Comments on: Roddick deserves his place in history

By: Rory

Rory — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:44:57 +0000

…and his middle name was Kevin.

By: Rory

Rory — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:10:08 +0000

If Roddick needs to be compared to a player from another time who was unlucky in that he competed at a time of class players, how about Vitas Gerulaitis? He was always thereabouts at the business end of Grand Slams where he ran up against the likes of Borg, Connors and McEnroe. Mentioning his name provides another excuse to trot out this immortal quote. At one stage, he was down 16-0 career head to head against Connors (and I believe also Borg). He finally chalked up a win against Connors and said post match “nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row”.

By: Malibu77

Malibu77 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:06:45 +0000

The mens final confirmed to me, once again, that when playing against champions, you get but a few chances and then have to absolutely take them when they arise. At a set up and with 4 set points in the 2nd set tie-breaker, it was a must for Roddick to win that set. Alas it was not to be. Was he a certainty to win the match up 2 sets to love? Of course not, but his chances were greatly increased. There was the time to stick the knife in, something which only Nadal appears capable ot doing to Federer.
It is the same in the womens game now with Serena Williams as it was before with Steffi Graf (and Pete Sampras in the mens). When you get the chance, stick the knife in, or face the consequences!

By: Brett McKay

Brett McKay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:00:10 +0000

Leftie, that’s a much better way to make the point I was failing to do…

By: Alan Nicolea

Alan Nicolea — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:53:38 +0000

Leftarm – Good point.

Brett – Yeah imagine if the Scud did win it in 2003. You could say that federer is the man responsible for the decline in Aus tennis (jokes). One can only imagine though. To Roddick’s credit though, at least he has kept at it, unlike the Scud, who preffered to go dating women both younger and older than him in that American date show several years ago.

By: LeftArmSpinner

LeftArmSpinner — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:46:01 +0000

consider Roddick as the Stuart McGill of tennis. Just bad timing!!! I was very impressed with his sense of humour in the face of such a close and hard fought loss. He really lived out Kimpling’s quote that all centre court players pass under before entering the court.

By: Mushi

Mushi — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:39:04 +0000

Roddick is a fine player but I doubt his name will be remembered as anything more than a trivia question for being the player to lose one service game in a losing final.

His career achievements have nothing historic about them, a single grand slam and a couple of months at number 1? In an era which has Roger and Rafer I struggle to see how his is memorable for anything other than being a cut below those two. his career acheivements will not have him in the edberg, willander, courier conversation

By: Brett McKay

Brett McKay — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:07:37 +0000

OJ, certainly no doubting Courier’s ability (he was a favourite of mine at that time), and I knew he had three or four Slams up his sleeve (two swims in the Yarra, from memory). My point was more to highlight the timing of both Roddick and Courier, in relation to the “champions” of their time. You could say the same to a degree about Wilander and Edberg to Llendl, although both of those guys – Edberg especially – did make their mark at some point.

Alan, Harry, someone yesterday mentioned that Federer’s first Wimbledon title was over Philippousis – try and imagine that scenario in addition to the “if Federer never existed” hypothesis!! Where might the Poo have gone if he won a Slam?!?!

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:43:58 +0000

Alan IF Federer had never existed or even been born a couple of years later then our own Leyton Hewitt would have had at least two more grand slam titles – Wimbeldon in 2004 and at least one more US Open. Part of the Federer phenomen has been to deny very worthy players like Roddick and Hewitt more grand slam titles …very tough on them and you’ve got to feel sympathy for them.
And its also astonishing that while Federer can lay strong claims to being the greatest ever, I’d dispute that he’s currently the best player – Nadal in their last 3 finals – French, Wimbeldon and this year’s Australian – has shown he has Fed’s measure. Pretty amazing really that we have these two magnificant champions at the moment. Here’s hoping Nadal can return to full fitness, would love to see him play Fed in the last major final for the year at the US Open.

By: ohtani's jacket,

ohtani's jacket, — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:21:05 +0000

Brett,

Courier won four Grand Slam titles and reached the final of each championship. He also spent 58 weeks at No.1 as opposed to Roddick’s 13 weeks. Courier was the first of those Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy graduates to challenge the hold that the Europeans had on men’s tennis. He had a stellar ’92-93.

Roddick barely had any time before the Federer era began, but Courier was more of an all courter and was able to win Roland Garros twice, which is a pretty big deal for an American tennis player.

Roddick deserves another title. Definitely agree with that.

By: Alan Nicolea

Alan Nicolea — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:24:57 +0000

Brett

Indeed Just imagine if federer never existed, Roddick would be one of the finest in history. He could have won five Grand Slam titles. Taking nothing away from Federer though, his prescence has no doubt changed the way Tennis is now played around the world, with the brilliant forehand, backhand, serve and whatnot. It seems it has only changed Roddick’s game for the better, and it showed in the final. While Federer deserves his place in history, Roddick at least deserves another Grand Slam for mine, judging by the way his game has evolved.

By: Brett McKay

Brett McKay — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:33:23 +0000

very true Alan, Roddick has essentially played the perfect tournament and still come up short. Not losing a serve until the last game of the match – when was that ever done?? I said in reply to an artcile yesterday that it still surprises me the Roddick only has one Slam to him name, and that maybe Roddick is to Federer and Nadal what Courier was to Sampras and Agassi??