What is Andy Roddick Missing From His Game?
Hi Tomaz,
What is Andy Roddick missing from his game?
From a technical point - his backhand is just solid and not a weapon. It used to be a weakness and Andy had to work really hard to compensate for that weakness with his serve and forehand.
Consider also the possibility that if his backhand wasn’t a weakness, he might have never developed such huge forehand since there wouldn’t be a need for it!
So basically his just rallies with his backhand and doesn’t put enough pressure on his opponents. They are able to neutralize him.
His volleys are not volleys of someone who has spent years at the net. Rather, they are very much “learned” volleys.
If he receives a typical ball that he got in practice thousands of times, he’ll be fine on the volley.
But when he has to volley in unusual positions or has to react quickly or is off balance, then he rarely pulls of a good volley.
He can play much more at the net when he can (when he is ahead with weaker opponents) and keep working on very difficult volleys in practice.
Tactically Andy Roddick’s game is improving; he can see the weaker balls earlier and even volleys them away. This part has improved a lot since his work with Jimmy Connors.
What I don’t understand and what makes him lose points constantly are his cross court approaches to the net.
I teach 10 year old kids to approach down the line and the same rule applies to all levels of play.
You can approach cross court only when you KNOW that your opponent will barely reach the ball or when you want to surprise them (like 1 out of 10 approaches).
Mentally his is quite confident and able to control his state. I think he overestimates Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and underestimates his abilities and skills against those two.
Andy Roddick is quite capable of beating them with his skills.
Maybe he needs to meet and beat them on his very good day and on their very bad day so that he has that positive memory in his mind.
And then he can always go back to that memory when he plays them again to reassure himself that he is good enough to beat them.
- Related posts:
September 5th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I agree with what was written, but want to add a couple more things.
#1. Difference
Federer has that step in off left foot approach shot that he uses at every opportunity, Roddick does not do this.
His court positioning has been too deep in the past and I keep hereing Conner’s is working on it. This neutralizes his big FH and lets people get to his BH.
I never liked his block/slice BH return or 2 handed BH return. He doesn’t seem to win points on it like the other top 2 handers. (Agassi, Conners, Borg, Davydenko, Nadal…)
Either people are getting more used to his serve bounce and the way he disguises or doesn’t disguise it or he is just not placing it as accurately as in the past. His serve is still the key to beating top 5 players. He must regain the aces, service winners, and winners off cripple returns. Probably by disguise.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Excellent analysis, Bret.
Yes, Andy is to far behind the baseline many times.
Maybe he used to be too aggressive in the past going for winners from everywhere and when he realized that this doesn’t work so well, he now plays too safe.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I do think that Roger san believes that he can beat Andy san. While the reverse is not true. Even though this time Andy san seemed to have it at the beginning, but if you look at his eyes, he started to lose that towards the end of every set.
I like Andy san. He lost his ranking and his wonderful performaning art ranking in imitation to a corky newcomer. It must be very hard for him these days. And even if he wins, most people would credit to his coach Jimmy Connors. right?! I do hope Andy san will start to believe in himself more. Yes he can out serve most players. And he can improve his games. But he should start believing in himself. Even his coach, he is just an advisor and a guiding light. Andy san please find something inside yourself, that you do not have to listen or please anyone but yourself. That is Roger san’s blessing and gift. I hope Andy san you have it too. You can do it, please have a wonderful next year. I like your game very much also even though I am a die hard Roger san’ fan.
Good luck to you Andy san.