacks the ability to hang in tough for long baseline rallies. If that (my theory at least)is his achillies heel then some work counter punching and drawing errors from his opponent or at least working on waiting for the RIGHT moment to attack would help him enormously. I am positive that he wouldn't be interested, but in the final years of his carreer no one made an opponent work harder to beat him than Andre Agassi.
ReplyDeleteA-Rod hasn't listened to any of his coaches over the past few years, so I doubt he'll listen now.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I'd love to see Andre again, but I don't think that's going to happen. Andy seems too lazy to me to put in the kind of work Andre did. I don't mean that Roddick is completely lazy. I just think he hasn't worked as hard as he could. Now that he's older (in tennis terms) and filled out more, it must be even more difficult for him.
And the receding hairline... bad days for Andy!
ReplyDeletei've posted about this before, but i don't think his improvements will come from anything technical. it's all between the ears - i agree it's about being aggressive at the right times. he plays too defensively for someone with that much power.
ReplyDeletehowever, he doesn't move as well as the others so he needs to dictate from the start and be the aggressor. this is where a head shrink could really help him.
i've gotten shit about saying that before but i stand by it. it's all in his hands (and head). no coach can fix that problem.
I think Roddick's lost some of his fire. Maybe he's realized that his chances of winning another GS title are slim, and that must be discouraging for him. I also think his forehand is not what it used to be.
ReplyDelete