Andy Roddick had a few interesting comments today during John Isner’s loss to Novak Djokovic in the match that clinched Serbia’s win over the U.S. in Davis Cup.ADHEREL
Speaking live to Tennis Channel commentators Leif Shiras and Justin Gimelstob, Roddick expressed his interest in one day becoming captain of the team.
“I would probably do it someday,” said Roddick, who was phoning in during the telecast from Los Angeles. “I would have to master the political correctness thing first, but hopefully that’s something I can do.”
Roddick also elaborated on his future interest in Davis Cup, which remains uncertain at best.
“I don’t know,” said Roddick who has a 31-11 career singles record but opted to bypass play in the competition this season. “When I first said I wasn’t playing this year a lot of people were announcing it as a retirement. I don’t want to close that door. But, it won’t be this year. I think if you commit to Davis Cup you have to commit for an entire year. And with the injuries I had last year it just wasn’t something that I felt fully confident in.”
Personally, I think Roddick would be a great captain. He’s outspoken, outgoing and seems to have a hard edge to him that players would respect. I also don’t think we’ve seen the last of him on court playing for the U.S. He’s got a few more ties left in him.
Roddick next enters Indian Wells with a tiny bit of a question mark. Roddick endured some shoulder problems in Australia and then suffered a couple tough losses in San Jose and Memphis. But he says he’s ready to go in the first Masters stop of the season.
“I feel better,” he said. “I’ve had some time to maybe get healthy, put in some work. I didn’t feel like I was playing very good, actually, in San Jose and Memphis. So I’m just trying to get it right and I’m excited to get down there.”
As for the weekend Davis Cup ties, about the only surprise – beyond Isner pushing Novak to five sets – was Argentina’s win in Sweden. With the tie deadlocked 2-2 after Robin Soderling took care of Leonardo Mayer, David Nalbandian stepped up huge with a four-set clinching win over Andreas Vinciguerra to send Argentina to the quarterfinals. (Boy is the once-proud tennis nation of Sweden struggling for a No. 2 player!)
Yesterday Nalbandian teamed with Horacio Zeballos to stun Soderling and Robert Lindstadt in straight sets. That doubles was a match I thought Sweden would get, but credit to Argentina and to Nalbandian who was injured coming into the tie.
Now if – and that’s a huge IF! – Nalbandian and Del Potro can stay healthy they’ll be a very serious threat. But in the next round Argentina is headed back to Europe to face a tough Russian team.
The rest of the July quarterfinals look like: France at Spain; Argentina at Russia; Serbia at Croatia and the Czech Republic will play the winner of Chile/Israel which host nation Chile leads 2-1.
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