11/21/24
February 22, 2011
Roddick Takes a Dive, Wins Tournament: Finishing with the "best shot I've ever hit in my life," Andy Roddick defeated rising Canadian star Milos Raonic 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (11-13) 7-5 in the finals of the ATP Tour tournament in Memphis. Roddick is third among active players with 30 career titles, trailing only Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Nice shot indeed, but I also admire the "Takes Dive, Wins Jackpot" moments he has had off the court.
posted by beaverboard at 02:10 PM on February 22, 2011
Now the only thing left for Roddick to own is his receding hairline.
posted by phaedon at 04:31 PM on February 22, 2011
Oh, he's got a lot he hasn't owned yet. 30 titles, but how many majors?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 05:40 PM on February 22, 2011
As for Roddick, I get the feeling that he'll go down in history as the Steve Yzerman to Federer/Nadal's Gretzky/Lemieux combo.
To compare Roddick to Yzerman is being a bit generous to Roddick and a bit ungenerous to Yzerman, I think. Although it's ultimately comparing apples to oranges when taking the team sport v. individual sport aspect into account and the zero sum aspect of tennis tournaments versus accumulating points in hockey and/or other measures of success, of course that's what I am going to attempt to do.
Yzerman won 3 Stanley Cups to Lemieux's 2 and Gretzky's 4. His points per game total was about 60% of Gretzky's and Lemieux's (he had more career points than Lemieux but in a substantially greater number of games). Of course, Yzerman never led the league in points and Gretzky and Lemieux each did numerous times.
Roddick, on the other hand, has just 1 Grand Slam title to Nadal's 9 and Federer's 16. Although he is closer to the two of them in aggregate titles (30 to Nadal's 43 and Federer's 67), that number is probably not the most useful comparator considering the disparity in different types of tournaments and the field that plays in a particular tournament.
Yzerman is probably in the top-30 NHL players of all-time and Gretzky and Lemieux are obviously top 5. Nadal and Federer will presumably end their careers as top 5 male tennis players of all time; Roddick would be lucky to break the top 50.
In sum, I think Yzerman compares more favorably to his superstar contemporaries than Roddick does to his.
posted by holden at 06:39 PM on February 22, 2011
Both Murray and Roddick are frustrating. Why can't they seize their opportunities? Roddick at least started out with such promise, and then has failed to live up to it. Andy Murray hasn't had much of a chance with Nadal and Federer, but it looks like Djokovic is going to take the ones that Nadal and Federer don't win.
posted by bperk at 08:30 AM on February 23, 2011
owlhouse, that's just cruel.
But, um, probably true.
And, what bperk said re: Joker, although I think you'll get some going to Soderling, possibly Berdych and I think Youzhny might do some interesting things. And I'm always hoping for Monfils to break through too, and I'd love Jarkko Nieminen to win something big because I love his name.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:52 AM on February 23, 2011
My interpretation of Roddick=Yzerman was based on his greatness being completely overshadowed by even greater, uh, greatness.
Roddick only has one Grand Slam title, but that's mainly because the other two guys are so dominating.
Yzerman never won an MVP award or a scoring title, and only made one end-of-year All-Star team (1999-00 season). That said, most people would agree that he was probably the third best centerman of the past 30 years. It's just that his career was overshadowed by two of the greatest of all time.
Roddick's performances suggest that if it wasn't for Nadal/Federer, he'd had a lot more chances to win Grand Slam titles.
posted by grum@work at 11:17 AM on February 23, 2011
Was Roddick the longest serving captain in f#!@%*g tennis history????
Kidding aside, I hear ya grum, but I think I just do not rate Roddick as highly as you. He just does not seem to me to have the mental aspect to prevail in Grand Slam tournaments, or maybe he's missing something else. If Nadal and Federer were gone, he would certainly have a ton more chances to win, but I would not be surprised if someone else like Djokovic took the lion's share of Grand Slam titles (for the past few years) and some other contender in the years before Djokovic came on the scene.
posted by holden at 03:23 PM on February 23, 2011
Great dive, but I'll admit that I was pulling for Raonic.
Another game for Milos!
The kid wonderfully humble and funny with the media. Also, now that he's ranked 37th in the world, the highest ranked Canadian singles tennis player in ATP history.
As for Roddick, I get the feeling that he'll go down in history as the Steve Yzerman to Federer/Nadal's Gretzky/Lemieux combo.