Glatch Under Spotlight vs Serena, American Men Surge at Miami

Interesting, Roddick and Tsonga beat their opponents 6-1, 6-1, and Federer and Djokovic were 6-3, 6-2, respectively.

March 27th, 2009 at 9:34 pm

I would like to quote from Andy Roddick’s rather extraordinary press conference. I think Federer may want to start reading it.

ON CHANGES IN RODDICK’S GAME AND LISTENING TO A GOOD COACH WHO SEES CHANGES IN THE GAME
“Q. Can you talk about your conditioning? I know you’ve lost some weight in the off-season and that kind of thing.

ANDY RODDICK: I don’t know that it’s so much of my decision as opposed to following orders. There’s a big difference there. (laughter.)

So, I mean, you know, I hired Larry, and told him that I would — you know, I’m not here to run it. This is your show. I’m here to follow.

He promptly said, Okay, lose 15 pounds, and I regretted saying what I said. No, but obviously it’s helped, and it’s made things easier.

He, you know, recognized that there is a change in the game, seems like everything is slowing down a little bit as far as surface and balls and whatnot, and therefore you see a lot more guys dependent upon their running ability and their legs.

So, you know, we’re just trying to keep up. It’s worked so far, but we’re talking about two-and-a-half months. It needs to be proven for a little bit longer than that to consider it an ultimate success.”

ON LARRY STEFANKI’S ABILITY TO SCOUT PLAYERS AND CREATE A GOOD WORK PLAN FOR RODDICK
Q. Apart from the weight loss, what has Stefanki brought to you?

ANDY RODDICK: He has a huge knowledge of the players. He’s worked with, you know, guys who are on tour, and he knows — you know, it’s very nice to trade thoughts about people’s tendencies and how to go about a game plan.

I like his energy, also. We’re not scared to work. We both enjoy the process of training. It’s just been a real good fit so far.”

ON THE UNDER-RATED (THOUGH OBVIOUSLY INCREDIBLE) SKILLS OF RAFA NADAL
Q. Safin was saying at Indian Wells that the thing that most surprised him about Rafa is his hands. He thinks that people didn’t really appreciate how great his hands were coming in. Is there anything, tennis-wise, what have you seen of him that surprised you over the last few years?

ANDY RODDICK: Marat is 100 percent spot on. He developed a chip that gets him out of trouble a lot that no one ever really talks about. They talk about the running and heaviness, but he volleys well. He’s able to transition into the court now. He’s able to play returns, as evidenced by Wimbledon last year.

No one really mentioned the fact that he was standing a foot inside the baseline and hit a return. They talk about how he stands back, but he’s able to mix it up. I don’t really think he gets credit for how complete of a tennis player he is. I think he kind of gets pidgeon-holed into what people remember from five years ago”

March 27th, 2009 at 11:45 pm