Roddick Weekend Flake-Out in Delray Beach Raises Questions

Posted on January 29, 2006

By Richard Vach, Tennis-X.com Senior Writer

After an early-round exit at the Australian Open, Andy Roddick returned to the U.S. to right his ship and prepare for his upcoming Davis Cup encounter with Romania in two weeks.

But instead the American gave a glimpse into his fragile psyche this past weekend by flying to Florida from his home in Austin to play the weekend qualifying at ATP event in Delray Beach, then at the last minute changing his mind.

Practicing on Friday in Delray with fellow American Vince Spadea, Roddick was testy in the windy conditions, smashing his racquet and shouting out his frustration.

"I love the wind! Awesome!" Roddick shouted, knocking balls out of the stadium in front of approximately 50 onlookers watching his practice.

Roddick refused any formal interviews on Friday, but took some shots at tournament officials who he somehow expected to create another wildcard spot after the tournament's allocation had been handed out, perhaps yanking a wildcard already handed out to Andre Agassi, Mardy Fish or Sargis Sargsian.

"Why would I get a wildcard into an American tournament, [being the] top-ranked American?" Roddick sarcastically opined as recorded by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "Why would that happen? That makes too much sense."

With the wildcards already handed out, and the main draw entry closing six weeks earlier, Roddick knew there were no options but to play the qualifying, something he was seemingly resigned to do as of mid-day Friday, with the sign-up closing that night.

"Maybe, I should play more Davis Cup, that's the story," Roddick sarcastically went on. "Oh, wait, I do."

In hindsight it was Spadea who leveled the situation prior to Friday night, saying he would be surprised to see Roddick contesting the qualifying among the hungry sub-level tour players, with the possibility of having to play two matches in a day.

"Playing two matches in one day is challenging," Spadea said. "This is something that's out of this tennis world. It's unbelievable and at the same time Roddick is unbelievable in a lot of great ways. But I'll believe it when I see the first point played."

Roddick had reportedly called Delray Beach Tournament Director Mark Baron on Thursday night, flown in Friday, but by Friday evening was out.

"He did not commit and after careful consideration following training [on Friday], Andy told us that he would not participate in the qualifying tournament," Baron said in a statement.

Dean Goldfine is Roddick's coach, and many believe Goldfine is hanging on by a string not only because of his ward's lack of results at big tournaments but due to his unfocused play. Goldfine indicated, even before Roddick made his decision to pull, that losing to a sub-level tour player in the qualifying would be bad form.

"If he went out there and lost in the qualifying, obviously that wouldn't be too good for his confidence," Goldfine said. "But you can't worry about the losing. You have to look at the upside of preparing for Davis Cup [by getting match practice]."

Roddick's unhappiness with the conditions, and perhaps Goldfine's input about a headline-grabbing embarrassing loss, resulted in Roddick changing his mind at the last minute, but the drama didn't end there.

Later during the weekend Goldfine told the Sun-Sentinel that the fault for Roddick's pull from the qualifying lay solely on the tournament director Baron.

"Why would Andy fly in from Texas at his own expense to [not] play?" said Goldfine. "Sure, it would've been easier to get a [main draw] wildcard, but it didn't have anything to do about playing qualifiers. Andy couldn't justify being out there playing their tournament when he felt deceived by Mark Baron."

Goldfine said the "deception" regarded an agreement with Baron that the tournament would not publicize Roddick's participation in the qualifying until he played his first match, but tournament officials had alerted the media by e-mail.

Baron said it was all a "misunderstanding."

So was it the windy conditions, or the fear of losing in the qualifying, or the seemingly innocuous event of alerting the media that had Roddick and Goldfine refusing to play nice in Delray? It is the opinion of many that Roddick has "played afraid" in his last two slam losses, in the first round of the US Open to Gilles Muller and to Baghdatis in Melbourne. This after Roddick said his mantra for 2006 was to be "more aggressive."

Roddick has certainly been more aggressive with the media, and now with tournament directors.

Roddick's flake-out in Delray is a transparent grab for some of what he is now losing in his home country, something he has already lost internationally -- respect. Instead of a great opportunity to grab some headlines for tennis in the U.S. and test his mental state against some hungry yet sub-level competition, Andy makes another early tournament exit, this time before he even hit a ball.

Another strange chapter in Roddick's downward spiral, and a lose-lose situation for everyone.

Richard Vach is a senior writer for Tennis-X.com and can currently be seen on The Tennis Channel's "Tennis Insiders: Super Insiders" episodes.