Andy Roddick
Is it wrong to live and die with a sports athlete? Andy Roddick is five years older than me. He stepped up into professional tennis as I stepped into high school tennis. His greatest competitive achievements were recorded in 2003 and 2004. Mine came in 2005 during my senior year. When he thought he could make his greatest achievement by winning his second slam at the 2004 Wimbledon Finals, he ran into a rain delay which allowed Roger Federer to regroup and gain the upperhand. I was controlling my quarterfinals match at Districts my senior year against an opponent everyone said I could not stand toe-to-toe with before rain moved the match indoors and completely changed the outcome.
Roddick has a huge serve, a big forehand, an inconsistent backhand, and his volleying is mediocre for how much it could add to his game. I win with my serve, punish people with my forehand, roll the dice with my backhand, and do what I can from the net despite what it could do for my game. He has a sense of humor regardless of his situation. This includes when Roger Federer crushed him in this year's Australian Open Semifinals. When you piss him off, he will not pull any punches as demonstrated by his relationship with Novak Djokovic in the past year. There is no one in the sport who is more competitive. No one has a stronger drive to win. He leaves everything out on the court everytime he steps on it. Despite his efforts, he has only one slam title to his name and has only been ranked #1 overall from November 2003 until February 2004.
In some ways, it is almost creepy how similar to him I am. Perhaps this is the reason why I celebrate for a few hours when he wins before getting prepped for the next match, why I take a day to mourn a loss before turning towards the next tournament. When he falls down, I feel the pain. When he catches a bad break, I am frustrating. When he has need to yell at the chair umpire, I am already angry. This man is living my life on the big stage and I will follow him every step of the way.
Best of luck at Wimbledon, Andy.
Roddick has a huge serve, a big forehand, an inconsistent backhand, and his volleying is mediocre for how much it could add to his game. I win with my serve, punish people with my forehand, roll the dice with my backhand, and do what I can from the net despite what it could do for my game. He has a sense of humor regardless of his situation. This includes when Roger Federer crushed him in this year's Australian Open Semifinals. When you piss him off, he will not pull any punches as demonstrated by his relationship with Novak Djokovic in the past year. There is no one in the sport who is more competitive. No one has a stronger drive to win. He leaves everything out on the court everytime he steps on it. Despite his efforts, he has only one slam title to his name and has only been ranked #1 overall from November 2003 until February 2004.
In some ways, it is almost creepy how similar to him I am. Perhaps this is the reason why I celebrate for a few hours when he wins before getting prepped for the next match, why I take a day to mourn a loss before turning towards the next tournament. When he falls down, I feel the pain. When he catches a bad break, I am frustrating. When he has need to yell at the chair umpire, I am already angry. This man is living my life on the big stage and I will follow him every step of the way.
Best of luck at Wimbledon, Andy.
Labels: Sports
posted by Shawn Sparks at
1:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home