Managing the court: Ken Meyerson, Andy Roddick's manager and president of SFX tennis, has a few choice words for his star client's back-tracking game. The former No. 1's 2008 season began on a sour note, falling to unheralded German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round of last month's Aussie Open, continuing his string of recent disappointing Grand Slam performances.
When asked about his client's current game Meyerson inquired,
“Why would Andy resort to playing more of a retrieving-type game as opposed to more of an aggressive game? [...] I don’t know whether it’s nerves or deliberate, but I can only say his best tennis is when he takes that first ball and pummels it, whether it’s a return on a second serve and he really goes for it, or is what we know as his classic one-two — big serve, big forehand."He went on to say,
"Maybe ‘frustrating’ is not the right word, but when Andy plays that way, it’s clearly and objectively not as effective as when he steps up and beats the crap out of the ball. I don’t want Andy to get too complicated, and I don’t like to see him work so hard to win points.'’True enough. The 25-year old American is supposed to be enjoying his best playing years, but he's moving in the wrong direction. Under pressure, the former US Open champ reverts back to the counter-punching ways of his youth, when all a scrawnier A-Rod could do was track down tennis balls. The 6' 2", 190 pounder should own the court against his smaller opponents - but the mind isn't allowing the body to move forward.
(image via viewimages.com)
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